Seve Jarvin, Scott Babbage and Ian Jenson, who was standing in for regular for’ard hand Sam Newton, trailed Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon, Aaron Links and Euan McNicol, standing in for injured Trent Barnabas) for most of the first windward beat before finally leading by just 8s at the Beashel Buoy.
7 trailed Thurlow Fisher again at the bottom mark but once in front the 7 crew gradually edged away before going on to a 43s win over Thurlow Fisher Lawyers.
Lumix (Jonathan Whitty, Greg Dixon and James Hozack) were a further 44s back in third place ahead of C-Tech (Alex Vallings), Yandoo (John Winning) and appliancesonline.com.au (Micah Lane).
With just one more race to be sailed, Gotta Love It 7 has a net score of five points and with a worst place second to discard can’t be beaten.
Competition behind 7 is extremely tight with five boats separated by just six points and little between the teams on the race track.
Appliancesonline has 19 points, followed by Thurlow Fisher on 20, Mojo Wine (Archie Massey) 23, and Smeg (Nick Press) and Rag & Famish Hotel (Jack Macartney) tied on 25.
The 20-knot nor’easter today provided spectators with another exciting display of speed sailing as the fleet raced down wind.
One casualty was Mojo Wine which capsized while attempting a gybe off Rose Bay.
Strangely, while the fleet sped along Shark Island on the first lap, the breeze at the southern end of the island was fickle and a number of positions changed rapidly.
One of the big casualties was De’Longhi-Rabbitohs (Simon Nearn) which had been well placed early but was relegated several placings at the wing mark.
Rag & Famish Hotel capsized early in the race and came back strongly on the second lap (could have possibly finished third) before ending her challenge with a broken centerboard.
At the bottom mark the first time, New Zealand’s C-Tech had gone into third place behind 7 and Thurlow Fisher, with Yandoo, Yamada (David McDiarmid), Lumix, appliancesonline, CST Composites (Howie Hamlin, USA), Kenwood-Rabbitohs (Brett Van Munster) and Smeg all close behind.
While Gotta Love It 7 has dominated, the race behind her has been tight and will hold most of the interest in tomorrow’s last race.