SMS equates Sports Boat fleet
After five races over varied courses at the 2008 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week, the new Sports Boat handicap system, SMS (Sports Measurement System), appears to be providing a much improved level playing field in handicapping the wide variety of these speedstars contesting Race Week.
'Sportsboat fleet start. Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week'
Tropix Photography © Click Here to view large photo
In recent years, Airlie Beach Race Week has been the test track for the latest design concepts in this rapidly expanding and rexciting class of yacht racing , giving race officials a problem in equating a fleet that ranges from Elliot 7s through to the hi-tech Stealth 8s and a one-off sports boat designs.
For the past year, the technical committee of the Australian Sports Boat Association has been working with Yachting Victoria in adapting the the AMS (Australian Measurement System) used in Victorian keelboat racing to cover sports boats. SMS was used for the first time for the Sports Boat division at Skandia Geelong Week and is being used for the 19 boats in the Sports Boat division at Airlie Beach.
With the exception of one boat - the smallest and least expensive in the fleet - corrected time results under SMS have 'quite equitable' across the fleet, resulting in generally close handicap results, according to ASBA secretary Cam Rae from the Royal Geelong Yacht Club in Victoria.
'We are very pleased with SMS,' Rae said. 'If you look at the results in each race to date you will see close results on corrected time. In race one the top nine boats were less than four minutes apart. In that race we saw two of the fastest and most expensive boats, Vivace, an original Bethwaite 8, and Conquistador, a new sports 8 xx, split by Quantum Sailing, an Egan 6, and probably the least expensive boat in the fleet.'
Quantum Sails went on take corrected time honours in the next three races, which Rae attributing this to excellent sailing and suitable conditions. 'They sailed right above their rating in those three races,' he said.
'From a standing start to where we are today, SMS is really working well,' Rae added. 'And that is without any fine tuning of the system.'
After five races, the best sailed boats are in the top ten of the Sports Boat division pointscore. Three boats have each won a race, with Graham Sherring's Quantum Sailing from Southport Yacht Club heading the leader board with 9 points from a 2nd, three wins and a 4th place.
Cam Rae won yesterday's windward leeward race five with his Thompson 8 Bendigo Private and after placings of 9-3-3-3-1 is on 19 points. Vivace (Leigh Noel-Smith) from Souhport Yacht Club and Kaito, a Melges 24 skippered Perth yachtsman Heath Townsend are both on 28 points while another Melges 24, Geoff Masters' Mako Sunglasses from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Sydney, is on 28.5 points.
The top ten boats after five races comprise an Egan 6, a Thompson 8, a Bethwaite 8, three Melges 24s, a Thomson 7, a sports 8 xx and an Elliot 7.
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Rae was speaking about SMS before race five, which he won on corrected time, with the close results underlining his comments. Bendigo Private won by just one minute with only four minutes between the first four boats. Second place went to the much-travelled Battley family from Perth in the Melges 24 Northside Simrad, third place going to another Perth crew in Heath Townsend's Kaito, also a Melges 4.
by Peter Campbell 
Stockton, NSW
