16ft & 13ft Skiff Australian Championships
The Skelcon. 16ft & 13ft Skiff Australian Championships has thrown up an unexpected challenge, with incessant on-course weed at Belmont providing just as much a hurdle as the red-hot competition.
St George's Bosker Build (Sarah Lee/Keagan York/Kurtis Warner) has best negotiated the unwelcome hazard across the opening five heats, posting two wins, a third, fourth and seventh to hold a two-point lead over Belmont boat Shade to Order (Tom Burton/Scott Beeby/Joel Skelton) on the overall tally sheet.
Then come four Manly boats – IMEI/Barnabas Building, Imagine Signage, Modern Concept Constructions and Buckingham Marine Services - ready to strike with four races to sail.
Eight of the top 10 boats are from either Manly or St George. With a drop to come into play after heat six, standings and the road ahead will become a lot clearer heading into the weekend.
The Bosker crew - chasing its second national title in three seasons – know what to do from here.
"We are happy where we are so far but we're only halfway through and need to continue the momentum," skipper Lee said ahead of Thursday's mid-regatta lay day.
"We just need to keep it simple and get off the line well and rely on our boat speed and pick a few shifts. "That’s the plan - just keep doing what we are doing."
As for the weed, Lee said: "It's a bit more than I'm used to at Belmont. "There’s so much of it. It’s such a killer. You’ve just got to pick your moments to stop and de-weed.
"I go back to the rudder and clear what I can by hand. Kurt pulls the board up completely and puts it down again. "But I’ve really enjoyed the conditions. There are lots of shifts to pick and lots of passing lanes."
Defending champion IMEI is buoyed by the knowledge it was in a lot worse position this time last year before charging home to claim the title, crowning Joel Beashel as the youngest skipper in history (at 16) to win the event.
Experienced crew member Trent Barnabas said: "We are reasonably happy but we've been having to fight back from mid-fleet as we haven’t been starting too well.
"The one race we started well we won, so we just need to get off the line better.
"There is a lot of weed around which we have never had to deal with before, but the conditions have been fantastic and are only supposed to get better as the week progresses.
"We've got to concentrate on our starts for the next four races to try and get some good results to give us the best chance of winning.
"There's still a long way to go and we were in a much worse position last year going into the lay day and that turned out well, so hopefully we can produce a replica."
In the 13s, defending champs Harken lead the series after skipper Heidi Bates and new crewmate Christian Spencer struck up an instant combination.
The pair has only been together a short time after Bates' regular 13s partner Orlando Sadlik vacated his position to chase a national title in the 29er class in Tasmania.
Harken heads Manly clubmate Buck & Simple (Lachlan Jansen/Max Barrett) by two points before a big gap to third-placed Skelcon from Belmont.
Another Manly boat – Buckingham Marine (Ash Napper/Theo Franklin) – is fourth, with St George's sole entrant Infinity Rigging (Tom Hughes/Noah Chenhall) handily placed in fifth.
Infinity Rigging became only the second St George boat to win a heat at an Australian 13s regatta after taking out Wednesday's fifth race.
All Results Here: https://ty.skiffs.org.au/assa/202526/
