State Titles - Heat 6,7 and 8
Sydney Flying Squadron 3rd and 4th December 2005
Yabba Dabba on their way to victory
NSW STATE TITLES - SFS Heats Four, Five and Six were sailed from Kirribilli's Sydney Flying Squadron. Difficult Westerly breezes over both days tested the skills and patience of the fleet with huge changes in wind speed and direction putting many boats in the tide.
The long course race on Saturday was the fresher of the two days, with boats opting for their small rigs. During the race the wind would gust to 25 knots before dropping again to below 15.
Interdominion winners Nick Press and Brad Yabsley in Yabba Dabba excelled in the fresher parts of the race and they lead early. The changing conditions meant the fleet spread during the downwind legs. The ability of 12ft skiffs to sail at wind-speed off the breeze meant boats could take a fresh gust all the way from Kirribilli down into Rose Bay whilst boats that rounded only 10 metres behind would hang around, look at each other, swear a bit whilst waiting for the next 'bullet.' Yabba Dabba managed to catch one of the rides down to Rose Bay and was apparently clocked at 25 knots.
They were chased hard by a group lead by Brett Hobson in Garde and Murray Press in Gemmell Sails. It's fair to say that Yabba Dabba would have won the race if the spectra rope holding the 170kg worth of crew hadn't snapped on their last run. Claims that "no rope can hold the Solo man" have not been confirmed by rope manufacturers. Their lead had stretched far enough to capsize, tie up the trapeze strop and only loose one place. Brett Hobson and Alex Johnson snuck through to take first, Murray Press and Ben Gemmell got third.
The fleet went big rig on the Sunday and the odd nose-dive and broken mast throughout the fleet proved that it wasn't big rig, all the time. It was a Sydney Westerly though, which made it big rig, some of the time. The breeze kicked hard enough to blow boats over upwind and straight down the mine if you happened to be trying to round the top mark at the wrong time. There is not a lot more nerve racking on the water then seeing the bottom of the boat in front of you, rudder 12ft in the air.
Nick and Brad in Yabba Dabba had had a slowish start to the season but they have definitely hit their straps at the right time of year. They won both races on the day although only just. Jonathon Temple and Richard Jones in P&O pushed them all the way in race one and Nick's father Murray led for most of race two before being run down on the last work of the day.
The Sydney state heats were the last big race before the Interdominion Championships, being held at Auckland Sailing Club. The Australia Team looks as good as ever, with depth throughout the 12 boat team. NSW President Brett Hobson believes that we will reclaim the John Brooke team's trophy this year as "the Kiwi's have got nuthin'."
Ben Faulkner