Airlie Beach Qld Sunday August 14 2011.
Kiss in a class of her own.
Former French Americas Cup sailor Pierre Gal was in a class of his own when he steered his impressively fast Sports Boat Kiss to another runway win in the warm Whitsunday Islands yesterday.
Pierre Gal has successfully raced in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race week before but yesterday’s win was his most impressive result so far.
He stuck to a race plan to keep Kiss sailing fast inside the bow on current during the multi tacking long windward slog to the White Rock rounding mark.
“Having sailed this course before and paying the penalty for spending time sailing against current taught us a good lesson” Gal said.
As expected these tactics proved to provide the hard working Kiss crew with the winning edge which was extended on the thrilling 12 nautical mile spinnaker run to the finish.
Kiss which was steered to take full advantage of the Northerly current and the building South East trade wind left her major championship rivals Stealthy and Blokes World struggling to make any impression on her dominating down wind speed
The Kiss crew were in a class on their own stretching the lead to record their fifth consecutive line honours win while also leading the championship on corrected handicap with the consistent 1-3-1-2-2 score.
Blokes World, Stealthy and the smaller Geelong sports boat Monkey Business skippered by Cam Rae remain in contention however they will need to sail on the pace with the Kiss crew who appear to have the boat speed to win the series.