Fire Stopping and Fluid Building Services in fierce 16ft Skiff rivalry

8:03 AM Tue 3 Mar 2009 GMT

'Fire Stopping and Fluid Building Services' Manly 16ft Skiff Club

As if the rivalry between leading Manly 16ft Skiff Club combatants Fire Stopping and Fluid Building Services wasn't fierce enough, a sponsor has increased the tension by offering a Hamilton Island holiday to the winner of the club championship.

Wild Oats Wines has donated the week's holiday to the winning crew and partners, with the issue to be settled in the seventh and final heat of the club championship on Saturday.

With just 1.7 points separating the two skiffs on the overall pointscore, whoever crosses the finishing line first will take the spoils.

A Fluid victory would give skipper Clint Bowen his seventh consecutive - and eighth overall - club championship.

Fire Stopping skipper James Dorron can pick up his first club title to go with his two national crowns.

Both camps are playing down the Hamilton Island incentive, insisting the silverware is the main priority.

'The holiday is over after a week but the title stands there forever,' Bowen pointed out.

'The holiday would be great but we're more intent on winning the clubbie.'

In the opposing camp, Fire Stopping's James Bury said: 'It would be nice to knock them off their pedestal.

'That's the only incentive for me. The trip would be unreal but it's more the honour of being club champion.'

With one just needing to beat the other on Saturday, both crews know the danger of concentrating solely on the club championship outcome.

Fire Stopping made that mistake in last Saturday's sixth heat of the club championship, finishing fourth as Fluid saluted the judge ahead of Aero Sails (Adrian Nash) and Altis Consulting (Philip Cooke).

'We'll run our own race. We tried keeping an eye on him (Bowen) last week and it backfired on us,' Bury said.

'It's a friendly rivalry - there's no bad blood - and it's been unfortunate that it seems to come down to the ding-dong battles at the end of it.

'It's all good fun and it's great for the club to have the top two (16ft) boats in the nation going for it and barely being able to separate them each week.'

www.manlyskiff.com.au

by Brad Andrews

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Fire Stopping and Fluid Building Services in fierce 16ft Skiff rivalry

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