Chasing the leader
iD topple ‘dream team’ as Euroflex scrape home for regatta win.
19 February 2018
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America’s Cup sailor Paul Campbell-James has shown that Euroflex isn’t invincible, with his star international crew aboard iD Intranet taking race seven off the series leader at the SuperFoiler Grand Prix’s final day of racing on the Gold Coast.
“It’s bloody nice to take the victory off them and to overtake Euroflex was pretty cool. We clocked 35k knots in that first run and it feels great to end what wasn’t the greatest of weekends for us with a race victory,“ said the British skipper after his iD Intranet team became just the second SuperFoiler to claim a victory in the inaugural circuit.
Paul Campbell-James’ countryman and America’s Cup teammate Ed Powys also pleased his team was able to snatch a win off Euroflex.
“It was more of a relief to be out there racing without dramas and it was a good first race to win,” said iD’s Bowman, “We are trying to get back some momentum. We ground to a halt for a while and hopefully we are over the worst of it now and we can go sailing again.
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Although the iD crew didn’t have the satisfaction of crossing the line first, given the race was cut short after tech2 became entwined with a marker.
“We were mid capsize and as we landed we hooked our rudder. It was a schoolboy error and we will take full responsibility for that,” said tech2’s Ayden Menzies.
Astonishingly tech2, who was in second at the time of the incident was awarded the second-place points – giving them ten from the race and drawing the ire of her challengers.
“It’s not fair, if you cause the race to get suspended you should be disqualified – I will have to have a word to Parko about that,” said Pavement’s skipper Steve Thomas.
That was a sentiment echoed by the Record Point crew –”We were unhappy about that decision to award tech2 second place points at the time. We weren’t sure what would happen when they red-flagged that race but that’s sail boat racing sometimes it doesn’t go your way,” said Australian 49er Champion Sam Phillips after his Record Point crew made their first podium of the series.
“I can understand other boats would be annoyed but we were just sailing within the rules. I’m sure all the skippers will discuss that, that’s the great thing about this class,” said Menzies, tech2’s Mainsheet Hand.
That decision ultimately proved crucial with tech2 to holding onto second position on the regatta podium, although their bowman Sam Newton had even higher aspirations for Gold Coast event, “It’s a pity we didn’t get three races in today, I feel like we could have won the regatta,” said the America’s Cup winner.
Series front-runner Euroflex finished last in the penultimate race of the double points Sunday Supercharge after touching down at speed early in the contest but went on to secure a win in the final race to celebrate her third straight regatta triumph.
“We made a couple of mistakes but at the end of the day no one was seriously hurt. I’ve fallen off a couple of things but at the end of the day I’ve got a couple of bruises but I’m okay,” said Glenn Ashby after his team’s record of 21 race wins came to an end.
The Gold Coast SuperFoiler standings were – Euroflex (50), tech2 (42), Record Point (36), iD Intranet (31), Pavement (26) and Kleenmaid (24).
Euroflex leads the overall race for the Ben Lexcen trophy by seven points ahead of tech2 and Pavement.
Racing now journeys to the West Coast of Australia with Busselton hosting Leg Four of the season.
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