Marblehead sailors from across the country descended on Adelaide for the 2018 SA Marblehead Class State Championship which was sailed over the weekend of 22/23 September. The fleet of twenty five boats was the largest seen for many years and saw nine sailors come from Tasmania, Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria to join the local South Aussie fleet.
There was a short delay while the light WSW breeze settled in at Harts Mill before day one’s racing kicked into gear with WA’s Ross Bennett, sailing his newly acquired Indie, winning one of the two seeding races with Lincoln McDowall winning the other with his F4, but after the first couple of races it appeared that the Grunge’s were going to dominate with Tasmanian Ray Joyce scoring two thirds and Victorian Andy Reid a second & first to top the leaderboard.
Rosco – intent on winning his first race with his new Indie
While the breeze remained light the competition remained strong and after four races we had four different winners, but it was the consistency of Brett Osborn sailing his new Indie showing he was keen to claim the title with two seconds and a bullet after the four.
As the breeze increased slightly in the afternoon, in came Scott Condie with his Grunge adding a couple of wins in races five & seven to finish the day with a 4 point lead ahead of Osborn with Joyce a further 3 points behind.
Light conditions at Hart’s Mill
Day two saw a change in venue due to the ‘Blessing of the Fleet’ being held at Hart’s Mill and the fleet ventured around the corner to the Birkenhead Pub and maybe they should have ventured inside for a few cleansing ales as the breeze failed to play ball until after lunch which left a short period of time for the final stanza!
Once the breeze was in the conditions were awesome with the course set parallel to the shore and with two races sailed on A rigs the final race saw the fleet change down to B’s.
With only three races sailed the overall results didn’t change much and it was Condie finishing the championship with 10, 1, 1 and claiming the overall title by 10 points ahead of Brett Osborn & Ray Joyce who both finished on 27pts.