Australian Marblehead Title Goes Down to the Wire


Feb 24, 2020

Four boats fought it out in the final race for outright victory to claim the Australian Marblehead Class championship at Yarrawonga, VIC.

\images\20200224_M_1At the end of three days of sailing it all came down the last race of the championship to determine the 2020 Australian Marblehead Class champion.

After starting the day the way he ended day two, Sean Wallis came out of the blocks fast and picked up wins in races 13 & 14 and moved from fourth overnight to the top of the leaderboard passing Kirwan Robb, Scott Fleming and Lincoln McDowall. 

The start of race 15 saw Wallis get another good start and he looked to be unstoppable until finding weed mid way up the first work and while making a quick dash to the shore the charge for the championship title seemed to be over as he rounded the windward mark last while the trio of Robb, Fleming and McDowall had all started strongly and led the fleet around the course. 

It was a left hand shift up the second windward leg that saw Wallis move through the fleet to re-join the leaders at the top mark the second time and as positions changed up the final leg to the finish it was Fleming that made the best of it finishing first ahead of Robb with McDowall third and Wallis fourth setting up a fantastic final race for the championship.

As the breeze slowly died it starting looking doubtful as to whether the sixteenth race would actually get started and after some waiting a slight breeze filled providing just enough for racing to resume. 

Racing was extremely close with Wallis reaching the first mark just ahead of the three but needed to ensure that Fleming was placed at least two places between him. The second work saw Scott Condie sneak through to lead ahead of Wallis with McDowall and Fleming fighting it out for third. It was at that point tragedy struck for Fleming who picked up some weed and slipped well back in the fleet and ended his title aspirations and with Robb also slipping back through the fleet the title challenge was left between Wallis and McDowall. In the mean time Wallis had claimed the lead back from Condie to lead the final windward mark rounding.

The final run and windward leg were challenging with little to no breeze and the fleet wallowing but eventually enough pressure came for the fleet to finish with Sean Wallis sailing his Grunge finishing his day with 1, 1, 4, 1 and the championship title on 41pts with Lincoln McDowall second overall (46pts) and Scott Fleming third (48pts).

\images\20200224_m_2Pictured: Ray Joyce (Master), David 'Yoda' Thomas (Grand Master), Lincoln McDowall (2nd), Sean Wallis (1st), Scott Fleming (3rd)

 

Results

Click here for detailed results
PosName/ClubSail No.
/Design
NettTotal
1WALLIS, Sean
CHAMPION LAKES (WA)
AUS 135
GRUNGE
41.077.0
2MCDOWALL, Lincoln
ALBERT PARK MYC (VIC)
AUS 97
F 6
46.070.0
3FLEMING, Scott
PATTERSON LAKES RMYC (VIC)
AUS 67
RED ANT F6
48.078.0
4ROBB, Kirwan
ALBERT PARK MYC (VIC)
AUS 94
GRUNGE
55.098.0
5CONDIE, Scott
KOGARAH BAY RYC (NSW)
AUS 6
GRUNGE
60.096.0
6MITCHELL, Scott
ADELAIDE RCYRC (SA)
AUS 52
RED ANT F6
79.0115.0
7REID, Andrew
ALBERT PARK MYC (VIC)
AUS 74
GRUNGE
92.0130.0
8TORPY, Greg
WYNNUM MANLY RMYC (QLD)
AUS 25
NOITRAM
109.0169.0
9LITTLEDYKE, Paul
ADELAIDE RCYRC (SA)
AUS 77
INDIE
109.0159.0
10JOYCE, Ray
RISDON BROOK RYC (TAS)
AUS 53
GRUNGE
112.0170.0
11DAWSON, Glenn
CHAMPION LAKES (WA)
AUS 76
INDIE
122.0203.0
12SEDGMEN, Stephen
BALLINA RYC (ACT)
AUS 21
124.0188.0
13HAKUI, Mao
ALBERT PARK MYC (JPN)
AUS 78
F5 RED ANT
125.0187.0
14OSBORN, Brett
ADELAIDE RCYRC (SA)
AUS 79
INDIE
129.0178.0
15THOMAS, David
ALBERT PARK MYC (VIC)
AUS 88
F 6
166.0229.0
16EDWARDS, Grant
ADELAIDE RCYRC (SA)
AUS 09
INDIE
172.0239.0
17COLE-COOK, John
RISDON BROOK RYC (TAS)
AUS 12
SCALPEL
187.0289.0
18KEAVY, Wayne
KOGARAH BAY RYC (NSW)
AUS 36
DREADNOUGHT
199.0269.0
19BLACKWOOD, Lisa
RISDON BROOK RYC (TAS)
AUS 35
F5
202.0291.0
20NOWAK, Rob
ALBERT PARK MYC (VIC)
AUS 17
INDIE
203.0278.0
21STEWART, Kyle
RISDON BROOK RYC (TAS)
AUS 75
INDIE
239.0319.0
22WEIZMAN, Daniel
NORTHERN MARINERS
AUS 46
PRIME NUMBER
248.0344.0
23MARSHALL, Rod
RISDON BROOK RYC (TAS)
AUS 81
MANTRA2
253.0338.0
24HORIUCHI, Koichi
ALBERT PARK MYC (JPN)
AUS 90
RED ANT F6
281.0380.0
25DOWSETT, Ian
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN RYC (SA)
AUS 62
INDIE
284.0378.0
26WARDROP, Andrew
RISDON BROOK RYC (TAS)
AUS 174
INDIE
301.0396.0
27GOLD, Alan
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN RYC (SA)
AUS 05
F - 6
301.0394.0
28BESSELL, Alan
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN RYC (SA)
AUS 27
STARKERS 3
309.0407.0
29ODONNELL, Patrick
NORTHERN MARINERS (NSW)
AUS 86
QUARK
326.0422.0
30DAVIS, Cliff
CHAMPION LAKES (WA)
AUS 47
BOOGIE
327.0416.0
31ROBERTS, Denton
PERTH RSC (WA)
AUS 71
INDIE
350.0450.0
32FISHER, Trevor
LAKE SAMSONVALE WSA (QLD)
AUS 29
MANTRA
350.0447.0
33ELLIS, Simon
PERTH RSC (WA)
AUS 89
RED ANT 4
371.0473.0

Category: Australia
Posted by: ARYA Publicity