Marauding Australians Chris Nickolson and Gary Boyd sailed their way to victory in the Taiwan 49er Grand Prix yesterday and looked ready to do some celebrating as they tried to make off with beer intended for the event's awards party.
Penghu's notorious winds whipped up to a steady 35 knots (65kph) as a front passed through yesterday afternoon. The strong winds would have made sailing impossible and ended the Taiwan's first international sailing competition, but organizers decided to wrap up the racing in the morning during more moderate weather.
PHOTO: DAVID FRAZIER
Either way, it would have made no difference to the favorites, Nickolson and Boyd, who went into the day leading and ended up taking the first ever Taiwan 49er championship.
But that's not all they took.
"I can't believe it. Not only do they [Nickolson-Boyd] win the competition, they also tried to nick all the beer," said one member of the organizing crew who asked not to be identified.
The source said he'd found 22 cases of Corona in the Australians' shipping container which, had it not been recovered in time, would have been sent back to Australia. The beer was intended for the regatta's awards party.
"They had a fair few crates of Heineken in there too. Just imagine if they'd got it all. What would have happened then?" the source said.
Nickolson played down the incident.
"Yeah, we did it," he said. "It was a good laugh."
Competition, meanwhile, was hard fought and featured several Olympic sailors. It was especially tough among the three Australian teams, who are all jockeying to represent the country in the next Olympics.
Australians Mark Turnbull and Nick Partridge, who entered the regatta's final day in fourth, got off to a strong start yesterday morning and were quickly threatening for the lead.
In the first of three races, Turnbull tacked to port just after the start, while the rest of the fleet of 11 sailed upwind to starboard. The decision won him a 50m lead by the first buoy and, in the end, the race.
"Actually, we got a bad start and were forced that way, but it paid off for us," said Turnbull, laughing at the twist of fate.
Nickolson finished sixth in the first race and looked vulnerable, especially after Turnbull eked out a win over him in the second race.
But Nickolson would not be denied. He beat out Turnbull in the third and final race of the day, taking the championship. Turnbull finished second.
"Today [Sunday] we had a longer course," Turnbull said. "Yesterday was shorter, so it was more physical and more about handling. Tactics are more important in the longer courses. Overall [the Grand Prix] was a good test of who's sailing best."
Turnbull's strong last-day performance put him past Americans Tim Wadlow and Peter Spaulding, who started the day in second but ended up in third. The Japanese team of Kenji Nakamura and Masato Takaki took fourth place, and Australians Euan McNickol and John Harris came in fifth.
At race's end, Penghu County Government officials, who were major sponsors of the event along with the central government's Tourism Bureau, eagerly sought advice on how they could continue to stage world class sailing events in Taiwan.
What they heard from organizers and participants was positive.
"The sailing here is very good. You have areas of flat water and waves, and we've had breeze all six days we've been here, and you can't find that kind of breeze everywhere," Nickolson said.
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