By Ian Grant.
Sunshine Coast sailor Phil Gray topped up both his sun tan and trophy cabinet when he cleverly steered Dulon Polish to a 1 point win in the inaugural Audi Hamilton Island Race Week SB3 championship last week.
Gray has proved his talent in other classes including winning the Australian 505 dinghy championship and steering Nortruss G Wizz to two impressive line honours wins in the Brisbane to Gladstone blue water classic.
But last week’s win was one of his best surviving a 9 race duel to beat the Tasmanian World Dragon class champion Nick Rogers in Toll Shipping and the multiple National champion Sail Boarder Dennis Winstanley helming Jump.
Phil Gray and his Dulon Polish crew only won 2 of the nine races compared with 3 by Rogers (Toll Shipping) and 2 by Winstanley in Jump.
But his consistency in finishing all 9 races in the top five allowed him claim a close win over his equally skilled rivals.
The racing conducted over a neutral course between Henning and Whitsunday Islands tested the one-design sailing skills of the fleet with the starts and the buoy rounding evenly contested which resulted in calls for sea room and close finishes.
However the Dulon Polish crew who were forced to fight hard to protect their fleet placing and reputation to seal the championship win on the last leg of the final race.
Dulon Polish deserved to win the series based on the total elapsed times which over the nine races and almost five hours of close tactical racing finished with the faster average speed of 9 seconds per race.
Solo Globe sailor Jessica Watson also took a break from her busy schedule to crew as for’ard hand with Matthew Jones in Lumix By Panasonic while Lauren Calder and her all female crew of Sunshine Coast sailing mates achieved another good series result with their Audi Sailing Girls challenge.
They have become a force to be reckoned with beating the eventual championship winner Phil Gray in two races.
Every race is a physical and mental challenge because the boys often try to bend the rules but the word protest correctly shouted by the Audi Sailing Girls crew lets them know who actually has the right of way.
“It’s all good fun but they all know that we are in the race for points as well and have been known to shout to make our point quiet clear”. Lauren Calder said.
Their 2-2-3 in races two, four and five highlighted by matching the aggressive tactics to finish one second ahead of Nick Rogers and 9 seconds clear of Phil Gray clearly showed that the all female crew are not far away from consistently finishing in the top three in future championship events.