Drennan comes out fighting

Day two of Australian Etchells Championship

Highly experienced one-design skipper Noel Drennan overcame a dramatic disqualification to hold some hope of winning back to back Australian Etchells championships with a convincing display off Mooloolaba today.

Drennan disqualified for a breach of the mark rounding overlap rule during heat 2 combined cleverly with his determined crewmates Peter Ahern and Graham Taylor in ideal 15-18 knot South East trade wind and lumpy seas to win the class ‘Battle Flag’ as the star performer in races 3 and 4 by recording a 3-1 score.

He has always proved to be a tenacious fighter and this was again expressed when he cleverly plotted a comeback after being slugged with the maximum 46 point penalty to slip back to 28 place on overall points prior to today’s races

However the master tactical helmsman well supported by his equally talented crew had a message for his rivals to get used to watching the wake of his sloop as he set about climbing back into title contention.

Despite the impressive performance skipper Drennan and crew hold 12 place in what has developed into being a very interesting tactical fleet race for the prestigious National title which has attracted some of the World’s best known skippers including Americas Cup winners John Bertrand and Dennis Conner.

After four hard fought races where most of the fleet places have been decided by seconds John Bertrand and crew of Ernie Lawrence and Bill Browne head the points table with the very consistent 1-4-5-4 score on count back over Harken Evisha (Julian Plante) 3-1-8-2 and today’s third heat winner Peter Conde (AUS 1188) 5-8-1-7.

Conde recently returning to the class after several years showed he has lost none of his class by showing a marginal speed advantage as his crew of Stephen Girdis and Richard Machin capped the result with a mistake free sail handling technique.

Drennan needs another race to be allowed to discard the disqualification under the scoring system and all indications suggest races five and six will turn into a supreme test of fleet racing tactics with Bertrand, Plante and Conde expecting to face a tactical ‘dogfight’ involving former World champion Cameron Miles, Hong Kong skipper Jamie McWilliam, Victorian champion Ian Johnson and a host of others including Drennan and Dennis Conner.

Progressive Results after Four Races (No Discard):
Two Saints & A Magpie (John Bertrand) 1-4-5-4 14pts 1
Harken Evisha (Julian Plante) 3-1-8-2 14pts 2
AUS 1188 (Peter Conde) 5-8-1-7 21pts 3
Three Dogs (Cameron Miles) 4-9-9-3 25pts 4
Kaos (Jamie McWilliam) 2-10-6-8 26pts 5
Bananas In Pyjamas (Ian Johnson) 7-3-15-15 40pts 6
Racer X (Mark Bradford) 19-2-10-10 41pts 7
Ethyl (Rod Jones) 12-6-19-11 48pts 8
Tom Pepper XV111 (Peter McNeill) 10-7-22-12 51pts 9
Happy Man (Campbell Myles) 18-12-11-14 55pts 10
Barry (Tom King) 29-15-2-9 55pts 11
AUS 1030 (Noel Drennan) 6-dsq-3-1 56pts 12
Menace (Dennis Conner) 9-24-24-5 62pts 13
Legless (Steve Gunther) 13-13-17-23 66pts 14
Argha Noah (Robert Weir) 15-20-16-16 67pts 15