Magpie top of the tree
Graeme Taylor's Magpie, from the Mornington (Vic) fleet, survived a tough final day of racing to hang onto the points lead it held throughout to win the Etchells Musto 2008 winter championship, off Mooloolaba today.
'Magpie top of the tree, winning result for the Mornington Magpie crew'
Peter
Duncan www.Questphoto.net
Magpie won the series, in a record fleet of 54, with 15 points from another Victorian boat Mark Bulka's Critical Balance on 19 points.
Australian champion Racer XY (Jason Muir, Qld) found form on the last day with a second and a first in the last two races of the six-race series, to also finish on 19 points but be beaten for third place on the podium on a countback of race placings.
Race five was sailed in sou'-easter that freshened from 16 to 18 knots and contained some major wind shifts under the influence of rain squalls.
One of those shifts, on the second windward beat of the two-round windward-leeward course, upended positions and dropped some of the series leaders, including Magpie, to mid-fleet positions.
Bananas in Pyjamas (Ian Johnson, Vic), was on the right side of the shift to take a race-winning lead. Magpie was caught on the wrong side to drop from seventh to 18th.
The seaway was punishing, with a steep chop across the regular swell pattern for both races.
The wind freshened to 18-20 knots for the start of race six and to 22-25 knots for the second beat and run to the finish, setting the Etchells planing and wave-riding the steepening seaway at spectacular speeds.
Racer XY from a good start at the pin end, headed hard left, eventually into the first major wind shift, a ten-degree left hander. She tacked back to cross the fleet and hold a handy six boat-lengths lead at the first mark.
Racer XY, clear of a close chasing bunch, kept building that lead to win by more than a minute - a big margin in one-design Etchells racing - from the consistent Critical Balance, with points outsider Funky Cold Medina (V.Prentice, Qld) third and Magpie in fourth place clinching the championship win.
Top ten placings and points: 1, Magpie (G.Taylor, Vic), 1-7-1-2-18-4, 15 points; 2, 2, Critical Balance (M. Bulka, Vic), 6-2-8-1-24-2, 19; 3, Racer XY (J.Muir, Qld), 20-5-5-6-2-1, 19; 4, Black Snake (C.Miles, NSW), 5-3-6-7-4-5, 23; 5, I.Johnson (Vic), 21-17-10-5-1-6, 39; 6, 870 (M.Bradford, Qld), 11-10-3-4-26-11, 39; 7, Racer X (M.O'Brien, Qld), 3-1-2-13-36-22, 41; 8, (J.Bertrand, Vic), 7-16-4-10-10-17, 47; 9, Fifteen (D.Clark, NSW), 4-11-23-11-12-14, 52; 10, La Vie Dansante (C.Pratt, SA), 9-9-22-16-37-8, 64.
Full results: www.mooetchells.yachting.org.au
by Bob Ross 
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Turners Beach, TAS
