Deere and Wild One claim King George Sound match race

Division one skipper Murray Deere in Wild One match raced Harold Keay’s Shagabull in last Saturday's King George Sound event.

It was great sailing weather and and Deere was in the lead throughout, with a south-easterly around 18 knots ensuring quick times across all fleets.

Deere proved too good for Keay, and with eight on board it was thought the extra weight would slow them down, but that was not to be.

Deere knew Keay had a decent handicap and he had to be at his best, and he did crossed the line well ahead of Shagabull, but on corrected time won by just 20 seconds.

Division two began a King George Sound race, and it was Stephen Lee in Flasheart pitted against his old rival Stephen Brown in Mary Maitland.

Disaster struck Flasheart shortly after the start, with a man overboard.

It took quite a while to re-cover the crewman, and Lee called it a day, leaving Brown to sail on alone with no pressure for an easy and comfortable victory.

Three Flying Fifteens faced the starter, and both Simon Lucas in FForever Young and Aileen Lucas in Crazy scooted away, leaving Wayne North in Frequent Flyer perplexed as he couldn't bridge the gap to his more experienced rivals.

The two leaders were neck-and-neck for most of the harbour course race until, nearing the last mark, FForever Young got a lucky wind shift which allowed her to surge further ahead opening up a substantial lead, and she finished well ahead of a hardworking Crazy in second place.

North will be out again in Frequent Flyer to keep improving and learn from the skills of his rivals.

Four Vipers strutted their stuff and Murray Howson meant business when he blitzed the other three in a scintillating display of high speed and excellent spinnaker work to win handsomely with Chinese Moccasin.

He beat arch rival Michael Cameron in Bite Me, who had actually sailed quite well on the day but had to lower his colours to Howson. Third place was taken by Alice, skippered by Duncan Ray, and Steve Dines in Fang wasn’t disgraced with his fourth placing.

The Vipers held two practice heats, which Howson also dominated.