Two-time overall Sydney-Hobart winner, Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban, has come away with its third overall win in as many years in the Teakle Classic Adelaide to Port Lincoln Yacht Race.
Allen entered his team into this year’s race as the sole interstate competitor among a tough fleet of South Australian competitors after the event saw a number of Victorian boats unable to attend due to COVID-19 border restrictions.
“It was a big risk, because we knew we could get the boat here, but could we get the crew here if the borders locked down? We decided to take that risk,” Allen said on the docks in Port Lincoln just after 3am on Saturday.
The race was a wet and wild one with strong winds and big swells across the foot of Yorke Peninsula creating challenges for the 21-boat fleet with seven of those yachts being forced to return to Adelaide due to breakages.
“It was really close for the early stages of the race, then when the wind came in we really started to hit our straps,” Allen said.
“It was pretty windy and pretty wet for quite a while, we certainly saw gusts upwards of the high 20s (knots).”
Finishing second over the line and second on overall IRC was Nick George’s Another Hooligan, which trained incredibly hard throughout 2020 to be prepared for this event.
Another Hooligan crossed the line just 14 seconds ahead of race veteran Secret Men’s Business, skippered by Geoff Boettcher, which created a tight and exciting battle into the finish.
“It was probably 18 months of building a new crew with a new boat, culminating today,” Another Hooligan skipper Nick George said.
“They’re all pretty good sailors in their own right, but I just thought it’d be great to mould a team from scratch.”
The best performing Port Lincoln boat was the Peter Teakle-owned Lincoln Mentor, skippered by Matt Stephens with a crew of talented local youth sailors.
Stephens and his team finished first on Division 2 AMS, the measurement system best used for scoring Division 2 racing, just ahead of sister ship Born to Mentor, skippered by Simon Turvey.
In other results, Another Hooligan finished first in division one PHS, while Andy Shipp’s Kinetic Energy was first in division two on the same system.
The Lincoln Week Regatta has been underway on the waters of Boston Bay this week with some fantastic weather and great racing.
Heading into the final two days of racing, Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban maintains a strong division one lead, while Andrew Corletto’s Shining Sea leads division two and Simon Turvey and his team on Born to Mentor lead division three.
