Day 4 at Ocean Dynamics and Mount Gay Airlie Beach Race Week 2024 was the antithesis to the earlier part of the week-long regatta, as variable warm breezes under a sunny sky meant a return to the beautiful tropical Whitsundays, the light air lovers finally gaining an opportunity to excel and the all-rounders double dipping.
A change of guard in Rating Passage Division 1, as Gordon Ketelbey's TP52 Zen was finally able to overcome Ray Roberts' Botin 40, Team Hollywood, both boats from NSW. Wedged between the two was the Adam Janczyk skippered MC38, Mobile Power Trailers, the Queenslander's (whose company of the same name is green powering ABRW) first time on the podium this week.
"Very hard to get one over Mr Roberts. Very frustrating," Ketelbey said after recording a solid victory. "It's good to finally get a win. We sailed the right way today and got a bit lucky with the currents, I think we just sailed very well. It's meant to be light for the rest of the week, so that should work in our favour…"
On the light airs, the Sydney yachtsman said, "It was fairly light all day and that suits us. It was around about 8 knots. The wind swung a bit, swung to the left a fair way."
Multihull Racing Division O results were different today as well, Simon Delzoppo's foiling GC32, Film Racing, scoring an 11 minute win over Dale Mitchell's M32, M32 World. Mitchell's brother, Paul (Ullman Sails) settled for third place, but still leads the series.
As there was no racing for the Weta trimarans yesterday, three windward/leeward races were fired off in rapid succession today. It appears George Owen (Wetasashag) is cutting the rest no slack, winning two of the three races, making it five wins from six races.
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Only Todd McVey (Getting Weta) has been able to make a dent in Owen's scorecard, winning Race 3, but the normally consistent sailor has not made an impression in the other races, so is fifth overall in the dozen-strong fleet. It means Owen has a huge buffer to nearest rival, Terry Bailey (Manaia). Add water in the buoyancy tank is the only suggestion I could offer the rest to slow Owen down.
The Performance Racing division took to the windward/leeward course on Pioneer Bay for two races. Leo Rodrigues and Iyas Shaheen's RP36, Shockwave, Smooth Criminal, has sailed consistently well across the board this week. In today's first race of the day, she placed third and then picked up a win for a one point advantage over Gerard Tromp Everaarts' Gizmo and Mark Beale's Bobby's Girl in a close series.
"We've certainly been challenging each other and keeping an eye on each other, but still anyone's game," Rodriguez said of the ongoing stoush with Bobby's Girl. "We're friends and business partners and have a friendly rivalry."
Of Smooth Operator, he says, "It's a great little boat, it would be a really hard boat to replace. If it struggles in anything, it's in heavy wind upwind. Otherwise, the boat loves strong wind off the breeze and goes fast with an asymmetrical kite up – we were doing 18 knots the other day.
"Light airs are what it absolutely loves – as you can see from our results today. We just need to keep sailing as well as we can to have a good result at the end of the week," the WSC member ended.
Both he and Beale are support sponsors of ABRW, avid supporters of their club and event.
And while Julian Bethwaite (Don't Panic, NSW) continued his winning ways in the Trailable/Sports Boat Division 1, with yet another win, Division 2 was a different story. Opus, the Magnum 8.5 Trailer Sailer owned by Jack Middleton (NSW), came to the fore in Division 2 with her second win of the series, but still trails Judi Marshall and Steve Brierley's Expresso Martini (Tas) by six points.
Racing will resume from 10am tomorrow, weather permitting.
Ocean Dynamics and Mount Gay Airlie Beach Race Week 2024 is held from place from 8-15 August and enjoys continued support from Tourism and Events Queensland, including as a feature on the It's Live! Queensland events calendar. The event also enjoys support from Coral Sea Marina Resort and d'Albora Port of Airlie Marina.
