Long Course Pointscore – Race 4: 29/10/2022

Typhoon’s club championship victory last Saturday was designed in Israel and won in Manly.

With regular crewman and Olympic champion Malcolm Page tied up on coaching duties with Australia’s 470 World Championship team in the Israeli kibbutz of Sdot Yam, skipper Nathan Wilmot called accomplished duo Shaun Connor and Simon Hoffman onto the boat but kept Page abreast of plans.

Page may not have been on the water, but he played a crucial role in discussing plans and plotting victory via the team’s WhatsApp group.

Headed by team Typhoon owner Craig Nicholls, the group is jokingly tagged the “Typhoon Drinking Team” – but they are dead serious about winning races.

Typhoon took an early lead but found itself as far back as sixth in a day of snakes and ladders racing in the brisk westerly.

They got tangled up with some Middle Harbour boats at the bottom mark and then had to let a ferry pass, leaving them stranded while other boats went around them.

Wilmot eventually found the right gears to steam back through the pack and pull away on the final two laps.

Moonen Yachts (Daniel Turner) was almost two minutes behind in second with Red Pumps Red (Tyler Dransfield) third and Red Pumps (Bruce Savage) fourth.

Nursing a cold beer and sausage sanga after the heat, Wilmot said: “It was a challenging race, all over the place.

“In a westerly, if you try to do too much too early or try take a big risk it can go bad really quick.

“We just had to work out where the next gust was coming from and then went for it and the next thing we led at the next mark.

“You’ve just got to keep chipping away and the last two laps we were able to extend on the fleet.

“We knew it was going to be up and down and a bit of a lottery, so we just went out there to have some fun.”

Page was quickly notified of the win and immediately declared his availability for this Saturday’s racing.

“There’s plenty of chat on that WhatsApp group in the lead-up to a race…some of it’s just joking around but there’s a bit of talk about tactics and strategy,” Wilmot said.

“It’s always good to have Mal’s input even when he’s not here to sail.”

The win moves Typhoon into fifth on the overall club championship standings, a position not helped by a DNF (Did Not Finish) in heat one.

Musto (Hugh Stodart) claimed handicap honours from Fire Stopping (Alex Hart), Contemporary Pools (Daryl Milham) and Sutech Building Consultants (Michael Koerner).

Musto enjoys a 10-point lead on the overall handicap pointscore with Contemporary Pools, Fire Stopping and Shebang (Anthony King) all locked in second.