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10:53 AM Sun 25 Jan 2009 GMT
Heading into tomorrow's final race in the SB3 Class Australian Championship, Geelong local Brendan Garner is comfortably leading the pointscore, a welcome consolation for having narrowly missed out on last year's Championship win at Skandia Geelong Week.
'It's good to come back and make up for last year. We've had a year to think about it,' said Garner this afternoon. In the 2008 Championship Garner and his crew thought they had the series sewn up so in the final race deliberately sailed their opposition off the course, unaware that the other team had been granted redress.
'A little bit of local knowledge is helping us and we are really focused on boat speed,' said Garner from his home club, Royal Geelong Yacht Club, of their current performance. RGYC has supplied Garner with his SB3, entered as Home Team, and they are leading Tom Rosoman by nine points with Kai Timm's Oceanburo third.
'The level of competition has been really good, the racing has got closer as the regatta has gone on,' Garner added.
Conditions were light for today's first windward/leeward race but for the second and third, there was plenty of puff on Geelong's Corio Bay thanks to a solid southerly breeze that suddenly whipped up white caps on the Bay.
Lauren Calder and her Audi Sunshine Coast crew out of Mooloolaba have only spent six months together sailing as a team and racing an SB3 sports boat and this afternoon they are well placed in fourth on the Championship pointscore after eight races.
With the support of Audi Sunshine Coast, the Mooloolaba sailors have entered an all-female team for the nationals and they are hoping to make it to the World Championship in Portugal in September where a fleet of 150 SB3'S are expected to compete.
At last year's Australia Day promotion event at Cowes Week in the UK, a Cowes local won the major prize of a free charter of an SB3 at this year's 165th Skandia Geelong Week. That local was Mike Harrison who is in town with his wife Barbara and son Tim, who contested the B14 Class World Championships in Hobart earlier this month before arriving at Geelong to claim the family's prize.
The Commodore of Crouch Yacht Club in Essex, Mike Harrison has retired from 50 years of competitive sailing and for Skandia Geelong Week has left the helming to Tim who is currently sixth on the pointscore sheet with the SB3 Jiminy Cricket.
'I've done a lot of sailing admin and what's great at Geelong is the extent of the town's involvement. It's a great regatta, very well organised and yesterday was a terrific party, we quite like parties,' Mike admitted.
Mike's win came about when he was invited by a close family friend to race on a class 1 yacht at Cowes Week.
'After putting in an abysmal performance I insisted on buying the crew drinks afterwards and the skipper also insisted on buying rounds of drinks.
'This round of consolation drinks turned into a winner with my ticket drawn as the recipient of the Skandia Geelong Week SB3 charter prize,' Mike added.
Tomorrow's ninth and final race for the SB3's is scheduled to start at 0930hrs on course area B.
SB3 Australian Championships Hosted By Royal Geelong Yacht Club PROVISIONAL RESULTS Updated: 25/01/2009 17:43:58 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL RESULTS Series Results [Elapsed Time] up to Race 8 (Drops = 1)| Place | Ties | Sail No | Boat Name | Skipper | From | Sers Score | Race 8 | Race 7 | Race 6 | Race 5 | Race 4 | Race 3 | Race 2 | Race 1 | | 1 | | 3384 | HOME TEAM | Brendan Garner | RGYC | 12.00 | 4.00 | 1.00 | [6.00] | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 3.00 | 1.00 | | 2 | | GBR3393 | TBA | Tom Rosoman | MSC | 21.00 | 1.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 3.00 | [10.00] | 5.00 | 1.00 | 8.00 | | 3 | | AUS3383 | OCEANBURO | Kai Timm | MDSC/NYRC | 24.00 | 2.00 | 5.00 | [8.00] | 2.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | | 4 | | AUS3380 | AUDI SUNSHINE GIRLS | Lauren Calder | MDSC | 29.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.00 | [9.00] | 5.00 | 6.00 | 5.00 | 3.00 | | 5 | | AUS3386 | TBA | Murray Howson | PRSC | 32.00 | 6.00 | 3.00 | [10.00] | 5.00 | 2.00 | 7.00 | 2.00 | 7.00 | | 6 | | GBR3356 | JIMINY CRICKET | Tim Mike Harrison | ISC | 35.00 | 7.00 | 6.00 | 2.00 | 4.00 | 7.00 | 2.00 | 7.00 | [12.00O] | | 7 | | AUS3381 | WAGOP | Michael McLean | SYC | 45.00 | 5.00 | 7.00 | 9.00 | 8.00 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 9.00 | [12.00O] | | 8 | | 3352 | DART VADER | Mark Prince | NCYC | 51.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 | 7.00 | 7.00 | 6.00 | [10.00] | 8.00 | 5.00 | | 9 | | 3358 | NEWCASTLE YACHTING | Stephen Mackay | NCYC | 54.00 | 12.00C | 8.00 | 4.00 | 6.00 | 12.00Q | [12.00C] | 10.00 | 2.00 | | 10 | | 3354 | WHISTLING KITE | Greg James | MYC | 55.00 | 10.00 | [11.00] | 5.00 | 10.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 | | 11 | | AUS3390 | CLAAKA | Graham Eaton | SYC | 67.00 | 8.00 | 10.00 | 11.00 | 11.00 | 8.00 | 8.00 | 11.00 | [12.00S] |
| (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 Lisa Ratcliff
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Norseman Airport, WA
Windsurfing - Boards
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