Day 2 Australian B14 Championships, Belmont

8:57 AM Tue 29 Dec 2009 GMT

'Sly Bone - Guy Bancroft and David Grace - Australian B14 Titles 2009/10 Belmont Day 2' Geoff Jakins Click Here to view large photo

Day 2 Australian B14 Championships.

Another grey morning, but warm, no rain, clearing skies and plenty of breeze from the south, forecast to stay in. Overnight leaders Guy Bancroft and David Grace (Sly Bone, VIC) were sporting the orange jersey, but it was not to be their day.

Race 3
A terrific steady southerly wind, a nice long course, so it was all about hiking hard. The heavier-air specialists joined Toxic (Dave Lorimer and Raff Heale, VIC) and Pig's Arse (Nick Richardson and Mark Padgett, TAS) towards the front, and both sides seemed to pay, but Pig's Arse and Toxic fought to the finish, Toxic finishing first in front of Pig's Arse and Hunt Leather (Sophie Hunt and Andrew Payne, NSW). Sly Bone was 4th, then The Plumbers, with father and son team Ian and David Cunningham from VIC, with another son skippering Bonework into 6th, (Scott Cunningham and Jason Walker VIC).

Race 4
A difficult start for some, including Toxic, who had to re-start and headed way right, while the main gang went left. Whatever happened then I don't know as we were upside down on Hunt Leather (twice), but Pig's Arse held out Toxic and Bonework, followed by Craftsman Homes (Adrian Beswick (Tasmanian Yachting Personality of the Year!) and father John Beswick, TAS), Sly Bone and The Plumbers.

Last Gasp - Chris Bibby and James Huggett - Australian B14 Titles 2009/10 Belmont Day 2 - Geoff Jakins Click Here to view large photo

Race 5
The breeze kicked in a little more and everybody was a bit tired, mistakes starting to show. Quick to the front again were Toxic and Pigs Arse, duelling away from the fleet. On the second time round the bottom mark Toxic fell in on a wild gybe drop, possibly due to a very short tiller extension, but managed to whip the boat back up and gun crew Raff got the kite back in so fast that they managed to hang on to second place behind Pig's Arse. Third was Bonework, who had a terrific day, then Craftsman Homes, ditto, Sly Bone, and The Plumbers.

In other news, Kelvin Boyle (VIC) blew up his spinnaker pole on the brand new 'Blown Seal'. Leaky says Gerry could occasionally lean out on the rail a little, but the weather is just brilliant, so warm and hope you poms are all tucked up in your snowy little Grafham sailing gear having hot soup. (Are our faces bothered?)