By Ian Grant at Mooloolaba. Friday June 11 2010.
Tactical reputations will be placed on the line when the 51 Etchell crews contest the opening day of the 2010 Musto Australasian championship over the Mooloolaba Yacht Club course later today.
The first real sign of a cold snap and the twisting nature of the westerly land breeze which was spiced with 20 knot gusts and unpredictable direction changes between west to south south west and west south west yesterday promises to provide the fleet with a similar ‘mixed bag’ off Mooloolaba Beach this afternoon..
This typical winter forecast promises to provide a high element of risk to the tactician who elects to stray away from the tough grind of sailing the shifts.
No crew will have the luxury to rest on their laurels and not play with the breeze that blows over the deck in fact they will need to be super consistent and be prepared to continually revise their tactical strategy.
As expected the series has continued to grow in stature with Americas Cup sailors, Olympians, World champions and Rolex Sydney Hobart race winners poised to stage a nip-n-tuck dog-fight to decide this year’s champion.
There are a number of high profile crews including the 2000 champion Julian Plante dual World champion John Savage and Americas Cup winner John Bertrand who have the proven potential to win but they will have to again prove their skill to master the tricky weather system.
They all deserve to be listed among the championship favourites along with the other high profile sailors including the 2009 series Silver Medallist Mark Johnson and the talented New Zealand skipper Alistair Gair.
But this championship struggle will be no different with the result expected to hang in the balance until the final metres of the last heat on Sunday.