By Ian Grant At Mooloolaba. Sunday 13-10-2010.
New Zealand’s Etchells champion Alistair Gair expressed the combination of heavy weather sailing skill and a tenacious attitude to win the 2010 Australasian championship off Mooloolaba Beach earlier today
Gair expressed an element of confidence when he left The Wharf Marina.
“We don’t mind a bit of breeze”. He said.
Both he and his other 51 rivals certainly had plenty of wind to contend with in fact both final day races turned into a physically demanding slugfest with the gusty 20-25 knot southerly and white crested three metre ocean swell producing the conditions which ultimately sorted the best from the rest.
There were a high number of spectacular broaches and spinnaker wraps while 20 crews who had their technique tested by the ‘brute’ breeze in race five failed to complete the course in the final heat 6.
Gair believed he had a chance to win the series and backed his personal confidence along with the crew skills of Stuart McKinven, David Ridley and Derek Scott to keep their hopes alive by winning heat 5.
This result then set up a gruelling tactical match race against the champion New South Wales skipper David Clark who held a narrow 2 point (2place) lead when the sails were tensioned for the final and championship deciding race.
As expected skipper Gair and his Valsheda crew started in clear space which enabled them to dictate the pace and tactics but they needed to shake the persistent David Clark from gaining the required second place he needed to win the trophy.
Both Alastair Gair and David Clark became engaged in an Americas Cup style match race with Gair tactically slowing his rival forcing him to tack into clearer sailing space.
With 100 metres of the race to sail David Clark looked set to win the championship by a solitary point but that changed dramatically when they dropped to finish third allowing the New Zealand crew to win on count back with their impressive 2-1-9-1-1 score while David Clark (Fifteen) 3-3-2-3-3 and Mark Johnson (Roulette)6-6-3-6-6 filled the minor places.
Final Results: Top Ten six race series (1 Drop).
Valsheda (Alistair Gair, NZL) 2-1-9-1-1 14 pts 1, (On count back) from Fifteen (David Clark, NSW) 3-3-2-3-3 14 pts 2, Roulette (Mark Johnson, NSW) 6-6-3-6-6 27 pts 3, Racer X (Mark Thornborrow, Hong Kong) 1-2-4-10-11 28pts 4, Magpie (Graeme Taylor, Vic) 6-8-12-7-2 35 pts 5, The Stig (John Bertrand, Vic) 7-17-6-2-5 37pts 6, North Star (Julian Plante, NSW) 11-13-1-5-9 39 pts 7, The Boat (Jake Gunther, Vic) 7-20-5-4-8 44pts 8, Absolute Pearler (Peter McNeill, NSW) 10-7-7-22-10 56pts 9, Bananas in Pyjamas ( Ian Johnson, Vic) 14-17-8-12-7 58pts 10.