 6 Tigers greeted the Starter in the first of the Sydney Amateurs Super 30 Series for 2011-2012, Tigers took 1st, 2nd and 3rd, line honours placings, see report of the race below. It was great to see TEN8IOUS out there in their new Tiger No 108. They had a great first up race, only a couple of minutes behind 5th. placed Tiger "Sophia" , TEN8IOUS had a few problems along the way and learnt many lessons that will allow them to climb their way up the fleet and into the top placings. This is a very competetive fleet of Super 30 with 23 starters this week and another 10 starters ready to join in over the next few weeks. The fleet consists of a range of Sports Yachts and Sports Boats who sail both under both Ratings and PHS handicaps. To give some idea of the competiveness of the fleet, there was only 20 mins seperating the first 22 boats home in a 3 hour race. It was really good to see Marco Tapia take first place in PHS, Marco and his team have come along in leaps and bounds , possibly as a result of the mentoring from Bruce Tavener as part of the Sydney FT10 Mentoring program. The SASC series consists of a Long Series , every week, and a short series , every second week. Most of the Tigers are doing the Short Series so it would be good to have a couple more Tigers joing us to make this a real Tiger benefit, how about,Fortune of War, 5 Strings, Ophir, Sabre, Sigurd and Hallo Tiger coming out for a play on one or more Saturday afternoons. Race Report Great race on Saturday for the first of the SASC Super 30 Series. As expected the light conditions, 7 to 10 knots perfect Spring Sydney Day, made it a benefit for the Tigers in terms line honors with Tigers 1,2 &3 ahead of a close bunch of “Tasty” , the casual entry “So What “ and a fourth Tiger, “Flying Brandy” only seconds apart. Super result for Marco Tapia and his crew on FT10 “ Flying Brandy” to take first on PHS by 3 mins . The surprise was the second and third placing of the Young 88, “Agent 88” and the Sydney 32 “ Larrikin”. The very generous handicaps will make these guys hard to beat when the wind blows a bit harder. As usual the Taste Machine got a great start and made the most of the fresh breeze just heading the pack of hunting Tigers,” Balmain Tiger” , “Shere Khan” , “Tigger” and “ Flying Brandy” to the first mark. “ Merlin” , “Monkey Magic” and “Rapid Transit” were also in the bunch . With the breeze still holding on the Green Kite on “Tasty” could not be run down in the leg to Garden Island via Shark Mark. “Rapid Transit” made the most of the breeze to work their way into 3rd place as they rounded into Rose Bay but going high to keep their speed was always going to end in tears as they fell into the inevitable hole under the ladies college. “Monkey Magic” the trap less Magic 25 was also looking good at this stage and was keeping the Tigers honest. As the pressure begun to ease the Tigers begun to take control, with Shere Khan closing in the second work and easily taking Tasty on the second run. Balmain Tiger and Tigger had a neck and neck battle as they also closed on Tasty who Gybed out in search of more pressure only to loose several places by the time they begun the third work back to the Sow and Pigs. “So What “ kept the bunch of Tigers honest for most of the day, being able to plane in the light conditions and running surprisingly deep and “ Flying Brandy” would just not go away. The last downwind leg saw “Shere Khan” consolidate its lead to about 2 mins with “Balmain Tiger” leading “Tigger”,” Flying Brandy” and “So What” into the bottom mark for the last time. A poor kite drop by “So What” put an end to their chance of glory while “Tigger” and “Flying Brandy” argued about the quality of each others mark roundings. Meanwhile Balmain Tiger was able to sail away in a forlorn chase of Shere Khan only to fall short by 2 minutes and some change. Congratulations to the Shere Khan team, super effort. I have no doubt the results will be different in different wind ranges but with 6 Tigers out there for the series and a couple more planning to make guest appearances there should be some great racing this year at the pointy end of the field and no doubt some very competitive performances by the PHS competitors in the bulk of the field. Keep and eye out for Bill Ure in Hickup, he is carrying a Kite this year and with a very generous handicap for this speed machine, his fifth this week will not be his worst result for the year. SUPER 30 GOLD CUP Hosted By Sydney Amateur Sailing Club Race 1 (9/17/2011) Updated: 9/17/2011 4:01:02 PM
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