2011 Western Australian State Titles
Day One
The fleet headed out Saturday morning with a strong 20 plus knot Easterly.
With a good days breeze predicted 5 races were planned with a short break
for lunch.
Race One would have been a bookies nightmare
with the favourites filling the top spots. Chappell, Nisbett, Swan, Tidy,
Mann, Reger and Meehan. The notable exception was Nick Davis who found
the groove early but failed to negotiate his first jibe in near 30 knots
while leading the fleet. Both skipper and sheet believe it was all Duff’s
fault in the bow. Unfortunately they were also in the hunt during race
two before the kite halyard shredded.
Race Two
After one lap in race two not much seemed different, Nisbett and Chappell
had the lead from the main pack. With a change of top mark signalled as
we rounded the bottom mark the leaders seemed to ignore the warning and
headed off toward the Heathcoate Hill. Eagle Eye Andrew Gill on Impact
was onto the new position early and she was able to take advantage of
the leaders overlaying the top mark take the lead and score a win with
Nisbett second and Chappell third.
Race Three
Simply Nisbett One Chappell Two with Trevor Date (Blind Date) having a
blinder to crack a third place.
After a quick lunch it was hard to get back onto the water
with plenty of tired bodies.
Race Four
Who Let The Dogs out and Impact stole the show from start to finish with
Renners and his lads proving to good down hill for the lads on Impact
with Nisbett forth. Reger was sniffing around as always while PC was back
in 7th.
Race Five
Some big shifts played havoc with the fleet seeing some big winners and
massive looses on each leg. Many swam after savage backwinds both up and
down hill.
Vita Brevis (Dave Meehan) and Blatantly Obvious kept it together finishing
first and second with Chappell and Nisbett close behind.
Day Two
Race Six
With the Championship in the balance PC put on a clinic for all to watch.
A quick review of the Bible had The Lizard tuned to perfection and she
was in a class of her own today. With blistering boat speed and tactical
brilliance in the extremely shifty conditions PC and the boys were unstoppable.
A big nasty port and starboard incident that left SS with
a shredded mainsail hurt Kym Nisbett’s chances early on the first
leg, was compounded by a big switch in breeze half way up the first work
and he did well to battle back into Fifth.
Tim Reger was finding his straps after struggling to come
to grips with The Legends intrinsic characteristics on day one. It helps
when Al was not jumping over board so often. A second brought him into
podium contention. Heading into race seven it would be a race between
The Lizard and Bullet for the silverwear. With the breeze starting to
fade and the shifts getting bigger anything could happen.
Race Seven
Almost on script PC nailed the start and the first shift and was away
to a blistering lead. Bullet was in second however the damage had been
done. The breeze softened as the race neared its finish and many tales
of woe where to be told at the Bar.
A great result with 27 starters and many now wishing they
had made the effort.
Next season the bold target is 40 boats.
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