VINTAGE SLOOP WINS NATIONAL SERIES

by Ian Grant on 26 Aug 2001 Nick Chapman's vintage class yacht Eun Na Mara a design created early last century in England's famed William Fife loft won the highly competitive Australian IRC Championship during the Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island.

Eun Na Mara racing in her 94 year was the lowest handicapped and by far the oldest yacht in the 183-boat regatta emerged as the star performer of the series.

Naturally her majestic hull shape powered with a conventional rig was easily identifiable among the sleek fleet of modern yachts representing clubs from England, America, Singapore, China, New Zealand and Australia.

However age proved to be no handicap when skipper Nick Chapman and his equally proud crew sailed the 'Old Girl' to a remarkable race score of 1-7-6-1-1-2-5-2 to win the prestigious Open Australian Hahn Premium Gold Medal by 24 points clear of Heaven Can Wait (Warren Johns) of Sydney with Wayne Kirkpatrick's Hamilton Island sloop Asylum another 9 points away third.

Eun Na Mara basically had the title won before she faced the start of yesterdays final race over the 23 n/ml South Molle/Daydream Island course.

She only had to complete the course free of rule infringements to be crowned the deserved winner of the Australian championship and the open IRC Hahn Premium Race Week title.

As expected the grand old lady of the fleet powered by the light to moderate sea breeze sailed to her handicap rating to secure the title win with a second place on corrected time behind the brilliantly sailed Sydney 38 class sloop Asylum.

Skipper Kirkpatrick and his key crewmembers Murray Walters, David Stielow and Greg Boller exercised the advantage of extensive training in their local waters to record an impressive win with Asylum in the final race and claim a deserved place in the championship.

An interesting comparison of handicap corrected times based over 193 miles of racing in 9 demanding light wind races to decide the IRC class championship revealed that Eun Na Mara was a worthy champion.

Her combined times of 25hours 27minutes 55 seconds reflected on how well the old yacht was sailed when she beat Asylum 25-54-41 and Lou Abrahams Another Challenge 26-16-09 to be crowned as the 2001 Australian and Hamilton Island Race Week IRC champion.