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18ft Skiff Australian Club Championship at Sydney – Race 12
7 February 2010By Frank Quealey 07 Feb 2010 08:45
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Race 12 of the Australian 18 Footers League’s Club Championship
Photo © Frank Quealey
Race 12 of the Australian 18 Footers League’s Club Championship
Photo © Frank Quealey
Race 12 of the Australian 18 Footers League’s Club Championship
Race 12 of the Australian 18 Footers League’s Club Championship took on a greater value than normal as it was the final hit out for teams before next week’s Giltinan Championship begins on Sydney Harbour.
The recently crowned Australian champion Gotta Love It 7 crew (Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton, Tom Clout) showed that they are going to be the team to beat in the Giltinan when they led for most of today’s race in a light South-East breeze to take victory by 49s.
Early leader Project Racing (Andy Budgen, James Barker, Matt Mc Govern) sailed consistently to finish in second place.
Rag & Famish Hotel (John Harris, Scott Babbage, Peter Harris) was a further 1m9s further back third.
Gotta Love It 7’s win gives her the championship lead on 45 points with two races still to be sailed.
For second placed Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon, Aaron Links, Trent Barnabas) it was a day they will want to forget and one that they won’t want to see repeated in the Giltinan Championship.
Thurlow Fisher Lawyers and Gotta Love It 7 were engaged in a great battle for the lead on the third leg of the course (the spinnaker run from Clarke Island to Chowder Bay) before a Manly Ferry “split” the pair and basically ended Thurlow’s race.
A torn spinnaker shortly afterwards saw the Thurlow Fisher Lawyers crew forced to sail the rest of the course under just the jib and main – limping home a distant 19th.
John Winning Jr.’s Appliancesonline.com.au finished fourth (and won the handicap section), ahead of John Winning’s Yandoo and Asko Appliances (Archie Massey).
As well as the regular club fleet, three of the international crews preparing for next week’s Giltinan Championship sailed the race by invitation.
New Zealand’s Chris Skinner was eighth over the line, Sweden’s Anders Lewander tenth and Howie Hamlin (USA) fifteenth.
18 footer Legend Returns
Five times Giltinan Championship winner Trevor Barnabas will make an unexpected attempt to add to his tally following a last minute call up to skipper Fisher & Paykel in the Giltinan 2010.
When one of his regular crewmen as unable to compete due to business commitments, the boat’s regular skipper Andrew Cuddihy arranged for a replacement to sail the regatta.
The chosen replacement then withdrew at the last minute leaving Cuddihy in an impossible position.
Trevor was in the Double Bay park rigging area supporting his son Trent, who sails with Michael Coxon and Aaron Links on Thurlow Fisher Lawyers, so Andrew took the unusual step of becoming a crewman himself and getting Barnabas to be the new skipper.
Barnabas first won the Giltinan Championship at Perth (WA) in 1987. During that regatta his winning Chesty Bond skiff carried a mast which stood 45ft above the waterline – believed to be the tallest mast ever carried on an 18 Footer.
He went on to further Giltinan Championship victories in 1988 (with the same Chesty Bond skiff), then after a brief retirement came back to record wins in 1997 (Omega Smeg-2UE) in Australia and again in 1997 (Smeg) in the northern hemisphere regatta. His final victory to date came in 1998 when he won with Omega Smeg-2UE in Sydney.
Although Trevor is “retired” from the 18s, he is a very familiar figure at the racing. Not only is he an enthusiastic supporter for Trent, he is regularly recruited by various skippers to steer their boat when outside commitments prevent them from sailing.
Trevor also competed in France and San Francisco during the past northern summer and showed that he can still match it with the best in major regattas.
The Giltinan 2010 gets under way next Friday when competitors have the traditional warm up Invitation Race.
Race 1 of the seven-race regatta will be sailed next Saturday, 13 February.
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