Etchells Nationals - Bulka sizzles and Bertrand fires

11:07 AM Tue 13 Jan 2009 GMT

'Going Left' Steve Hall

Another exciting days racing at the Royal SA Yacht Squadron, venue for the Commonwealth Bank 2009 Australian Etchells Championships. Not only the champion sailors were hot, with furnace like northerly winds (40.5c at Adelaide Airport) varying between 5-17 knots, the level of competition was scorching!

Following yesterday's dramas the protest committee sat until 11pm hearing five protests, the most significant of which was the disqualification of Skip Lissiman's - Bandwagon from race 1.

Start race 3 - Steve Hall

Race 3 started in North West winds of 6 knots and a 1.5Nm beat was set, the fleet was 'clean away' at the first attempt. The breeze flicked to the left 2 minutes after the start causing the whole fleet to tack onto Port, and favouring the pin end starters.

Very little was between the tops boats at the windward mark, with John Bertrand - Triad rounding first followed by Mark Bulka - Critical Balance, then Ian Johnson - Bananas in Pyjamas.

Yesterday's contender Lissiman was buried in the fleet, with Sir James Hardy - Foolhardy, hard on the heels of Rob Brown - Steampacket 7.

The next lap of the course the race committee reset the windward mark with wind increasing to 15 knots and staying in the North West.

Triad - Steve Hall

Bertrand retained a loose cover on Bulka with Johnson in third, finishing in that order

Ben Ainslie said, 'we started 2/3 of the way down the line out to the left, with more pressure and did a long Port tack, then we were protecting our lead at the top', continuing 'Doggy and John did a great job down wind'

Bulka, who often trains with Bertrand said 'I would take that every day, sailed a really good first beat, and a boat length behind Bertrand at the top mark', continuing

'Bertrand had just a little more boat speed and he wasn't going to give us much, and kept a loose cover on us.'

Room please - Steve Hall

Race 4

It took a 'black' flag and two general recalls to get the fleet away, with a long course set of 1.9Nm to the windward mark.

The fleet split cleanly with local Chris Pratt - La Vie Dansante leading the charge to the right hand side lay line, paying off handsomely with Pratt around first followed by Bulka and Brendan Garner's - The Moe Szyslak Experience.

Bertrand was trapped under a starboard tacker at the top mark rounding 10th. The wind then started to drop and the temperature increased significantly, with crews starting to sizzle in the fierce sunshine.

At the bottom mark, Bulka had overtaken Pratt, Garner and Brown rounded simultaneously at each of the downwind marks, with Brown choosing the less popular leg out to sea. Half way up the leg Brown tacked across to protect his second position.

At the gun Bulka first with Brown second then Pratt. Bertrand improved to take fourth place.

Bulka - 'That was good, we had a feeling that the left was starting to look bad, so we went right to the shore in the dying breeze. We were one boat length behind Pratt and second at the top mark, we passed him on the run by breaking an overlap, and again hit the right hand.'

He went on to say 'We reckon it's a race of sheet hands - James Ryssenback vs. Ben Ainslie!'

Ian Johnson Bananas In Pyjamas - Steve Hall

Rob Brown - 'We stayed in the middle left side and were fifth or six at the top mark, with a nice run down into third place and after that we consolidated to retain second'

With one protest lodged for redress, which does not include the first three positions.

Provisional cumulative results show Bulka 2 points clear of Bertrand, with New Zealander Alistair Gair - Velsheda third.

PROVISIONAL RESULTS

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL RESULTS

SERIES RESULTS

***Series Results [Elapsed Time] up to Race 4 (Drops = 0)***
Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Crew	Crew.	From	Bow no	Crew3	Sers Score	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		AUS1338	CRITICAL BALANCE	Mark Bulka	James Ryssenbeek	Steve Young	RBYC	44		11.00	1.00	2.00	2.00	6.00
2		AUS1383	TRIAD (M)	John Bertrand	Andrew Palfrey	Ben Ainslie	RBYC	40		13.00	4.00	1.00	7.00	1.00
3		950	VELSHEDA	Alastair Gair	Dave Ridley	Rhys Johnston	GHEF	38	Derek Scott	22.00	7.00	4.00	4.00	7.00
4		AUS1270	LA VIE DANSANTE	Chris Pratt	Simon Estella	Caillin Howard	RSAYS	30		23.00	3.00	7.00	5.00	8.00
5		AUS1346	AVALON	Peter McNeill	Michael Bellingham	James Mayjor	LMYC	27		37.00	11.00	8.00	8.00	10.00
6		AUS1374	STEAMPACKET 7 (M)	Rob Brown	Bruce Wookey	Garry Gudmunson	RPAYC	21		38.00	2.00	12.00	6.00	18.00
7		AUS1318	BANANAS IN PYJAMAS	Ian Johnson	Tim Ede	Mark Tonner-Joyce	RBYC	22		40.00	19.00	3.00	13.00	5.00
8		AUS1131	THE MOE SZYSLAK EXPE	Brendan Garner	Tim Clark	Michael ScHilt	RGYC	31		44.00	5.00	9.00	19.00	11.00
9		AUS1367	CHILL PILL (M)	Rob Bird	Graeme Johnson	Nic Gray	RFBYC	19		47.00	8.00	16.00	14.00	9.00
10		AUS1276	OVER ENGINEERED	Garrath James	Andrew Colliver	Blair Coventry	BYS	23		49.00	6.00	13.00	17.00	13.00
11	3.0S	AUS870	RONI	Mark Bradford	Peter Merrington	Anthony Nositer	RQYS	48		50.00	10.00	18.00	3.00	19.00
12		AUS1244	DR. EVIL (M)	Jake Gunther	Tony Mc Phail	Russel Tyson	RBYC	20		50.00	12.00	6.00	16.00	16.00
13		AUS1160	LIQUIDITY	Dirk Van Der Struyf	Nigel Nattrass	Adam Martin	RFBYC	14		56.00	13.00	20.00	11.00	12.00
14		NZL1314	ADDICTION (M)	Lindsay Kennedy	Mark Kennedy	Magnus Doole	GHYC	33		61.00	27.00	10.00	10.00	14.00
15		AUS868	YANDOO XX (M)	Jeanne-Claude Strong	Neville Wittey	Will Canty	RSYS	45	Kieran Searle	68.00	30.00	5.00	29.00	4.00
16		AUS1366	PEDRO	Kirwan Robb	Jamie Thompson	Breeahn McCraken	RBYC	15	Rodney Muller	70.00	14.00	30.00	23.00	3.00
17		AUS1317	UNA MAS (M)	Mark Dagge	Matthew Hansen	Josh Willis	RQYS	25		75.00	15.00	19.00	9.00	32.00
18		AUS1288	MAGIC BUZZ (M)	Steve Gunther	Adrian Hayes	Brad Jones	RBYC	49		78.00	16.00	17.00	15.00	30.00
19	14.0S	AUS1321	CHOICES (M,GM)	Ian Dixon	Mark O Brien	Nick Paterson	RSAYS	46		79.00	24.00	14.00	24.00	17.00
20		AUS1136	DAYLIGHT COME (M)	Alastair McMichael	Andrew McAullay	Richard Edinger	RPYC	29		79.00	20.00	15.00	20.00	24.00
21		AUS1022	SCREAMING PLUM (M)	Doug Kerr	Greg Kerr	Luke Paterson	RFBYC	26		84.00	9.00	28.00	45.00Q	2.00
22		AUS892	SECOND WIND	Jeff Rose	Craig McCullam	Cam Gribble	METUNG	16		88.00	23.00	21.00	21.00	23.00
23	17.0S	AUS1311	MYSTERY TAXI	Paul Henshall	Bruce Henshall	Jeremy Tustin	RSAYS	10		101.00	17.00	27.00	35.00	22.00
24	18.0S	AUS883	TUSK	Gary Smith	Michail McAullay	Brett Shoebridge	RPYC	24		101.00	18.00	35.00	22.00	26.00
25		AUS1272	FOOLHARDY (M, GM)	James Hardy	Tom Hardy	Alan Bessell	RSYS	54		101.00	21.00	24.00	31.00	25.00
26		AUS891	BANDWAGON (M)	Skip Lissiman	Andy Fethers	Keith Swinton	RPYC	17	Tyson Lamond	102.00	45.00O	11.00	1.00	45.00Q
27		AUS736	WOOD DUCK (M)	Shane Deusson	Stephen Dunn	Myles Kohler	RSAYS	42		104.00	26.00	23.00	18.00	37.00
28		AUS1141	MENS SHIRTS (M)	Peter Stubbings	Ann Stubbings	Ross Melville	RBYC	34		107.00	25.00	25.00	28.00	29.00
29		AUS1129	MURPHYS LAW (M)	Geoff Boettcher	Tim Cowen	Jason Clark	RSAYS	52		109.00	36.00	26.00	12.00	35.00
30		AUS1360	ETCH (M,GM)	Jan Muysken	Ian Audsley	Peter Alexander	RSYS	37		113.00	33.00	22.00	27.00	31.00
31		AUS832	BAD SQUIRREL (M, GM)	Andrew Short	Phil Webb	Brett Yardley	RFBYC/RSAYS	51		118.00	29.00	36.00	26.00	27.00
32		AUS714	FRENCH STICK (M)	Andrew Waterman	Andrew Ellison	Robert Howatt	RSAYS	35		120.00	35.00	34.00	30.00	21.00
33	15.0S	AUS1223	TANGO (M)	Chris Hampton	Tim Godbert	Tom Connell	RBYC	41		126.00	28.00	38.00	45.00F	15.00
34		AUS1258	RUBY	Jason Ward	Damien McCaughey	Tim Cawley	RSAYS	18		126.00	31.00	41.00	34.00	20.00
35		AUS608	MEDIUM RARE	Wayne Knill	Russell Jones	Noel Paterson	RSAYS	39		127.00	22.00	32.00	45.00G	28.00
36		AUS1218	SUPERHEAT (M, GM)	David Henshall	Steve Jenkins	Dean Furniss	RSAYS	12		137.00	32.00	39.00	32.00	34.00
37		AUS1117	7PS (M)	Ian Anderson	Stuart Emery	Malcolm Pearson	PFS	53	Ashleigh Emery	138.00	45.00O	29.00	25.00	39.00
38		AUS951	FISH FACTORY (M, GM)	Michael Bradley	Guy Maegraith	Malcolm Larsen-Smith	RSAYS	47		139.00	34.00	31.00	36.00	38.00
39		AUS1291	THE DON (M)	Don Wilson	Eric Findlay	Dave Allinson	GSC	50		150.00	45.00O	33.00	39.00	33.00
40		AUS1158	NEW WAVE	Peter La Fontaine	Peter Cox	Sam Dryden	RGYC	43		151.00	45.00O	37.00	33.00	36.00
41		AUS775	BANZAI (M, GM)	Robert Holyoak	Bruce Roberts	Robin Braendler	RSAYS	32		158.00	37.00	43.00	37.00	41.00
42		AUS215	BARRACUDA	Liza Reynolds	Chris Heritage	Aaron Heritage	RSAYS	36		159.00	39.00	42.00	38.00	40.00
43		AUS609	GOMAS (M, GM)	Richard Colebatch	David Biven	Ian Andrews	RSAYS	28		162.00	38.00	40.00	41.00	43.00
44		AUS833	MAXEN WLEDIG (M, GM)	Donald Halley	Dennis Fearnley	Richard Hunter	RSAYS	11		166.00	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)

Tomorrow, Wednesday has one race scheduled with a balmy 37c forecast.

Sponsors have been quick to jump aboard, recognising the contribution sailing makes to the local community and keen to associate with a healthy outdoor sport. Sponsors include; The Commonwealth Bank, MUSTO, Club Marine Insurance, Coopers Brewery, Jacobs Creek Wines, Kaesler Wines and Aircommand Australia and the Royal SA Yacht Squadron.

Full results set, race by race including Masters and Grand Masters at

www.09etchellsaustchamps.org.au