Whitsunday Sailing Club's Africa claims stake to Rum Bucket trophy

12:33 AM Mon 11 Jan 2010 GMT

'Queensland Marine Services (WSC) - Cruising Division 1. Day 6 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week 2009' Sail-World.com /AUS &copy Click Here to view large photo

Terry Archer made a strong claim to become the pacesetter for the Whitsunday Sailing Club Airlie Sails Rum Bucket trophy after he steered Africa to a comfortable win on Pioneer Bay.

Africa a supremely comfortable Bavaria 42 cruiser completed a strong performance outpacing her rivals to register a 1 minute 52 second corrected handicap win over the Colin Pruden skippered Sandpiper which just managed to save her time by six seconds to ward off a late challenge from Col Forster's Esoteric.

All three crews welcomed the chance to test their light wind sailing skills while a surprisingly lazy Easterly wind hardy ruffled the normally wind tormented waters of the Whitsunday Passage.

In many respects it was a perfect forecast and a typical summer day in the tropics with the crews generally sweating it out to protect their reputations in what proved to be another interesting race to claim the 'Bragging rights' stool at the bar.

Naturally Terry Archer and his crew were happy to accept that honour after they made all of the necessary tactical decisions to keep Africa sailing above her handicap rating when the line honours pacesetters Surefoot (Rod Sawyer) Sandpiper and the John Galloway helmed Queensland Marine Services began a duel for the first to finish honour.

As expected the Peter Norlin designed Surefoot lived up to her reputation as a strong performer in light to moderate winds hardly allowed Sandpiper and Queensland Marine Services to hamper her sailing space when Rod Sawyer established a firm grip on maintaining first use of the wind.

Surefoot eventually drew away to set the handicap clock ticking when she finished a comfortable 1 minute 32 seconds in advance of Sandpiper with a similar margin to Queensland Marine Services.

But it progressively became evident that the lower handicapped Africa held the required boat speed to spoil their chances of dominating the more important corrected time results.

The Sandpiper crew appeared to have the best chance but that too faded away with the brilliant Whitsunday sunset when Africa maintained the required pace in the post dusk breeze to claim the important points by almost 2 minutes from Sandpiper with Esoteric another six seconds behind.

Skipper Terry Archer and his Africa crew will be happy to race in similar conditions this week but that seems unlikely with the weather in the sultry tropics expected to change under the influence from a threatening Monsoon.

However the heavy wind specialists like John Galloway's crew on Queensland Marine Services and his son-in-law Colin Pruden who were only separated by 81 seconds for minor places in race one have the fresh wind results to challenge Africa for the progressive lead when the sails are tensioned off Airlie Beach this week.

by Ian Grant