Hamilton Island 2008

(added 30-June-2008)

GRIZZLIES GIVE HAMMO 2008 A NUDGE

 

The Taniwha Grizzlies have just completed their most successful overseas campaign at the 25th Anniversary of the Hamilton Island Cup held from 19th to 22nd June 2008.

Kicking off with the OC1 events on the first day Tim Bruce dominated his age group in winning Gold in the 250m OC1 SMM final & then kicking butts in the 16km race to take his 2nd Gold Medal. Brian Wilson also showed a clean pair of heels to take out the GMM 250m Final but could not quite pull off the double in finishing 2nd in the GMM 16km race. Day 1 medals were rounded off with Marty Helleur scoring a creditable 2nd in the Master Men’s 250m final to take the Silver Medal.

 

Day 2 saw the commencement of the W6 500m Sprints in the morning in which the Grizzlies were showing real strength with 2 MM Crews & 2 SMM crews qualifying for their respective finals. The finals were raced in tricky conditions with strong side winds and a low tide making some parts of the course quite shallow. The Grizzlies expectations were running high but the results were not quite what was expected with the SMM taking Silver, the MM taking a Bronze   and the GMM in 4th place…..still a good result against some very classy crews from both Australia and Hawaii.

In the late afternoon it was time to switch focus to the W6 MM & SMM 16km race around Hamilton Island in which the Grizzlies had 6 Crews with 3 in each division. All crews went out to the start line early to ensure that we were able to get a good position as in previous years we have been left behind at the start. Both our top Grizzlies MM & SMM crews made brilliant starts off the line and it was not long before we were both leading the field until crews started to clip our tails to force us to change direction. At the first corner the Grizzlies MM crew had a clear lead with the SMM crew sitting in 3rd position but leading the SMM division.

Close racing ensued with the MM crew being caught by Northcliff at about the halfway mark. It was good close racing all the way around the Island in varying conditions from punching into the wind and swell to surfing downwind legs and reading the currents. The final result had our Grizzlies MM 2nd with the SMM coming in 5th overall but taking out the SMM title and winning the 16km Gold for the first time. A great effort by both crews with our other crews placing 8th & 14th in the MM and 4th & 9th in the SMM divisions.

 

The 3rd day of racing is a little more relaxed with only the 1000m sprints being held. The SMM crew were still peeved that they could only get 2nd in the 500m the previous day and were determined to take Gold in the 1000m race. All went to plan in the final with the Grizzlies Gold team leading at all 3 turns and taking the Gold with a 7 second gap back to the Team Hawaii in 2nd place. The days racing was capped off with the Grizzlies Golden Master Mens team taking out the Silver in another closely fought final.

By the close of racing the Grizzlies were bubbling with a medal haul so far of 5 Golds, 5 Silvers & 1 Bronze and still had the big 42km race to go.

 

Day 4 ..Sunday 22 June and all 4 Grizzlies crews (2 x MM & 2 x SMM) were quietly confident of getting success knowing that we had the measure of the Ozzies and Hawaiians.

At the team briefing we were advised of a course change due to a 2m swell & high winds out at Pentecost Island that we had to go around. This course change was a bit unsettling as we did not have the experience of racing it so had to rely on local knowledge from our support craft. At 10:00am we lined up with 83 crews starting and it was imperative that we got of the line quickly and held a good position thru to the first change point. Both the top Grizzlies MM & SMM crews arrive together for the 1st change and were in the top 10 and sitting comfortably in 2nd positions in our respective divisions. It was decision time now as there was a choice of which way to go and unfortunately the local advice did not pay off and when the field came back together we had lost a lot of ground on the leaders. It was now catch up time but in these conditions and against the top crews the gap was too big. The 2nd leg of the course was a long slog back into the strong wind and it was all bout chasing crews in front of you and in the end we were able to get back into 2nd position for both our MM & SMM crews to take the Silvers behind the Moloolaba crews.

 

The final placings for our Grizzlies crews out of 83 Crews that started the 42km race was: 

MM   2nd  &  9th overall 3:19:22

SMM 2nd & 15th overall 3:27:06

MM   7th  &  32  overall 3:44:47

SMM 5th &  50  overall  4:06:45 

All in all a great regatta with the Grizzlies winning 5 Golds, 7 Silvers & 1 Bronze but still have unfinished business in not winning the 42Km race……roll on 2009