Short Course Pointscore – Race 5 & 6: 8/10/22

With one eye on the big regattas, Typhoon auditioned another potential crew member as it made it back-to-back wins with victory in Manly’s fifth shortcourse race of the season last Saturday.

Skipper Nathan Wilmot and his trusted and experienced sidekick Malcolm Page inserted young 49er sailor Simon Hoffman into the bow and were rewarded with an all-the-way victory in a light 10-knot southerly.

Typhoon has a variety of sailors on call if required and Hoffman proved another handy addition to the roster.

“Simon’s a younger, fitter, smarter, better-looking version of Malcolm,” Wilmot said with a laugh.

“He’s the same size as Mal so if Mal can’t do any of the big regattas, Simon can be the back-up.

“He did a great job. There were no real dramas.”

Miserable conditions greeted the fleet at the scheduled start time, forcing the sailing committee to delay firing the gun until things turned a little more favourable.

That meant abandoning the day’s second race, allowing skippers to throw everything into the only race of the afternoon.

And Typhoon did just that, taking an early lead and holding off Sail Racing (Felix Grech) and Moonen Yachts (Daniel Turner) to claim victory by 23 seconds.

Wilmot also cliched the handicap result, with Fire Stopping (Alex Hart) and Capital Brewing Co (Jessica Iles) filling the minor placings.

“Felix and ‘Ruffy’ (Turner) were on our tail all day but it was the sort of race where once you were in front, you could lead those behind to where you wanted them to go and make life tough.

“It was a simple race track with a couple of tacks, couple gybes and became a little bit of follow the leader.”

Typhoon’s second win in as many weeks has it as the boat to beat when Manly’s club championship resumes with heat three on Saturday.

The crew line-up is yet to be finalised, but the Wilmot-Page combination is the glue.

“We get on the boat and things just happen. We hardly ever talk to each other,” Wilmot said.

“I do what I want to do and Mal seems to catch up or knows what’s going to happen anyway.

“When you’ve spent that much time sailing with each other over the years, it becomes second nature.

“That third person we bring in seems to fit in and knows how to deal with us.”