States Preview – All to play for

With only one heat of the States possible at Port Hunter a fortnight ago – leaving race officials with the unenviable task of quickly re-scheduling the program to ensure a result – it will all come down to four races across two days at Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club.

The last man – or woman – standing on Sunday afternoon will have truly earned it.

Bosker Build (Sarah Lee) will take a slight advantage into the weekend after winning the one and only heat at Newcastle,while Manly’s Imagine Signage (Nathan Wilmot) comes in hot after a come-from-behind win in last Saturday’s club long pointscore race. Wilmot, chasing his third state title in six years, described it as the perfect tune-up.

“We’re going to have four races on our home track so it was nice to get out there and be challenged by a quality fleet,” he said. “There’s going to be no real point in holding yourself back and trying to preserve yourself through four races on the weekend. “It’s just a matter of going flat out and trying to win every race and seeing where you finish up. “The States’ program has moved around a bit over the years and you just learn to adapt with whatever they come up with. “I don’t think anyone will be thinking more than one race ahead at a time.”

Lee and her Bosker crewmates Pete Mackie and Kurt Warner certainly won’t be thinking that way as they head across the bridge on Saturday morning. “It’s nice to start the weekend knowing we have one win on the board but there’s still a lot of competition ahead of us,” Lee acknowledged. “The biggest challenge in having four races in two days is possible gear breakages and also the mental challenge of multiple races in a short period of time. “We have a ‘no blame’ mentality aboard Bosker Build. If someone makes a mistake we move on quickly. “If we have a bad start we usually just say ‘it’s a long race’ and we’ve proven we can make our way to the front from a bad start.”

Imagine Signage did not have it all their own way in the final hit-out before States, getting off to a slow start in Manly’s fifth long pointscore race of the season. They looked up to see a large portion of the fleet ahead of them. Red Pumps (Tyler Dransfield) appeared to have the race in their keeping until eventually reeled in by a patient and persistent Imagine.

Wilmot said: “Our first lap was a bit average but once we got going on the first big beat up from Balmoral, the boat was going nicely and we managed to get through the fleet. “We just kept chipping away and thought that if we were in with a chance at the last bottom mark, hopefully we can pass them (Red Pumps). “We managed to do it a little bit earlier than that and just extended a little but on the last beat.”

IMEI (Joel Beashel) made a late dash to claim second ahead of Red Pumps, with Modern Concept Construction (Kurt Hansen) fourth.

In the 13s, Harken (Heidi Bates/Orlando Sadlik) continued their absolute dominance with another all-the-way win. They finished almost six minutes ahead of Botany Scaffold (Sophie Hart) with QED (David Tulk/Gareth Burns) and Sail Media (Ben Milham/Liam Karunaratne) the next two boats home.

State Championship racing gets underway from 1.30pm on both Saturday and Sunday.