By Ian Grant. At Mooloolaba. Saturday June 12 2010.
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club skipper Mark Thornburrow and his Racer X crew have emerged as the possible winner of the 2010 Australasian Etchells championship after two searching tactical races today..
Thornburrow is no stranger to racing on the tactically demanding Mooloolaba Yacht Club courses having won the 2009 Open Queensland championship in similar conditions.
Consistency built from a careful selection of strategy and backed with tidy sail handling from his equally talented crew has allowed Racer X to hold a six point lead after 4 races.
Their 1-2-4-10 reflects that Racer X will become a marked boat when the sails are tensioned for the important final two championship deciding races off Pt Cartwright tomorrow
A six point buffer is important but the conservative Mark Thornburrow realises a serious challenge has emerged from Sydney skipper Mark Johnson who with the help of former champion Laser dinghy skippers Peter Conde and Nik Burfoot climbed back into contention with a 6-3 compared with 4-10 by Thornburrow.
Both skippers fought out of some tough tactical situations on the course where the lazy and unpredictable westerly land breeze hung some other smart tacticians out to dry.
Local skipper David Turton capably assisted by David Biggar and Trent Rowell selected all the smart options when they led at all marks to score a runway win in race 3 but they lost their way finishing a disappointing 35th in race 4.
As expected the nature of the unstable wind which almost faded away to a drifter continued to play a role in sorting the best from the rest with former champion Julian Plante steering North Star to a runaway win to take the important points in race 4 this afternoon over New South Wales team mate Mark Richards and the consistent Mark Johnson.
These results suggest that progressive leader Mark Thornburrow will need to have his wits about him or have his sailing space cramped for room when the battle lines are drawn for the final two races tomorrow.
Progress Placing’s top ten count all 4 races:
Racer X (Mark Thornburrow ) Hong Kong 1-2-4-10 17 pts 1`, Roulette (Mark Johnson), NSW 6-8-6-3 23pts 2, Valsheda (Alistair Gair) NZL 2-1-9-13 25 pts 3, Fifteen (David Clark) NSW 3-3-2-28 36pts 4, North Star (Julian Plante) NSW 11-19-13-1 44pts 5, Magpie (Graeme Taylor), Vic 18-6-8-12 44pts 6, Absolute Pearler (Peter McNeil) NSW 24-10-7-7 48pts 7, The Moe Szyslak Experience (Brendan Garner), Vic 23-5-3-22 53pts 8, Tango (Chris Hampton) Vic 13-12-22-11 58 pts 9, The Boat (Jake Gunther) Vic 7-20-28-5 60 pts 10.