2008 Etchells Syd Corser Championships underway

5:02 AM Tue 4 Nov 2008 GMT

'Syd Corser pin end start - 2008 Etchells Syd Corser Championships' Paul Reiffer

The 2008 Etchells Syd Corser Championship, conducted on the Swan River, Western Australia and hosted by the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club had a thrilling first three races over the weekend of Oct 31st and Nov 1st.

Teams to watch out for were past Australian Champion Skip Lissiman on Squid Inc with Beijing Olympic Gold medalist Tessa Parkinson, Luna Rossa and TP 52 bowman Andy Fethers and top match racer Keith Swinton on board. Also heading the line up was past World Masters Champion Rob Bird on Rhapsody in Blue, Michael Manford on The Croc and Peter Chappell on Two Palms and a Hammock.

Racing started on the Friday and after two postponements and a general recall the fleet got away in a very shifty ten knot south easterly. Picking the first shift was critical and it was Doug Kerr on Screaming Plum who nailed the first one to take heat one, closely followed by regular campaigner Dirk van der Struyf on Bootcamp who managed to match race to the finish a fast finishing Bird.

Races two and three were held on the Saturday in similar conditions to the Friday, setting a challenge for all crews and race officer John McQueen. Manford won the favoured pin and led from from start to finish, the pack was close behind with the next nine boats all finishing within 45 seconds, Brad Sheridan on AUS 866 took second and Bird showed consistency to bring home another third place.

Race three was disturbed by the RAAF doing a low pass over the fleet for the Red Bull Air Race, talk about loud!

The close racing saw a few infringements at mark one, with Chappell taking some turns and a few others hitting the mark. Lissiman came from nowhere on the last beat to pick a big right hand shift and move from fifth at the bottom gate to take the race by half a length from Grantham Kitto on the Rat and Van der Struyf another half length into third.

Racing concludes on November 8th in this hotly contested series that also doubles as the first six heats of the 2009 Etchells Worlds Qualifiers for the competitive Swan River fleet.

Standings after three races has Lissiman and Bird tied for first with Van der Struyf one point behind.