Accru Apply Pressure On Day 2 Of The Australian Melges 24 National Championship
Day two and crews were notified that the race area had changed to Course D outside Corio Bay, an hour out through the shipping channel. The first race of the day was abandoned after the wind died completely an hour and a half into racing on the second lap, Bandit leading. The race that followed was a fight to the finish in light breeze between Sydney harbour training partners, Kevin Nixon’s Accru finishing one second in front of Warwick Rooklyn's Bandit, Heath Walters Arriba Arriba third.
Race four gave Kaito a good result after the disappointment of yesterday, they finished close behind Bandit and Accru took another win. Race five in the series was a great demonstration of how close Melges 24 One Design racing can be, two minutes separating first and last place. The Bandit crew took the gun they had been hunting all day, just ahead of Accru and Dave Bull in Jester 4 third place, finding form in his new boat.
At the completion of day two and after five races Warwick Rooklyn Bandit is leading the regatta two points ahead of Kevin Nixon Accru. The ‘Boat of the Day’ flag was deservedly won by the Nixon’s today, two wins and a second place. “We had good speed today, we have been training with Bandit which has been great, but we were struggling with rig set up, it felt right today, we also had a good day with the shifts. If we got in front of Bandit we just had to cover them, we were faster downwind but had to hang in there upwind” said Kevin Nixon.
Kevin’s crew is his family, wife Glenda, son Daniel and daughter Bonnie. Kevin commented exhausted on the dock after an eight hour day on the water in hot sun “we had good starts, but the racing was really tight”.
Two point separate first and second place heading into day three.
Tracey Walters
Media/Admin
Melges 24 Association of Australia
0404 820 804