2013/14 Australian Championships - Gosford - NSW

2013/14
VS Australian Championships Heats 7 & 8 Race Report 
I’m guessing as a sailing enthusiast you might have seen the recent America’s Cup. We’ll the 69th Vee Ess Australian Championships could well finish the same way. Firestorm looked unbeatable at the ½ waypoint, now Troy Botting Shipwright is making a US style comeback. It will be close.  And the handicap title will again go down to the wire – I’m not game to put money on anyone. So what happened today…

 Today’s racing
To be truthful today was all a bit of a blur to me.  When it is light there is little time to look around the fleet because I’m trying hard not to let them past or sail off into the distance!  I can tell you Firestorm, SFC, Wobbygong, Ragamuffin, Under Pressure 2, Stowe, Zephyr & TBS all had the lead at some time today.  There was some good starts, good lifts, big shifts & good gusts.  Something for everyone… 
But the boat that had the lead most and when it mattered was TBS. Col, Adam & Troy again showed this breeze strength was to their liking by simply sailing through the fleet from last at one stage to have easy
victories in both heats. They are picking shifts well & running better than all, including noted downwind
flyers SFC & Zephyr. TBS picked up two scratch wins today to keep the championship alive. Firestorm managed two 2nds & SFC a couple of 3rds.It was close up front at times, even more so in the middle of the fleet.  In race 7 Stowe bumped Zephyr by 2 seconds.  In race 8 Zephyr beat Ragamuffin by 15 seconds, who in turn beat Stowe by 3 seconds. On handicap there was similarly close results. For example in race 7 Wobbygong beat TBS by 2 seconds for 4th. In race 8 Zephyr beat Firestorm by 5 seconds for 5th.  All these places are sure to be important in the overall scoring. I could recount all of the current rankings now but it is easier for you to check the results page. Otherwise why does Tim go to the effort to post them for you?   
The  racing is sure to be exciting tomorrow & with another light to moderate breeze forecast it will be close & we well might be seeing new champions  crowned. Why not come down to Gosford& have a look.  Don’t forget racing starts at 1320hrs