Etchells 2008 Australian Nationals - Bertrand tightens grip

9:04 PM Wed 14 Jan 2009 GMT

'Ian Johnson Bananas in Pyjamas Surfing hard - 2009 Commonwealth Bank Etchells Nationals' Steve Hall

A pumping sea breeze produced fabulous conditions in the Gulf St Vincent for competitors in the Commonwealth Bank 2009 Australian Etchells Championships, hosted by the Royal SA Yacht Squadron, after yesterday's extreme heat.

Today being the mid-series weigh-in, Bruce Henshall, official weigher said 'All boats made weight, though I am a little disappointed with only 35kg being lost from the fleet total of 12,165kg.' Continuing, 'They must have re-hydrated well after looking like 'raisins' coming off the boats yesterday; go the 'Coopers Pale Ale!'

With race 5 held today and the championships at a pivotal stage, a raft of spectator boats now follow the fleets every move.

Race 5 was held in a classic building sea breeze with lumpy seas of up to two metres with 'a lot of sheep in the paddock' - whitecaps, and starting breeze of 20 konts.

The tide was ebbing with a change mid-race, the race committee set a two nautical mile course at 220 degrees.

Heading into Largs Bay - 2009 Commonwealth Bank Etchells Nationals - Steve Hall

After one general recall the fleet got away, four boats choosing to go out to sea with the fleet heading to the Largs Bay side of the course (left) which had fewer waves. After 10 minutes, a shift favoured the majority of the fleet.

At the first mark Ian Johnson - Bananas in Pyjamas, led Alistair Gair - Velsheda (NZL) with Jeanne-Claude Strong - Yandoo XX third and John Bertrand - Triad in fifth, with very little separating the boats.

With Etchells fitting into the waves from the Port quarter a sparkling surfing run ensued, with crews relishing the conditions, making huge gains on each wave caught; the battle of the surfers was on.

At the bottom Gair led with Johnson second and a pile of boats splitting both left and right. Bertrand, fifth chose the seaward side, then shortly after tacked onto the favoured left side.

The wind dropped slightly for the second beat, to 18 knots and settled to 210 degrees, with the waves taking on more definition and lengthening to about 10m.

From the second turn at the top mark the boats surfed down focusing on getting the waves right.

Gair demonstrated superb technique and pulled out a lead of 1 minute 37 seconds at the second drop, with Johnson second and Bertrand third, again favouring seaward side drop.

With the sea breeze now fully pumping, the wind increased to over 20 knotts and tested all crews and damage to sails and boats started to take its toll.

The last beat turned into a 'soldiers' course with the fleet following Gair to the lay line.

At the gun, Gair led by over 90 seconds, then Johnson with Bertrand a close third to Mark Bradford - Roni and local Chris Pratt - La Vie Dansante.

Gair said ' we had a solid start and followed Skip Lissiman - Bandwagon, got a nice shift so came around the top mark in third, then we were surfing and really enjoying the conditions' continuing he said 'this is fantastic just like the 'Worlds' in Perth' he said 'we will continue plugging away, just fantastic.'

Bertrand commenting on the race, 'pretty tough, strong wind, we were happy to get third, very good competition here.'

He went on to say 'Super to have Ben (Ainslie) here, its dovetails nicely with him going to Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup,' when asked if they discussed the America's cup whilst racing 'at night we talk about the America's Cup, we have reinvented it several times!...'

Yanadoo XX Surfing it up - 2009 Commonwealth Bank Etchells Nationals - Steve Hall

Jeanne-Claude Strong said, 'So exciting, so fast, it's always great to be so close to such good sailors, a fabulous series' her crew Neville Wittey commenting 'you couldn't get the smile off her face with a mallet!'.

The sea breeze took its toll on sails with repairs to nine boats including mainsail damage to Bertrand's boat Triad. Avalon quickly retrieved a man overboard.

Chill Pill chasing Triad - 2009 Commonwealth Bank Etchells Nationals - Steve Hall

The series has three races to go and with the gradient breeze likely to support the sea breeze, more drama filled racing action to come.

Two protests have been received not affecting the top three.

Bertrand is on 16 points, Mark Bulka - Critical Balance with 22 and Gair with 23, with one race to drop, Bertrand is closing in on a Championship win, though one slip will be costly.

SERIES RESULTS

***Series Results [Elapsed Time] up to Race 5 (Drops = 0)***
Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Bow no	Skipper	Crew	Crew.	Crew3	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		AUS1383	TRIAD (M)	40	John Bertrand	Andrew Palfrey	Ben Ainslie		16.00	3.00	4.00	1.00	7.00	1.00
2		AUS1338	CRITICAL BALANCE	44	Mark Bulka	James Ryssenbeek	Steve Young		22.00	11.00	1.00	2.00	2.00	6.00
3		950	VELSHEDA	38	Alastair Gair	Dave Ridley	Rhys Johnston	Derek Scott	23.00	1.00	7.00	4.00	4.00	7.00
4		AUS1270	LA VIE DANSANTE	30	Chris Pratt	Simon Estella	Caillin Howard		28.00	5.00	3.00	7.00	5.00	8.00
5		AUS1318	BANANAS IN PYJAMAS	22	Ian Johnson	Tim Ede	Mark Tonner-Joyce		42.00	2.00	19.00	3.00	13.00	5.00
6		AUS1346	AVALON	27	Peter McNeill	Michael Bellingham	James Mayjor		46.00	9.00	11.00	8.00	8.00	10.00
7		AUS1374	STEAMPACKET 7 (M)	21	Rob Brown	Bruce Wookey	Garry Gudmunson		48.00	10.00	2.00	12.00	6.00	18.00
8		AUS870	RONI	48	Mark Bradford	Peter Merrington	Anthony Nositer		54.00	4.00	10.00	18.00	3.00	19.00
9		AUS1131	THE MOE SZYSLAK EXPE	31	Brendan Garner	Tim Clark	Michael ScHilt		56.00	12.00	5.00	9.00	19.00	11.00
10		AUS1244	DR. EVIL (M)	20	Jake Gunther	Tony Mc Phail	Russel Tyson		58.00	8.00	12.00	6.00	16.00	16.00
11		AUS1276	OVER ENGINEERED	23	Garrath James	Andrew Colliver	Blair Coventry		62.00	13.00	6.00	13.00	17.00	13.00
12		AUS1367	CHILL PILL (M)	19	Rob Bird	Graeme Johnson	Nic Gray		65.00	18.00	8.00	16.00	14.00	9.00
13		AUS868	YANDOO XX (M)	45	Jeanne-Claude Strong	Neville Wittey	Will Canty	Kieran Searle	75.00	7.00	30.00	5.00	29.00	4.00
14		AUS1366	PEDRO	15	Kirwan Robb	Jamie Thompson	Breeahn McCraken	Rodney Muller	87.00	17.00	14.00	30.00	23.00	3.00
15		NZL1314	ADDICTION (M)	33	Lindsay Kennedy	Mark Kennedy	Magnus Doole		91.00	30.00	27.00	10.00	10.00	14.00
16		AUS1288	MAGIC BUZZ (M)	49	Steve Gunther	Adrian Hayes	Brad Jones		94.00	16.00	16.00	17.00	15.00	30.00
17	2.0S	AUS1022	SCREAMING PLUM (M)	26	Doug Kerr	Greg Kerr	Luke Paterson		99.00	15.00	9.00	28.00	45.00Q	2.00
18		AUS1317	UNA MAS (M)	25	Mark Dagge	Matthew Hansen	Josh Willis		99.00	24.00	15.00	19.00	9.00	32.00
19		AUS1136	DAYLIGHT COME (M)	29	Alastair McMichael	Andrew McAullay	Richard Edinger		100.00	21.00	20.00	15.00	20.00	24.00
20	11.0S	AUS1160	LIQUIDITY	14	Dirk Van Der Struyf	Nigel Nattrass	Adam Martin		101.00	45.00O	13.00	20.00	11.00	12.00
21		AUS1321	CHOICES (M,GM)	46	Ian Dixon	Mark O Brien	Nick Paterson		101.00	22.00	24.00	14.00	24.00	17.00
22		AUS892	SECOND WIND	16	Jeff Rose	Craig McCullam	Cam Gribble		107.00	19.00	23.00	21.00	21.00	23.00
23		AUS891	BANDWAGON (M)	17	Skip Lissiman	Andy Fethers	Keith Swinton	Tyson Lamond	108.00	6.00	45.00B	11.00	1.00	45.00Q
24		AUS736	WOOD DUCK (M)	42	Shane Deusson	Stephen Dunn	Myles Kohler		118.00	14.00	26.00	23.00	18.00	37.00
25		AUS883	TUSK	24	Gary Smith	Michail McAullay	Brett Shoebridge		121.00	20.00G	18.00	35.00	22.00	26.00
26		AUS1311	MYSTERY TAXI	10	Paul Henshall	Bruce Henshall	Jeremy Tustin		124.00	23.00	17.00	27.00	35.00	22.00
27		AUS1141	MENS SHIRTS (M)	34	Peter Stubbings	Ann Stubbings	Ross Melville		127.00	20.00	25.00	25.00	28.00	29.00
28		AUS1129	MURPHYS LAW (M)	52	Geoff Boettcher	Tim Cowen	Jason Clark		134.00	25.00	36.00	26.00	12.00	35.00
29		AUS1272	FOOLHARDY (M, GM)	54	James Hardy	Tom Hardy	Alan Bessell		135.00	34.00	21.00	24.00	31.00	25.00
30		AUS1360	ETCH (M,GM)	37	Jan Muysken	Ian Audsley	Peter Alexander		144.00	31.00	33.00	22.00	27.00	31.00
31		AUS832	BAD SQUIRREL (M, GM)	51	Andrew Short	Phil Webb	Brett Yardley		147.00	29.00	29.00	36.00	26.00	27.00
32		AUS1223	TANGO (M)	41	Chris Hampton	Tim Godbert	Tom Connell		153.00	27.00	28.00	38.00	45.00F	15.00
33		AUS714	FRENCH STICK (M)	35	Andrew Waterman	Andrew Ellison	Robert Howatt		155.00	35.00	35.00	34.00	30.00	21.00
34		AUS1258	RUBY	18	Jason Ward	Damien McCaughey	Tim Cawley		163.00	37.00	31.00	41.00	34.00	20.00
35		AUS1117	7PS (M)	53	Ian Anderson	Stuart Emery	Malcolm Pearson	Ashleigh Emery	164.00	26.00	45.00B	29.00	25.00	39.00
36		AUS951	FISH FACTORY (M, GM)	47	Michael Bradley	Guy Maegraith	Malcolm Larsen-Smith		171.00	32.00	34.00	31.00	36.00	38.00
37		AUS608	MEDIUM RARE	39	Wayne Knill	Russell Jones	Noel Paterson		172.00	45.00F	22.00	32.00	45.00G	28.00
38		AUS1218	SUPERHEAT (M, GM)	12	David Henshall	Steve Jenkins	Dean Furniss		175.00	38.00	32.00	39.00	32.00	34.00
39		AUS1158	NEW WAVE	43	Peter La Fontaine	Peter Cox	Sam Dryden		179.00	28.00	45.00B	37.00	33.00	36.00
40		AUS1291	THE DON (M)	50	Don Wilson	Eric Findlay	Dave Allinson		183.00	33.00	45.00B	33.00	39.00	33.00
41		AUS775	BANZAI (M, GM)	32	Robert Holyoak	Bruce Roberts	Robin Braendler		197.00	39.00	37.00	43.00	37.00	41.00
42		AUS609	GOMAS (M, GM)	28	Richard Colebatch	David Biven	Ian Andrews		198.00	36.00	38.00	40.00	41.00	43.00
43		AUS215	BARRACUDA	36	Liza Reynolds	Chris Heritage	Aaron Heritage		199.00	40.00	39.00	42.00	38.00	40.00
44		AUS833	MAXEN WLEDIG (M, GM)	11	Donald Halley	Dennis Fearnley	Richard Hunter		207.00	41.00	40.00	44.00	40.00	42.00

(Ties: S=Score R=Race B= Bettered. Penalties: A=ARB B=BFD C=DNC D=DNE E=ESP F=DNF G=RDG L=Late Entrant M=DGM N=ENP O=OCS P=Protest Q=DSQ R=RAF S=DNS U=DUT V=AVG X=EXC Z=ZFP Y=SCP #=NoData [x.y]=Discarded)

by Steve Hall

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