| Australia. Whitsunday Sailing Club hosts another outstanding regatta |
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| Monday, 17 April 2006 | |
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Ian Grant The Suncorp North Queensland Games Regatta proved to be another outstanding promotion for the Whitsunday Sailing Club and their dedicated team of volunteers and officials. North Queensland Clubs from Cairns to the cyclone Larry ravaged Mission Beach, Keppel Bay, Gladstone and Brisbane was represented in the three days of exciting championship racing on Pioneer Bay. As expected the management and the excellent dinghy racing venue combined with the usual friendly Whitsunday Sailing Club hospitality contributed to the success of the regatta. Not every crew left the regatta with a title trophy, but they left with the valued experience of having a fun time while they raced against some of the best one design dinghy racing crews in North Queensland. Airlie Beach skipper Aaron Linton and the equally skilled Bowen sailor Jamie Jochheim were the star performers in the Olympic 49er class dingy Oschin. Linton and Jochheim who began their careers in the snub-nose Sabot Class won six from seven races to become a runaway winner of the Division 1 Suncorp trophy. They were poised to win the series with a perfect score result but the young Cairns crew of Adam Beattie and Lucas Cale halted their claim by winning the fourth heat when they applied perfect wind protecting tactics to dominate. Adam Beattie a former Australian Sabot champion overcame limited experience of sailing the flighty 49er skiff to place his class rivals on notice that he will be a front runner for future major championship medals when he and sail handler Cale gain more racing experience. Linton and Jochheim were the star performers of the regatta winning seven line honours and six races on yard stick handicap while Eddie Leeson and William Scott crewed Nothing Too Serious into the Silver Medal podium finish with a consistent 2-2-2-2-2-2-2 point score. Ross and Dan McMullen crewing the International 505 class dinghy Reflex enjoyed another successful championship series by winning the Bronze Medal. The battle for the Queensland Tasar dinghy title proved to be a close and sometimes intense tactical struggle between the equally paced dinghies Rock Steady and Itchy Scratchy. Warwick and Mitchell Heath were forced to resort to aggressive wind shadowing tactics to claim the championship by a narrow 1 point (1 place) margin from Caitlin Walz and David Mann (Itchy Scratchy) and Joel McDonald and James Kelder in Tasman Sails. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 17 April 2006 ) |
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