Upset in the medal race of the 49er class
The first ISAF Sailing World Cup event Sail Melbourne has finally come to a close for 2010. International and statewide competitors dealt with some of the most challenging conditions possible, and the Queensland Sailing Team (QST) was successful in a number of classes.
Sail Melbourne has always been an event that attracts hundreds of competitors from various states and nations. The regatta host, the Sandringham Yacht Club once again did an excellent job in dealing with the large fleets and extremely close racing.
The Final day of the regatta with its medal races in the Olympic classes, saw some close finishes and upsets across the multitude of racing. In the Int. 420 class, Queensland women’s team Elloise Brake and Jamie Ryan took out the regatta with a lead of seven points over rival women’s Western Australian team, Carrie Smith and Ella Clark. Brake commented on their performance in the regatta, “It was good to win such a tough regatta and it was good to experience so many different conditions as to see what our strength’s and weaknesses were against our competition”.
Men’s high performance 29er team Josh Franklin and Lewis Brake, battled back from 4th position to finish the regatta in 1st by a slim margin over Sydney sailors Byron White and Ashlen Rooklyn. It came down to the last race between the two teams, however Franklin and Brake had dominant boat speed to see them win the race with a large lead. Crew Brake had this to add “The last day we had strong wind and big waves, it was a drag race and we knew we had to lead at the top mark, we did that and kept the rig out of the water which secured us the win”.
This was a great win for the young team who took two hard seconds in both Sail Brisbane and Sail Sydney. “For the series overall Josh and I just wanted to stay consistent and place in the top 5, we planned to make minimal mistakes and play a low risk game, it worked for us and winning Sail Melbourne was a huge confidence booster…”. The win was great leading into their National and Youth National championships later this month and into early January.
Moving to the young guns in the International Optimist class, upsets in the final two days saw Klaus Lorenz from Queensland move up to finish in 5th. With a larger fleet of 37 competitors, this top five finish was attributed to some hard training and dedication. Living so far from the main Queensland Sailing Team headquarters, Klaus and his youngest sister train together from their home in North Queensland.
Queensland was again successful in the different Laser classes. Madison Kennedy from the Sunshine Coast, lead the entire regatta in the 4.7 class and took the overall win, with a points margin of 12 over closest competitor Melissa Hitchen-Haw. In the Laser radial men’s class, Mitchell Kennedy was the most successful Queenslander finishing in a close 2nd to Tristan Brown from Western Australia. Finishing within the top 10 from the QST was Benjamin Franklin in 6th and Daniel Smith in 8th. In the Olympic classes, upsets in the medal races saw some of the top Australian teams slip from the lead.
In the 470 class, Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page currant World Champions finished in 1st after a tough medal race, just three points infront of the American team, and one point off the americans was Australians Sam Kivell and Will Ryan. In the highly competitive Finn class Queenslander and top finished Australian Brendan Casey raced well through the last few days to finish strongly just out of the top 10 in 11th overall.
One of the biggest upsets of the regatta was the final medal race in the 49er class. Racing just in front of the main clubhouse, spectators watched on as the lead slipped away from New Zealand team Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, and saw the Australian team of Nathan Outteridge and Ian Jensen struggle in the light shifty conditions to move down into 4th overall.
With some of the toughest racing coming in the last day, Sail Melbourne 2010 proved to be one of the hardest fought regattas in the SailDownUnder series this year. 420 Winner Elloise Brake had this to say about the series “The Whole SailDownUnder series was a good experience and definitely wasn’t easy this year, we learnt a lot from sailing in different areas and being exposed to the Australian Sailing Team guys and girls”.
The Queensland Team now goes into a mixed number of Australian Championships and the ultimatum, the OAMPS Australian Youth Championships 2010 -11. Queensland has dominated the 420, 29er, Laser 4.7 and Laser radial class and looks on course to secure positions in the Australian Youth Sailing Team again this year. With the achievements of the team in the SailDownUnder series, Queensland looks set to continue its successful summer of racing.
Words : Andrew Gough Photography: Jeff Crow (www.jeffcrowphoto.com.au)
