Young guns leading Morris Finance Sydney 38 Series at Audi Victoria Week

On a sparkling Corio Bay off Geelong’s buzzing waterfront and surrounds, Audi Victoria Week continued today with all divisions taking to the waters of both the inner and outer harbour.

The Sydney 38 division of 10 boats completed their first windward/leeward race on the outer harbour once the southerly breeze settled in and the postponement flag was lowered for the first start, an hour and a half after the scheduled 1230hrs start.

Chris Lewin’s Sydney 38 Another Challenge (Vic) found an early lead on the first downhill run to the bottom mark to win the first race. “We went right and picked the right side of the shifts and by the bottom mark we were well ahead, a position we were able to defend for another lap,” said the 26 year old Lewin, who is calling tactics for this series, in between races.

They went back to back with another bullet in the second race to be leading the progressive pointscore from Ian Murray’s Cinquante (Vic) and John Chatham’s 38 Degrees South (Vic) after three races.

Lewin put his win down to “the amount of Bundy Rum the crew drank last night,” but admitted having the 2010 Contender world champion Jono Neate on the helm, was also helpful to the cause.

The young crew was able to pick the shifts today and that’s what gave them the edge suggested Lewin. “On boat speed, Cinquante is very fast and Challenge also has solid boat speed. We didn’t win because of our boat speed.”

And the plan for tomorrow? “Everything will stay the same, Bundy (rum) tonight then we’ll get up in the morning and look at the forecast.”

In the second race, Lou Abrahams’ Challenge, with the 82 year old owner perched pride of place behind the helmsman, used the pre-start to time their run to the start. When it came time for the real thing, they and Mel Mollison’s Sierra Chainsaw were right on the money, starting bang on the gun in the 10-12 knot southerly breeze.

Sierra Chainsaw held its early break, finishing second in race three of the series, while Challenge dropped back to mid fleet by the finish.

Cinquante owner Ian Murray said conditions were tough, “With today’s blustery conditions there was a lot of luck as to whether you picked the right wind channel,” said Murray. “We got slammed a couple of times in the wrong spot.

“The Another Challenge guys are sailing really well, I take my hat off to them. We’ve got the boat speed, but with the shifts a couple of times we found ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time today.”

The Sydney 38s will complete another two windward/leeward races tomorrow, weather permitting, and a final deciding race on Tuesday 25th January, Australia Day, the Audi Victoria Week curtain closer.

Follow the action daily and view images, video and full results at: www.victoriaweek.com

Lisa Ratcliff, Audi Victoria Week media