The podium on Day 6 at Sail Melbourne
Photograph:David Staley
|
David Staley, Sunday, 20 December 2009
Saturday December 19, 2009
The first leg of the 2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup at Sail Melbourne has been run and won with the crews greeted with great sailing conditions for the final day of racing.
After the unpredictable weather during the regatta, Melbourne turned it on for the final races with a south-easterly wind between 12 and 15 knots for the majority of the day.
Duncan and Peter Macgregor won the SKUD 18 class, with final race winners Daniel Fitzgibbon and Tim Lowe second overall, ahead of Ame Barnbrook and Lindsay Mason.
2008 Paralympic Silver medallist in Qingdao, Fitzgibbon missed the first two days of racing. Sailing consistently with his regular shore support crew Tim Lowe in the front of the boat, Fitzgibbon marched up the leader board with a series of race wins. But it was not enough to overtake fellow Queenslanders Duncan & Peter MacGregor who had 5 heat wins already in the bag.
The MacGregors were sailing the first MkII SKUD 18 to arrive in Australia with the new hull modifications and a composite mast. The pair were still shaking out initial setup problems (the boat had not been on the water before the first race) but were quick all week.
Ame Barnbrook and Lindsay Mason also missed the first day of racing but quickly improved their position. Barnbrook, who steers the boat using a servo electric helm, has been focused on her university studies and had not been in a SKUD since the IFDS Worlds in Singapore in March 2008.
The pair beat the local team of Krista Bailey & Michael Lewenhagen for third place on a tie-break. It wasn’t till the last day that Bailey & Lewenhagen were dispossessed of the second placing overall and relegated to fourth. This was the pair’s first regatta in the SKUD 18. Bailey has been competing in the Access 2.3 and was Silver Fleet winner at the Access Liberty Worlds in Auckland back in January 2009.
For the New Zealand team of Tim Dempsy & Paulien Eitjes, Sail Melbourne was their first opportunity to take on competition in the SKUD 18. They had only sailed together a few times in Auckland before making the trip to Melbourne and learned a lot during the regatta. Dempsey will be back in Melbourne for the 2010 Australian Access Class Championships in January, sailing his SKUD with a temporary crew.
| 
