2008 Australian Nationals, Sunshine, Lake Macquarie

30th December 2008 – 2nd January 2009

A tightrope finish in the 2009 Australian OK titles kept everyone guessing after the finish line to who had actually won.

Going into the last race NSW sailor Peter Horne sailing AUS 733 held a narrow lead of three points over VIC sailor Andre Blasse in AUS 729.

With a shifty southeast breeze presenting headaches and opportunities for the fleet.

Andre under pressure to beat Peter by three places responded accordingly rounding fifth at the top mark, Andre continued on his persistent drive to the front catching NSW sailor Peter Robinson Aus 736 in the last tack to win the race. This left a nervous wait as Peter Horne fought his way to the finish line, Mike Williams Aus 730 from VIC was to be the nemesis finishing third just in front of Peter Horne in fourth place.

This resulted in a tiebreak for the Championship and Giving the Title to Andre Blasse AUS 729 on a count back. A consistent Peter Horne was second and an unlucky Mike Williams third.

Mike had three race wins but an unlucky capsize on the finish line in race 2 cost him any chance of the title.

A fleet of 37 boats contested the regatta at Sunshine on the waters of Lake Macquarie. Five juniors competed with David O’Donnell Aus 695 winning the Junior title and local Wangi sailor Frank Prater Aus 679, awarded the prestigious Handicap title.

Several sailors in the fleet had impressive results; Peter Robinson had his best finish in the OK’s for fifth and ex-laser sailor Joel Skelton in his first OK title took eighth. Eddie O’Donnell was ninth.

Results
Pos	Sailno.	Boat Name	Skipper	Tot	Tot-1	R1 1/1/09	R2 1/1/09	R3 30/12/08	R4 30/12/08	R5 31/12/08	R6 31/12/08	R7 2/1/09
1	AUS 729	Knot 4 Sail	Andre Blasse	20	13	7	4	1	4	1	2	1
2	AUS 733	Another Crack	Peter Horne	23	13	2	2	2	10	2	1	4
3	AUS 730	Time Machine	Mike Williams	31	20	1	1	5	1	9	11	3
4	AUS 735	Virgin on Ridiculous	Rob Davis	47	31	3	5	3	16	6	3	11
5	AUS 688	Shakey	Peter Robinson	48	34	4	10	4	5	14	9	2
6	AUS 732	Dune Buggy	Tim Davies	46	34	6	3	12	6	4	6	9
7	AUS 728	Bowfinger	Bruce Ashton	76	38	8	38	9	2	8	4	7
8	AUS 646	The Phantom	Joel Skelton	62	46	16	7	14	12	3	5	5
9	AUS 734	Cracked Pecker	Eddie O'Donnell	70	51	14	6	8	3	10	10	19
10	AUS 722	Jesus Built My Hotrod	Paul Foster	69	51	5	13	6	9	18	8	10
11	AUS 715	Baghdad Note	Andrew Baker	85	66	15	12	7	8	16	19	8
12	AUS 695	The Wife	David O'Donnell	95	75	17	11	16	13	11	7	20
13	AUS 704	Occasional Kudos	Bob Chapman	96	78	10	15	18	17	15	15	6
14	AUS 716	Natural Selection	Peter Wallace	104	80	12	14	11	24	7	13	23
15	AUS 691	Dilligaf	Glenn Williams	99	80	9	16	10	19	13	16	16
16	AUS 713	Myuna Bay	Peter Lynch	102	82	20	17	15	7	17	12	14
17	AUS 726	Bundy	Bob Buchanan	122	84	18	8	19	20	5	14	38
18	AUS 651	AUS651	Mark Skelton	108	85	11	9	13	23	22	18	12
19	AUS 610	Sirocco	Nigel Harvey	127	105	13	22	17	21	21	20	13
20	AUS 668	Still No Idea	Don Williams	152	123	29	21	23	18	19	17	25
21	AUS 679	In the Black	Frank Prater	157	127	19	23	22	14	30	28	21
22	AUS 685	Once More Dear Legs	Jonathon O'Donnell	164	133	25	19	27	31	12	22	28
23	AUS 543	Turkish Delight	Gary Lokum	167	140	22	26	25	25	27	25	17
24	AUS 720	Flash	Nik Wallis	169	140	28	18	21	27	28	29	18
25	AUS 737	This Bird Has Flown	Tom Pearce	168	141	27	25	20	26	24	24	22
26	AUS 692	Dining with the Devil	Bill Tyler	177	148	21	27	29	29	20	27	24
27	AUS 625	The Fox	David Swales	184	152	26	20	32	30	23	23	30
28	AUS 655	The Phantom	Michael Walker	192	160	24	24	31	32	25	30	26
29	AUS 457	HI-JE-TARN	Colin Lynch	201	168	23	29	33	28	29	32	27
30	AUS 694	Diogenes	Richard Furneaux	211	173	38	38	28	22	26	21	38
31	AUS 684	Synergy	Craig Lynch	216	178	38	38	30	15	31	26	38
32	AUS 644	Mad Cow	Gareth Wells	218	180	38	38	26	38	32	31	15
33	AUS 724	A Fine Line	Glenn Yates	225	187	38	38	24	11	38	38	38
34	AUS 667	Ripsnorta	Russell Peterson	225	187	30	28	34	33	33	38	29
35	AUS 693	Pale Rider	Tom O'Donnell	228	193	31	30	35	34	34	33	31
36	AUS 642	Bluebottle	Erik Thompson	241	203	32	31	38	38	36	34	32
37	AUS 660	Beaver Fever	Jake O'Donnell	255	217	38	38	36	35	35	35	38

Related Post

World Ranking November 2024: Roger Blasse is World No. 1 for the first time

Luke Deegan becomes first non-European OK Dinghy European Champion

Luke Deegan takes lead at OK Dinghy Europeans after one more race