Great racing on Lake Macquarie earns Chris Links a win at the NSW Melges 24 State Championships
November 25, 2015 - Belmont, Australia - Lake Macquarie offered an absolutely sweltering introduction to the series on Friday with 40 degree heat and a hot gusty North Westerly breeze. After the crews and family arrived, rigged their boats and completed weigh in, there was no time wasted getting on the water to cool off and get two quality races on the way.
The race committee set up a start line adjacent to Marks Point and got race 1 away on time to see ‘Cavallino’ skippered by Links set the pace and take the win followed by ‘Redmist’, the Adelaide boat skippered by Robbie Deussen who made the trip up to Lake Macquarie to represent the South Australians, and third place going to Cameron Miles on ‘Roger That’ fresh off a win in the East Coast championships two weeks prior at Pittwater. Race two sailed in slightly softer conditions saw the same three share the podium; however Deussen took first place Miles took second followed very closely by Links. As the boats returned to the dock, the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club hosted its family friendly, Friday Twilight race as the Melges competitors took the time to cool off over a few beverages.
Chris Links' Cavallino AUS795
Thankfully overnight a Southerly front came through to cool things off a bit and the left over breeze from the front saw the race track with a pleasant 14 – 18 knots of SSE to get races 3 - 6 underway. Links with Olympic sailor Nathan Wilmot aboard once again showed their dominance with a 1, 4, 1, 1 result for these four races setting them up for a good series score at the end of the days sailing in 1st position. Redmist also showed some great consistency with a 3, 1, 3, 1 result leaving him in 2nd position whilst 3rd was occupied by Miles with a 2, 2, 2, 4 result for the day. Even though the top three were not leaving much room for the rest of the competitors to get a podium finish it was extremely close racing and when they weren’t on their game their position was quickly taken. Race four was a fine display of close racing with less than 70 seconds between the first 6 boats. Day two was finished off with a BBQ cooked by the local boat owners, plenty of banter and a nice relaxing afternoon on the outdoor lounges of the LMYC.
An early start to Day three was arranged to allow the travelling boats to pack up and travel home at a reasonable hour. The wind was still blowing at 10 – 12 knots but had swung to the East / North East and become a little more inconsistent, however the race committee set another fair course for the remaining two races. Cavallino started the day with a 1st place followed by Redmist in 2nd and Roger That in third. The last race of the day saw Miles grab his first win of the series followed by Links in 2nd with Kevin Nixon on Bandit /Accru in 3rd.
The day was finished with a presentation on the rear deck of the LMYC where Dave Young, Melges 24 Australian class president, presented the podium places with their well-deserved trophies.
The overall series score (excluding a drop) left Cameron Miles on Roger That in 3rd place on 15 points, Robbie Deussen on Redmist in 2nd place on 14 points and the win awarded to Chris Links on Cavallino on 10 points.
All prize winners praised the close racing from all participants along with the great sailing conditions on Lake Macquarie accompanied by the ease of access to the race track from the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club. This was a great testing ground for the Australian Championships being held at the same venue on the 9th -12th of March 2016 with a lead up event on the 5th -6th March 2016.
This NSW Championships marked the end of the 2015 Melges Asia Pacific ranking series for 2015. The next Melges 24 Regatta is the Xmas Sprint Series at Adelaide Sailing Club. Always a hotly contested, fun and popular regatta it will be held on 11th-13th December. We kick off the year with the first of the Melges Asia Pacific ranking series events at the South Australian State Championships on the 5th -7th February 2016, also at Adelaide Sailing Club.
By Dave Young
