2013/14 Australian Championships - Gosford - NSW

2013/14 VS Australian Championships Heats 5 & 6 Race Report 
Guess what. Groundhog day is over. Ragamuffin finished the day without breaking a mast!  Actually the wind
was pretty mild so the fleet sailed both races without any dramas, or swims. But as always the racing was close…
Heat 5
 So far the series has had a variety of breezes & today was no different.  A light easterly was blowing, but
always enough to get at least one on the wire; two in the puffs. Brian & David had replaced their masts so eight boats all got away to an even start. There was plenty of position changes up the first work until Firestorm popped out to round first with TBS & SFC close behind. These three continued a close battle for the next lap until Tim, Kane & Hugh ‘parked’ under Point Frederick on the second run to lose touch with the leaders. 
Firestorm covered TBS for the next lap until on the run to the finish Firestorm went north & TBS went south.  But the breeze favoured neither & Firestorm held on for the win. TBS were a close 2nd with SFC 3rd. 
Just a little further back another close battle that had been fought all race was coming to a conclusion. Locals
  Ragamuffin & Zephyr were in a close fight with Under Pressure 2.  Down the final run Chook, Hayden &
Tarrick found good pressure to get across the line for a nice 4th, 20 seconds ahead of UP2 in 5th. Ragamuffin faded with a broken boom vang to get 6th.  Stowe were off their pace of recent days but still got 7th, with Wobbygong just a little further back. On handicap Brian, Tim & Daniel were well rewarded for the effort of rigging another mast with an easy victory, from Wobbygong & Zephyr 3rd.

 Heat 6 
As I said in the introduction, today was not Groundhog Day. Things were about the change!! 
Once again all boats were lined up for an even start when SFC tried a late tack onto port.  Unfortunately
this didn’t work as the rest of the fleet was on starboard. SFC & Firestorm became locked together as pleasantries were exchanged. Once untangled both set off after the leaders but Col, Adam & Troy were gone.  In ‘their’ breeze & with no distractions up front TBS sailed a superb race, picking the right shifts  upwind& good gusts downhill. They were unchallenged all race & had an easy victory from archrival Firestorm.  Well done
boys! Just a little further back a great battle was unravelling. SFC, Ragamuffin & Zephyr were together around the bottom marks with only the short work to the finish remaining.  Ragamuffin went north; SFC & Zephyr south.  In the end SFC got 3rd by three seconds from Ragamuffin, who in turn beat Zephyr by 9 seconds.  Having a great day Peter, Peter & Alex sailed Wobbygong home to a respectable 6th, easily beating rivals Stowe & UP2. But this was only good enough to get Wobbygong 2nd on handicap.  Finishing with a mast intact was enough to get David, Liam & Jonty the victory on Ragamuffin. TBS took out the minor placing.