Long Course Pointscore – Race 2: 24/09/2022
Veteran Manly 16ft Skiff Club skipper Anthony King got the business done in the boardroom before getting it done on the water a few hours later in a breakthrough handicap win in last Saturday’s season pointscore race.
King, is his role as treasurer, helped oversee the club’s well-attended AGM in the morning before packing away the laptop, ignoring the free post-meeting beers, and heading to the rigging park to saddle up Shebang.
Alongside brother Jamie and the experienced Julian Lydement, the former national champion then helped steer his boat into fifth spot on scratch and first on handicap.
It was Shebang’s first victory in almost a year, not only ending a long drought but also a shaky start to the new season in which not much had gone right.
It also meant bragging rights over old rivals and former crewmates onboard Fluid Building (Clint Bowen).
“I think everyone was just happy to get out there after a couple of hours at the AGM, and having a few old rivalries and nemesis in the fleet kept us focused, as I’m sure it did for them.
“It’s definitely extra motivation sailing against those older guys. I’m not sailing against the young pups – they’re too fast for me – but against the other old blokes, well, it’s on.
“Red Pumps did us in the end (on scratch) but we had three laps where we were crossing paths the whole way up.
“We’ve won a couple of beer bets already. That’s never a bad thing.”
King opted for the big rig and it proved an inspired decision as at least half the fleet struggled in the flukey conditions.
Moonen Yachts (Daniel Turner) continued its incredible start to the season with yet another win on scratch, holding off the much-improved Red Pumps Red (Tyler Dransfield), Cunninghams (Nick Connor) and Red Pumps (Bruce Savage).
A fifth place – just 48 seconds behind Red Pumps – was enough to ensure Shebang the win on handicap.
The skipper felt relief as much as joy after the result was confirmed.
“We didn’t have the greatest first few races and spent a lot of time on the centreboard last week.” King said.
“It wasn’t good enough and it was time to get our act together.”
Now King and his crew are daring to dream big, eyeing the masters division at the Australian 16ft Championships in January.
The skipper said: “We are really looking to our first nationals at Manly for a long time in what is a big (100th) year for the club.
“We won’t get around for every race, so I think we might have to swap in some bodies through the series, but we’re pretty excited about competing in the veterans.”
