Maurice Drent Boating Services trophy Race 1 to Esoteric

11:48 PM Sun 7 Jun 2009 GMT

'Treasure V111' Peter Campbell &copy Click Here to view large photo

There were no secrets to hide when Col Forster steered Esoteric to a 19 second win in the first race of the Maurice Drent Boating Services trophy on the warm waters of Pioneer Bay.

Esoteric is not the fastest yacht in the fleet finishing in sixth place behind line honours winner Treasure Vlll (Harold Menelaus) but her crew managed to sail on the advantage line with the prevailing 8-10 knot East South East wind to score a popular win on corrected handicap.

In terms of time the 19 second winning advantage was relatively close but the Esoteric crew can take some pride from the result when the beat the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart Performance Handicap champion Merit and the former Admiral's Cup representative Surefoot for the important points.

Sure the three radically different designed yachts compete with individual time correction factors and this is where the Esoteric crew showed their class to select the best options and produce the required boat speed to beat the race clock.

As expected the veteran skipper Harold Menelaus and his Treasure Vlll crew took some advantage of racing in clear wind at the head of the fleet to secure a 1 minute 10 second line honours win over the John Galloway helmed Queensland Marine Services while Rod Sawyer's Surefoot withstood a late charge from the Craig Piccinelli skippered Wobbly Boot to claim third fastest by a narrow four seconds.

However while all four crews were happy with their course times it soon became evident that the overall handicap results and the important points to which crew would hold the 'bragging rites' at the Whitsunday Sailing Club bar would favour the low and middle markers.

Surefoot became the progressive leader when she completed the short course race with what was considered to be a comparatively fast time in relation to her .798 rating but the Leo Rodregius skippered former Volvo Globe racer Merit sailed quick enough with her .741 time correction factor to beat Surefoot by 56 seconds.

Merit provisionally held the major points for a short 1 minute 20 second time frame with the Esoteric crew spoiling their victory celebrations when they completed the race in sixth place with the elapsed time of 1 hour 2 minutes 4 seconds.

This result will automatically focus the tactical attention on Esoteric when the fleet face up to contest the important second race of the series over the Whitsunday Sailing Club course on Pioneer Bay this week.

Skipper Col Forster will naturally be hoping for similar racing conditions but his chance to race without any tactical interference will only be determined by the skill of the Esoteric crew to avoid the expected wind shadows enforced by their rivals.

They have the points on the board plus the proven result that Esoteric will be difficult to roll with her crew poised to repeat their impressive first heat result and move a step closer to winning the 2009 Maurice Drent Trophy series.

by Ian Grant