Etchells World Qualifier - heat 5 abandoned

6:43 AM Fri 24 Oct 2008 GMT

'Matt Whitnall’s dot (AUS1134)and Ed McCarthy & Michael Coxon’s North Sydney Station (AUS1273) racing in the Etchells Mini Regatta last Saturday. Photo: Kylie Wilson'

The Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club's protest committee has abandoned the second race of last Saturday's International Etchells Mini Regatta on Sydney Harbour, which was also heat five of the World Qualifying Series.

The protest committee reached this decision after hearing requests for redress from the skippers of two boats, Bushfire (Jervis Tilly) and Fathom (Rupert Henry), which were among 10 boats disqualified after being listed as breaching the BFD (Black Flag) rule.

Facts found included that the Race Officer, for the second starting procedure for the second race of the day, had displayed a black flag for the preparatory signal. Following the display of the preparatory signal for the recalled start, the Race Committee had used propulsion to reposition the starting boat for up to a minute and a half after the preparatory signal was displayed.

There was a second general recall in which 10 boats were identified as being on the course side of the starting line, including Bushfire and Fathom. The Race Officer told the hearing that there were other identified boats that were not disqualified under rule 30.3.

In its conclusions, the protest committee found that the Race Committee could not apply rule 30 after the movement of the starting boat by propulsion, and therefore the start should have been postponed.

'The race could not be considered a fair race with almost half the fleet (of 27) disqualified and now entitled to redress and other boats not being identified as being on the course side of the starting line,' the protest committee concluded in its report, citing the rules applicable as 27.2, 61.1(a).

The protest committee's decision was that 'Race two of the RPEYC Mini Scratch Series, heat 5 of the RSYS Mini Series and Heat 5 of the International Etchells World Qualifying Series be abandoned.'

Despite the subsequent abandoning of the second race, Saturday's Mini Regatta produced one-design fleet racing at its best, with 27 boats on the line in the give-no-quarter, three-heat series - by competitors or race management.

Apart from attracting the biggest and best fleet on the Harbour so far this season, the Mini Regatta was scheduled to comprise three vital races in the World Qualifying Series - for the 10 places available to the Sydney Fleet at the Etchells World Championship on Melbourne's Port Phillip next March.

With 27 boats on the line in the freshening 10-15 knot easterly to north-easterly breeze and a fast ebbing tide, the starts were aggressive, to say the least.

Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club's race officer Tony Denham responded with the harshest of start line penalties - the black-flagging (BFD) three boats in heat one and 10 in heat two.

Competition was intense in all three heats as the Etchells battled with the big ebb tide coming out of Rose Bay, a breeze that backed from east to nor'east and freshened during the afternoon, and a huge number of other yachts racing on the Harbour. 'One bad gybe downwind and you could give away vital boat lengths - and a place or two,' commented one Etchells skipper.

Humpback (Stephen Barlow & Peter Gardner) took out the first heat while Fifteen (David Clark & Andrew Smith) won the next two, although the second heat has now been abandoned.

The abandonment of heat two brought Fathom and Fifteen back to the top of the leaderboard in the Mini Regatta and in progressive points for the Worlds Qualifying Series.

After five of the now scheduled 11 World Qualifying Series heats, an unofficial pointscore sees Fifteen (David Clark and Andrew Smith) on 13 points, with a gap to Bushfire (Jervis Tilly) on 21 points, followed by dot (Matt Whitnall) on 27 points, North Sydney Station 29 (Ed McCarthy & Michael Coxon) on 31 points and Fathom (Rupert Henry) on 35 points.