The top four boats in the 74th Pinz Australian Sharpie Nationals are in a close battle heading into the final race today, with only five points separating them all.
Jason Heritage, Marc Ablett and James Hughes in ‘Maelstrom’ lead the way, three points clear of second placed Chris Went, Tom Manhood and Harry Fisher in ‘Trump: making America great again’.
Western Australians Ash Gabrielson, Mark Lewis and Ian Davidson in ‘Vita Brevis’.
Went maintains a one-point lead over Luke Stephens, Matt Hansen and Dave Snoad in ‘Beer Nuts’ while Western Australians Ash Gabrielson, Mark Lewis and Ian Davidson in ‘Vita Brevis’ are a further point behind Stephens.
It means that going into the last race today all boats are capable of winning the championship, which is without a doubt the closest Australian Sharpie result seen in some time.
Went maintained the lead for the majority of the regatta, however a good day yesterday to Heritage put him out in front and two race wins for Stephens put his team right back in the mix for the title.
There has been some extremely close racing throughout the nine races so far.
The regatta has been run smoothly and successfully so far by the Victorian Division of the Australian Sharpie Sailing Association with the young president, Jake Nichols, and his team doing a stellar job organising all the events off the water.
The race management team has also been second-to-none with some great courses to race on going hand-in-hand with the stellar conditions the regatta has had so far.
There has been a mixed bag with some windy races and some more moderate sailing as well for the competitive 43-boat fleet.
The fleet also consists of 17 boats from the home state, which is some of the greatest numbers of Sharpies seen in Victoria for many years.
