SHEBANG TAKES THE WIN

Victorious Shebang skipper Anthony King has the perfect response to those questioning the validity of his drought-breaking win in last Saturday’s 12th short course pointscore race of the season.

“There is no comments section on the result sheet,” he said with a laugh. “I will take any win, no matter how it comes about.”

How this one came about requires a bit of explaining.

Shebang was one of only six boats to face the starter’s gun, with the majority of the fleet either competing in the Australian 16ft Sprint Series at Belmont or taking the afternoon off. King, who hadn’t won a scratch race for nine years, seized the opportunity to claim an all-too rare victory, finishing seven seconds ahead of fast-finishing Botany Access (Chris Thomas) and third-placed Employment Hero (Will Divola).

Fluid Building (Madeleine Clancy) was next in from Contemporary Pools (Andrew Roxburgh).

Shebang took the lead on the last work, with King and crew Julian Lydement and Jamie King calling on all their experience to just hold off Thomas. With tongue firmly in cheek, King said: “The win was all down to some amazing crew work and everyone in front of us falling over. “Obviously the fleet wasn’t at full strength but you play with the cards you’re dealt. “No one goes into a race not wanting to win and we took our opportunity.” King spent the best part of his career winning aboard the Clint Bowen-skippered Fluid Building Services. Bowen, brother Steve and King won multiple club, state and national titles before going their separate ways.

“Our best placing against a full fleet since then was a second, so it’s good to back up there no matter the circumstances,” King said. Earlier in the afternoon, Botany Access took out the day’s first race from Shebang and Typhoon (Chad Beeby).

At 13 boats, the 13ft fleet dwarfed the 16s fleet for possibly the first time, with Ebix (Jemma Hopkins) Sail Media (Ben Milham) dominating proceedings. Milham took the honours in the day’s first race, easing past both Cheeky (Zach Wyatt) and Ebix to claim victory by 77 seconds. When they went at it a second time, Ebix and Sail Media pretty much made it a race in two. Hopkins just did enough to hold on for the win, with second-placed Milham in the rearview mirror all the way. Modern Concept Constructions (Tom Cameron) was third and Harken (Heidi Bates) fourth.

Meanwhile, Manly boats filled two of the top three places at Belmont but couldn’t prevent local entrant Insight Building Services (Rod Carter) from taking top prize in the Australian 16ft Sprint Series on Saturday.

After 60 boats were whittled down to 10 following an exhausting day of cut-throat racing, Insight came out on top in the three-race finals series, with Manly duo Imagine Signage (Nathan Wilmot) a point behind in second and Moonen Yachts (Daniel Turner) third. The following day, another local boat – SKE Electrical (Banjo Nicholson) – took out the Belmont Bay Championship by more than two minutes.

Imagine and ninth-placed Cunninghams (Ryan Wilmot) were the only Manly boats to place in the top 10.