Easy Tiger Racing Finish Equal Fourth At Melges 32 Australian Championships

Easy Tiger Racing on ‘The Business’ Go Hard But Not Hard Enough at 2012 Melges 32 Australian Championship.

Photo: Lulu Roseman

The Business, powered by Easy Tiger Racing with Skipper Chris Way and Tactician Steve McConaghy, has finished in equal fourth place tied with Funnel Web on 25 points, in the 2012 Melges 32 Australian Championship.

Photo: Lulu Roseman

Noel Leigh-Smith's Desperado took out the title ahead of Tasmanian team 2 Unlimited 7 Star owned by Greg Prescott followed by Angus Reid’s Max Star from Canberra.

Team Tiger's chartered boat, The Business suffered damage to the D1 on the rig in the day's first race that resulted in a last in race six.

Photo: Lulu Roseman

"After we snapped the D1 it was just heartbreaking as we were in a really good position to finish on top of the podium and even though we were able to set up a jury rig and continue racing it was just not possible to reclaim the boat speed we had before," tactician Steve McConaghy said back on the dock.

"We just had to watch ourselves lose places and points. It cost us the regatta as we were sitting in first overall when it happened and were leading that race. We had been consistent over the previous two days."

Photo: Lulu Roseman

In the seventh race of the series the Easy Tiger Racing Team finished in seventh but were able to recover and pick up the pace in the final race of the day to rack up a fourth.

The day's final race saw gusts up to 25 knots and there was plenty of carnage on the racecourse with capsizes aplenty and kites being blown out left right and centre. Only eight races were sailed from a scheduled 10 due to heinous weather conditions.

Photo: Lulu Roseman

Skipper Chris Way found the Melges 32 to be a solid, strong sports yacht that was exhilarating and fun to sail.

“I hope to do more in this class, potentially even internationally. Our crew work was excellent considering the lack of time on the water with this boat and to be just one point out of first after the first two days of racing was wonderful,” Way said.

“Unfortunately two breakdowns on the last day on the boat we chartered cost us a podium finish. However considering the wind strength we were pleased to get through with just a few boat handling probems and we had some exceptional heart stopping, blasting rides.”

Photo: Lulu Roseman

The highlight of the regatta for mast man and F18 Catamaran National Champion, Josh McKnight was seeing all the crew work finally come together on the final day.

“After the gear failure in the first race today it was really great to see everyone jump into their action plans and execute an effective repair,” McKnight said.

“After that we just tried to look ahead and at the time still expected to do three more races and believed we could recover and come back from that as we had been consistent for the entire regatta up until then.

Photo: Lulu Roseman

“We were confident despite the breakage but as it turned out we had a tough day offshore and being new to the boat we struggled to sail safely downwind and stay in the game,” he added.

Final Results

1 Desperado 15 Points
2 2 Unlimited 7 Star 18 points
3 Max Star 18 Points
4 Funnel Web 24 Points
5 The Business powered by Easy Tiger Racing Team 24 Points
6 Breezin 36 Points
7 Rock n Roll 48 Points
8 Sticks 53 Points

Lulu Roseman