Riverstone Rise IOM State Championships 2014
Riverstone Rise IOM State of Queensland Championships to Michael Grieve.The Riverstone Rise International One Metre State Championships have been sailed and won in extremely light conditions on Gladstone Marina last Saturday and Sunday.Even though the Gladstone Radio Controlled Yacht Club ran a fantastic regatta they couldn’t control the elements and the championships were sailed in frustrating 0-5 knots of breeze.Even though the sailing conditions were fluky at the best of times on day 1, it wasn’t long before the cream of Queensland’s radio controlled sailors rose to the top. Michael Grieve sailing from the Paradise Club on the Gold Coast lived up to his mantle of pre-championship favourite by stamping his authority with 4 wins from the first 6 starts but with some late day wins to Sean Wallis also from Paradise RYC and Scott Backhouse from Kogarah RCYC Michael wasn’t going to have it completely his own way.Day 2 saw similar conditions to that of Saturday. The top three boats continued to trade blows with podium positions mostly shared between Michael, Sean and Scott however, occasional patches of brilliance from Geoff Morris from Club Kawana on the Sunshine Coast and Col Cameron from Mackay Model Mariners scoring wins, but all too far between.Local hopefuls Grant Cooper, Aaron Farrar & Laurie Donohoe couldn’t come to terms with the extremely light conditions and even though they, at times, found themselves at the front of the fleets, they found new and interesting ways of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and finished the titles down the order in 10
th, 13
th and 14
th respectively.
See Channel 7 news story HERE1st Michael Grieve | Qld - Paradise RYC | Pikanto | 23.0 |
2nd Sean Wallis | Qld - Paradise RYC | Panko | 33.0 |
3rd Scott Backhouse | NSW - Kogarah Bay RYC | BritPop | 39.0 |
4th Allan Walker | Qld - Paradise RYC | Maybe 1 | 51.0 |
5th Colin Cameron | Qld - Mackay MM | Goth Evo 2 | 57.0 |
6th Tim Brown | Qld - Paradise RYC | Pikanto | 65.0 |
7th Geoffrey Morris | Qld - Club Kawana RY | BritPoP | 70.0 |
8th Garry Russell | Qld - Club Kawana RY | Blitz Mk IV | 98.0 |
9th Doug Allen | Qld - Club Kawana RY | Fracktal | 105.0 |
10th Grant Cooper | Qld - Gladstone RCYC | Mad Max | 110.0 |
11th John McIntosh | Qld - Fraser Coast RYC | Pikanto | 130.0 |
12th Ross Allen | Qld - Paradise RYC | Pikanto | 133.0 |
13th Aaron Farrar | Qld - Gladstone RCYC | Pikanto | 136.0 |
14th Laurie Donohoe | Qld - Gladstone RCYC | Blitz | 145.0 |
15th John Tootell | Qld - Bundaberg RYC | Bag | 169.0 |
16th Kim Mitchell | Qld - Fraser Coast RYC | Kite | 186.0 |