Saturday 30 January 2010

Colin Mullins Regatta: Tiller (NZL) Steers his way into Warren Jones Regatta

by John Roberson

Young New Zealand skipper William Tiller from Auckland’s Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, built on a steady performance on the first day of the Colin Mullins Regatta, to assure his team a place in next week’s Warren Jones International Youth Regatta, by topping the scoreboard at the end of the round robin series.

He shares the top spot with Sydney’s Kyle Langford and crew, representing the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, while early contender David Gilmour of the host club sacrificed his chance of heading the scoreboard with a half point penalty following a collision with Langford in their match.

Two flights have now been sailed in the first-to-three-points semi-final, with Langford 2 – 0 up against Gilmour, while Tiller has a half point advantage over Perth skipper Peter Nicholas, of Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, who are hosting the regatta.

David Gilmour’s father, Peter, one of the world’s greatest match racers has a knack to coming back from seemingly impossible situations to win regattas, Saturday will tell whether David has inherited this ability.

In the meantime, the bottom half of the scoreboard is already confirmed, with Royal Perth Yacht Club’s Robert Gibbs 5th, the host club’s Tristan Brown 6th and Jordan Reece of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron 7th. The northern hemisphere teams of Dane, Martin Boidin, Yosaku Yoshida from Japan and Britain’s Mark Lees filled 8th, 9th and 10th places respectively.

However Martin Boidin from the Royal Danish Yacht Squadron is certain of a place in the Warren Jones Regatta, having been guaranteed a wild card entry before he made the journey to Australia. Other places in the prestigious Warren Jones event will be decided on merit after the Collin Mullins Regatta final on Saturday evening.

Results to date:

Semi-finals - first to three points:

A: Tiller 1.5pts - Nicholas 0.5pts
B: Langford 2pts - Gilmour 0 pts

Positions 5 to 10:

5. Robert Gibbs - Royal Perth Yacht Club
6. Tristan Brown - Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club
7. Jordan Reece - Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron
8. Martin Boidin - Royal Danish Yacht Squadron
9. Kosaku Yoshida - Japan Yacht Matchrace Association
10. Mark Lees - Poole Yacht Club

And in glorious technicolor:


Western Australian Yachting Foundation

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