Veterans Sandy Higgins and Paul Marsh of Brighton of Seacliff Yacht Club made history in the 2017 W.E.S.S Australian 505 Championship by winning the title for the sixth time.
They participated in the five-race series sailing Hawaii Five-O and gave consistent performance in all regattas. The American sailors Mike Holt and Rob Woelfel in IO Integration came second and the Canberra team consisting of Daniel Keys and Daryl Roos reached third.
The sailors, as well as the race committee, felt that the regatta was the most challenging of all there were no racing for two days and one race being completed in two days. The third day so multiple races in challenging southeasterly conditions.
It seems the knowledge about the local conditions helped Higgins and marsh in the Adelaide regatta. During the entire event, there was no sign of the traditional sea breeze.
On the final day only one race was permitted to sail, according to the notice of Race and Higgins started the race as the leader with four points clear of Holt. Higgins said that his strategy was to get back to Holt as soon as the one-minute gate start was completed.
The last race saw Holt taking the finish ahead of Higgins, but Higgins won the series comfortably with the 3 point margin. With this win, the pair received the sixth national title in the class and has reached the highest echelon of the 505 sailors. The competition saw some of the best sailors, including Shelley White, who joined Veteran sailor Ian Gregg for the 470 campaign for the next Olympics.
Though she was only able to finish 10th out of the 33 fleet, Shelly said that she was able to improve the technical skills in sailing with the class racing and she got enough support and help from the sailors participated.
Shelley is the first female and junior skipper in 505 classes and the class had four boats with lady skipper.