By Ian Grant at Hamilton Island Friday August 27 2010.
Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki won the prestigious Audi Hamilton Island Race Week IRC championship with a race to spare yesterday.
The Gordon Maguire and Stephen Ainsworth combination started the week long series as pre-regatta favourite and justified their ranking by progressively outsailing the Sydney Hobart standard fleet in a mixed range of winds from light to fresh and frightening.
This performance has been a fitting reward for Stephen Ainsworth who lost his previous yacht of the same name during a violent storm when representing Australia in the Rolex Middle Sea race in 2007.
His new Loki has now proved to be the most consistent on the Australian offshore racing circuit winning the short course Sydney Harbour regatta followed by a convincing win in 384 n /ml Audi Sydney to Gold Coast race capped win a popular win in Australia’s premier race week series yesterday.
They firmed a vice like grip on the trophy after scoring their fifth win from seven races yesterday morning then placed the overall result beyond doubt with a third behind the New Zealand sloop Georgia and Brisbane’s Black Jack in the second windward leeward race of the day
Naturally Stephen Ainsworth was impressed with the performance of his principal helmsman Gordon Maguire and a talented crew.
“The dedication and team work expressed by the entire crew is what got Loki over the line”.
“They are a great bunch of mates and deserve the results which they work so hard for”. Stephen Ainsworth said.
All the popular skipper has to do now is to prepare his victory speech while Michael Hiatt’s Living Doll, James Farmer’s Georgia and the Iain Murray skippered Wild Oats X set their tactical strategy in place to decide the minor places during the 23n/ml Lindeman Island race today
There is every chance the final will turn into a tactical nip-n-tuck dog-fight with Living Doll holding the upper hand by one point clear of Georgia while Wild Oats X is another 4 points off the pace.