Magpie lead after Day 2 of Etchells 2023 Australasian Championship
The second day of the International Etchells Australasian Championship was sailed on Saturday 10 June from the Mooloolaba Yacht Club with races four to six of the series in a sou-easter of up to 10 knots. Graeme Taylor’s (GT) AUS1486 Magpie with Richie Allanson and James Mayo lead by one point over Mark Thornburrow’s AUS1486 RacerCC with Malcolm Page, Ethan Lozevski and Sam Saiki going into the final day of racing.
“It was a great day on the water” said GT, skipper of AUS1486 Magpie. “Conditions were excellent but it was really tough. We are super happy to come away with the results we did and are looking forward to tomorrow”.
Echoing the difficulty of the second day of racing, was dual gold medallist and tactician on AUS1486 RacerCC, Malcolm Page.
“It was actually lighter than predicted and it made it tough. It was a relatively decent seaway, and a lot of finesse was required to get yourself around the racecourse. You were at the bottom end of the swing at times,” said Page.
“The course axis probably changed 10 degrees throughout the day, but in saying that it still had its lefts and rights and remembering that everyone is doing a maximum of 5.8 knots”.
“There are a lot of good sailors here, so you have got to try to do your best, and sometimes the stars align and help you do that”.
“We made some rig changes overnight, honestly we are still learning the converted boat, we feel like we don’t know this boat yet. We put some more rake in and it felt like an easier boat to sail today, we were matching Magpie. It’s cool to make that little step up” Page finished speaking of their win in race four and the day overall.
“We are happy about today,” said David Dunn, skipper of Great White Hunter, winners of the third and final race of the day, sixth of the series, after a pair of sixth places in race 4 and 5 to start the day.
“We had to have a good hard look at ourselves, we are a relatively new crew, and we were not starting well and the communication wasn’t the greatest,” he commented. “But our starts were better today”.
“It came together for us a bit in the last race, and we had a fantastic game of chess with Mark Thornburrow and Mark Roberts. Very happy with our downwinds and that is where we made our gains”.
“Really good team effort, not a race where you won it from one side of the course, we really worked at it and played the percentages and came out with the win”.
“Forecast is for a little bit more pressure for the final day and that would be good for us. At the end of the day we will just try and build on today”, he finished.
For live streams of the final day, head to Etchells Australia on Facebook to be in the action thanks to Bradley Ginnivan, BGR.