Alegria continues form at Audi Hamilton Island RW
'ALEGRIA (2007 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week)'
Andrea Francolini © Photo Click Here to view large photo
Audi Australian IRC class sailing champion Rod Jones and his Alegria crew have continued to sail impressively to lead their class in the prestigious Audi Hamilton Island Race Week series after four races.
The 2007 National champions who also won major trophies at the Skandia Geelong Race Week and the Audi trophies in the Sydney Harbour regatta and Sydney to Southport ocean race have translated the impressive form onto the deck of the new Archambault A40 Alegria.
They have progressively ironed out the 'new boat bugs' to be a star performer with Alegria in her maiden regatta.
Alegria was basically an unknown performer when she contested the 23 n/ml Lindeman Island Race on Saturday where her crew became engaged in a tactical match race against the class favourite the Ray Harris skippered New South Wales sloop Honeysuckle.
The Honeysuckle crew including former Sydney Hobart Race winner Michael Spies and Brisbane Gladstone line honours winner Matt Allen are stacked with talent and have focused their attention on match racing the Sunshine Coast crew.
Honeysuckle proved marginally faster winning the Lindeman Island race with 2 seconds a mile advantage while the Alegria crew raced far more consistently to win both windward leeward races with Honeysuckle closing the point score when they claimed a comfortable win in the 59 n/ml Hayman Island Race on Monday.
However the crew of Sunshine Coast sailors including Noosa's Australian Blazer 23 champion Chris Annear and Team Noosa coach Kai Timm remain as a major contender to win the Audi championship trophy.
But the Alegria crew must remain aware that they have a boat problem and that boat problem is Honeysuckle.
Her tactician Michael Spies never accepts second place as a good result and this means he will continue to apply aggressive racing tactics over the remaining races including the tactically demanding Molle-Daydream Island race on Saturday.
Honeysuckle with her progressive four race corrected time has proved the faster while Alegria has been slightly more consistent with her 2-1-1-2 score to lead Honeysuckle (1-2-3-1) by one penalty point.
These consistent results backed by the proven skills of both crews suggest this championship will almost certainly be decided in the final nautical mile of the Molle-Daydream Island race.
The competition for the fastest boat of the series is heading for a similar nip-n-tuck match race between the almost identical pocket-maxi's Bob Oatley's Wild Oats X and Peter Harburg's Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron sloop Black Jack skippered by Americas Cup sailor Mark Bradford.
Wild Oats X is the defending Audi Hamilton Island Race Week line honours champion and while the experience of her crew suggests they will win again the Black Jack crew believes they have the speed to remain in the dog-fight.
This confidence is supported with the important fact that Black Jack shared the points with her 2-1-1-2 score while Wild Oats X held the slightly faster .76 seconds a nautical mile in her four race score of 1-2-2-1.
by Ian Grant 
Devonport, TAS
