Fight for Whitsunday Twilight series Trophy
Craig Piccinelli continues to dominate the Whitsunday Sailing Clubs Twilight sprint race series on the tropical sailing playground off Airlie Beach.
'Wobbly Boot - Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week 2008 Day 2'
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The crafty skipper and his experienced crew of good mates, including Pioneer Bay sailing veteran Roger Vickery, produced another convincing performance with Wobbly Boot to snatch the progressive lead in the Whitsunday Escape Trophy series.
Piccinelli who accepted to buy the Jim Young designed sloop when she was offered for sale following an owner-builder dispute, has progressively developed the once discarded little sloop into a major trophy winner.
Wobbly Boot, besides having the distinction of winning the Boss Hog Trophy as the boat of the series during the Hog's Breath Airlie Beach Race Week, has become the 'pace setter' on Pioneer Bay to presently lead the progressive 2007-2008 championship by a commanding 14 points, over arch rival John Galloway (Queensland Marine Services) while Harold Menelaus (Treasure Vlll) holds third another 13 points off the pace.
Skipper Piccinelli has won four monthly series over the past 10 months and the win last week has provided Wobbly Boot with the opportunity to firm an even stronger grip on the championship by winning the Whitsunday Escape trophy later this week.
However, while the Wobbly Boot crew remain confident the result hangs in the balance as they are forced to front up to a tactical match race against the consistently well sailed 007 helmed by Jeff Brown.
007 seemed to be well in control after recording a 1-2 compared with Wobbly Boot's 2-7 in the opening two races but skipper Brown placed his trophy winning chances into damage control when 007 failed to reproduce the required pace to outsail her handicap rating, finishing seventh to hand the lead to Wobbly Boot under the count back rule.
The tight nature of the points table suggests that the crews on Wobbly Boot and 007 will become tactically involved when the sails are tensioned for the trophy deciding final, where Jeff Brown has to reproduce his form from the earlier races or miss his chance to accept the Whitsunday Escape Trophy as the star performer in the Division 2 class for October.
Roger Boast (Serendipity) and Brian Fleming (Concubine) are similarly involved to decide the Division lll class, where the Serendipity crew have retained a one point lead with their 3-2-1 score compared with Concubine 1-4-2.
The progressive improvement by Serendipity suggests they are the favourite, but skipper Brian Fleming always produces his best when the odds are stacked against him and this means that he will focus his attention on matching Roger Boast when dueling for the trophy on Pioneer Bay later this week.
by Ian Grant 
Aldgate, SA
