Reversal of Fortune

If first you don’t succeed…write it off as a shocker and go again.

Sail Racing took the view that there was no point stewing over last Saturday’s first short course race after beating just one boat home in the flukey conditions. That result was immediately consigned to the garbage bin of history as skipper Felix Grech told crewmates Tom Potter and Paul Darmanin to forget it and concentrate on the day’s second race. They did as recommended and almost completely reversed their fortunes, going from second last in one race to second in the next.

“We did shockingly bad in the first one and hoped we’d got all the mistakes out of the way in the first one and then get back to some good sailing in the second one,” Grech said.

“We just had to write off that first race and get back into it.”

Sail Racing were first around the top mark in their redemption race before running out of wind and slugging it out with Moonen Yachts (Daniel Turner) and Imagine Sailing (Zoe Dransfield).

They dropped to third around the bottom mark before clawing their way back to second and going hard at leader Imagine. Dransfield did just enough in the last tack to the finish line to hold off the fast-finishing Grech, with Red Pumps Red (Bruce Savage) third and Fire Stopping (Alex Hart) fourth. Earlier, Moonen finished more than four minutes in front of second-placed Sutech Building Consultants (Michael Koerner) in the day’s first race.

Grech piloted Sail Racing to third overall in the recent state championships and is eyeing next month’s Australian 16ft Skiff Championships at St George with a degree of confidence. “We have been pretty low-key so far this season…just having heaps of fun and working on a few things,” the skipper said. “We were happy with the way things went at the states and feel like we’ve been sailing the boat pretty well.

“It would be good to place at St George but obviously the competition will be very tough. “We’ll give it a good crack and see how we go.”

The sixth heat of Manly’s club championship will be sailed this Saturday before attention turns to the nationals from January 5-13.