Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Etchells skipper Mark Thornburrow changed the history of Queensland fleet racing when he won the Wharf Tavern State championship off Pt Cartwright last weekend. Mark Thornburrow and crew mates Greg Farrell, Andy Service and Martin Mok became the first International crew to win the series and proved they are no strangers to Etchells racing over the Mooloolaba Yacht Club courses having previously flown their club’s burgee in the Musto Australian Winter championships on several occasions.
This valuable local knowledge more than compensated the costs of travelling to refine their sailing skills when the Hong Kong crew survived a title tactical challenge over all six races to claim a two point win over veteran Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron skipper Noel Paterson and former State champion and World title Silver medallist Mark Bradford.
Consistency was the key factor with Thornburrow displaying the tactical class in close one design racing to complete the best five of six races to count with a 1-3-1-3-3 while Noel Paterson completed his best result in several seasons with his 3-2-2-2-4.
Mark Bradford and master one-design racing tactician Adrian Finglas placed their points in damage control with an embarrassing mid series slump finishing with a 11-7 in heats three and four.
They were the only crew to win three heats to clearly show they had the all angle sailing speed but that fell apart when they were forced to add a 5-7 and 12 points to their three ‘Bullets’ to claim third overall.
Bradford who has been known to back his Etchells class racing experience against the best in the class trailed Thornburrow by two points after the first two races and held what appeared to be a comfortable two point buffer over the veteran Paterson but their ‘back in the pack’ eleventh in the fleet of fourteen in heat 3 ended any chance of scoring a result in the top two when Thornburrow and Paterson retained their consistent form.
Paterson was in control of protecting his access to clean wind and sailing space to finish all six tactically testing races in the top five which ultimately allowed him to record his best State championship result in recent years when he steered Waterloo Bay to a 3-5-2-2-2-4.
He only needed a marginal edge in speed to convert two of his three second place results into wins to claim an outright win on count back over the Hong Kong crew but skipper Mark Thornburrow answered all of the expected challenges to claim a deserved series win.
The popular Brisbane fleet veteran understands that there is no margin for error and he will be hoping to find that marginal speed advantage in Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron racing on Waterloo Bay with the option open to contest the 2010 Australian championship over the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club courses in early January.