State Championships and Interclub Races 2007-08

Upper Harbour Championship - 13th October 2007

 

Skiff Skipper  Crew Place Handicap
O Jonathon Temple Richard Jones 1 5
Garde Brett Hobson Alex Johnson 2 12
Gemmell Sails Murray Press Ben Gemmell 3 10
At Call powered by Bainbridge International Andrew Stevenson Brad Greenrod 4 3
CST Composites Emmett Lazich Cameron McDonald 5 13
Sirromet Michael Spies Damien Vlotman 6 1
Karoshi Bill Olsen Evan Williams 7 7
Dipolar Software Ed Blackman Paul Carpenter 8 2
Gizmo Michael Bochner Tim Barraclough 9 14
Foxy Lady Too Peter Polec Jamie McCrudden 10 9
Vantage Real Estate Jack Winning Brett Phillips 11 6
BAYS Matt Peat Grant Nicholson 12 8
Pink Nick Bernard Andrew O'Brien 13 4
Hood Graham Colless Glen Farqhuar 14 11
Mischief Alsa Jeans Ross Gadge 15 16
Snotbloo David Winning Matt Foy 16 15
Acer Matthew Killoran Richard Johns DNF DNF
Maersk Line  Ed Cox Peter Bevis DNF DNF
www.skiff.org.au Ben Faulkner Ren Holland DNF DNF
Rudog Julian Moran Jeremy Johnson DNS DNS
Twin Paradox Graeme Fenwick   DNS DNS

O's Drought Breaker

Jonathon Temple & Richard Jones on "O" broke a championship drought on the weekend, taking out the 2007 Upper Harbour Championship. The pair have not won a championship race since heat 5 of the 2006 nationals, way back in April of that year.

The win goes a long way to show that pretty boats go faster with all the hard work on the “O” over winter paying off. They lead the race from almost start to finish, showing true form and skill around the tricky upper harbour course, in a variable breeze shift from South east to almost North East at times.

There has been one certainty at the start of the 12 season and that is Nick Barnard thinks it’s second rig. Strangely he wasn’t alone with Peter Polec (also sporting a new second main) going with his 2 rig as well.

Pink, sailed by Nick Bernard and Andrew O’Brien got a fantastic start and lead the fleet out of the blocks and down the river. The rig wasn’t going to be big enough on the day and it was the big rigs that made their way to the front. It was O’s excellent navigation of the river exit that saw them pop out in front for the first work up to Goat Island.

O’s lead was never really troubled from there. Garde (Brett Hobson & Alex Johnson) closed the gap occasionally but O was able to squeeze away each time. Garde finished 2nd, closely followed by Gemmell Sails (Murray Press and Ben Gemmell) who challenged for 2nd place all day.

Just like so many Lane Cove races, coming back into the river for the final leg bought the fleet back together. Emmett and Cam in CST Composites had been sitting quite comfortably in 4th for much of the race but the trip through Humbug saw At call powered by Bainbridge International come from the clouds to almost steal 3rd.   

Handicap honours went to Sirromet Wines (Michael Spies and Damien Vlotman), Dipolar Software and At Call powered by Bainbridge International 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The next interclub is the Parramatta River Championship held at Abbotsford Sailing Club on the 4th November 2007.

Skiff-Ed