French Connection to race at Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week

9:55 PM Mon 29 Jun 2009 GMT

'Conquistador. Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Day 4 racing' Ian Grant Click Here to view large photo

French Kiss Americas Cup sailor Pierre Gal will start as the favourite to defend his Sports Boat line honours title at the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week in mid-August.

Gal who first sailed in Australia at the 1987 Americas Cup challenge off Fremantle fell in love with the Australian lifestyle and set up a sail making business in Coffs Harbour while also turning his skill to designing and racing high performance sports boats.

He has been the pace setter in the sport and showed that at Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week when Conquistador his latest design outclassed a star studded fleet including his former line honours champion Vivace to win the eight race fastest time trophy by a commanding 9 minutes 36 seconds.

Conquistador and Vivace will again go head to head for the honour of winning the class fastest title however Vivace skipper Noel Leigh-Smith a former Australian Junior Offshore Group champion feels the contest will be much closer.

Noel Leigh-Smith and his tactician the former Australian Gwen 12 champion Phil Kellond-Knight took some pride away from the 2008 series when they beat the Conquistador crew on handicap by 3 minutes 45 seconds in the fourth race and followed up with a 45 second win in race 6.

At the time Noel Leigh-Smith said. 'I guess you can say we are a bunch of old blokes trying to revisit the excitement of yesteryear and our teenage time of sailing in the fast lane'.

'Sure the sail fast thinking is still there but the reflexes are a little off the pace'. He said.

The Vivace crew have made a few changes over the past 12 months and are expecting to press a much closer claim when they match race against Conquistador for the prestigious cock of Pioneer Bay sports boat trophy.

by Ian Grant