Two races were run on the last day of the 2018 Land Rover Etchells Victorian State Championship, but it would only take Tom King and his crew David Ewards, Owen McManhon and Ivan Wheen just one of those to lock away the championship.
The first race was set to a range of 1.5nm on an axis of 175°. After one general recall, the fleet was presented with the U flag for the next start, and subsequently behaved that time around.
The fleet was less than half way up the leg before Ross Wilson abandoned the race, after there was a wind shift of 35 degrees from 175 to 220, and called them back to the start.
The course was reset to 205, there was another general recall, which resulted in a clean start, and racing finally got underway just before 1200hrs in 16 knots of breeze. Iron Lotus won this race. In second place was, Pedro, skippered by Mark Woodland and crewed by Mal Ware and Cam Ewart. Third place went to Fast Forward, skippered by Bruce McBriar and crewed by Tony Bond and Jeff Casley.
The second race of the day, and once again there was a general recall, followed by a U flag, with three boats trudging back to the Royal Brighton YC clubhouse for an early pack up. The breeze ranged from 8 to 16 knots. This race was taken out by Wobbegong 2, skippered by Doug Flynn and crewed by Steve McConaghy and Ben Lamb.
The living legend that is the incredible Phil Smidmore from Pacesetter Boats commented on this series just completed, and the entire season, “Five out of five is pretty good! These Victorian Championships saw the trifecta for new mould, Australian built Etchells. Iron Lotus’ win means that all five State Championships this season have been won by Australian built Pacesetter Etchells.
Just the previous day, Michael Manford sewed up a win in the West Australian States.”
“In February, Iain Murray sailing an older Pacesetter boat which had an extensive re-vamp including a new deck, recorded a win in the NSW States. He now has a whole new boat on order from us. These three wins follow on from the early season success of new Pacesetter boats that won both the Queensland and SA State Championships. Well done to all of these crews. Wonderful stuff!!!”
by John Curnow
