Postcard start to Musto Etchells Australian Winter Championship 2009

3:54 AM Fri 5 Jun 2009 GMT

'Sailing up the river to the start line - Day 1 - Musto Etchells Australian Winter Championship 2009' Sail-World.com /AUS &copy

At 11.05am the 54 boat fleet competing at the Musto Etchells Australian Winter Championship, was gunned away in glorious sunshine and six knots of breeze.

Race 1 sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, had a clean start and the fleet set out on the 1.8 nautical mile first leg.

America's Cup sailor Mark Bradford and crew Peter Merrington and Greg Torpy on Roni started at the pin end and although initially a little slow, they soon came up to speed and led the fleet away.

Nick Knezic from the Royal Brighton Yacht Club, with crew David Bretherton and Michael Robertson (Count Boris' Secret Rendezous) hit the start line with speed, a couple of boat lengths up from the pin and led in the initial stages.

Vaughan Prentice, Darren Hutchinson, Phil Manning and Nick Behrens on Funky Cold Medina, were a little further up the start line but also well placed.

Most of the fleet favoured the left hand side of the course.

The wind was building up the first leg, reaching 7.5knots as they headed to the first mark.

At the top mark, Una Mas (Mark Dagge, Matthew Hansen and Joshua Willis) was first around, followed by Fifteen (David Clark, Sean Leonard, Andrew Smith), Tango (Christopher Hampton, Ben Morrison-Jack, Mark Tonner-Joyce) and Temptress (David Lawrence, Rodney Browne, Barry Hawkes).

Hot on the leaders tails were Critical Balance (Mark Bulka), Funky Cold Medina (Vaughan Prentice), last year's winner Magpie (Graeme Taylor), Valsheda (skippered by New Zealand's Alastair Gair) and Trekka (Chris Williams). The early leader Roni (Mark Bradford) had slipped back to 15th place.

The wind shifted left 20 degrees and the course was changed.

Una Mas continued to hold form and was first across the finish line, followed by Valsheda and Fifteen.

Tango was fourth, with Roulette (Mark Johnson, Christian Allen and Nik Burfoot) fifth. Magpie, Barry (Damien King, James Ware, Simon Cunnington, Andrew Butler), Heaven Can Wait (Peter Hollis, Bucky Smith, John Warlow), Critical Balance and Two Speed (Nigel Nattrass, Christian Brook, Antony Elliot) completing the top ten.

After Race 1 skipper Alistair Gair (Valsheda) was happy with his second place result. 'We had a reasonable start. We went only a little left, then consolidated, but we realised that the boats that went harder left were advantaged. On the second beat we hit the corner hard and that took us up into second place.'

Mid race the swell had built to one metre but conditions had softened and the breeze has dropped to five knots.

Competitors have just started Race 2, sponsored by Queensland Events.

More to follow.

by Al Constable