Living Doll has strangle hold on IRC at Airlie Beach

Michael Hiatt’s super fast Bruce Farr designed 55 class sloop Living Doll expressed her light wind sailing speed to firm a strong grip on the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week IRC championship today

Both skipper and crew welcomed the opportunity to race in a totally different wind system when they mastered the variable 8-12 knot sea breeze to comfortably record their fourth successive line honours.

However while the Living Doll crew held the advantage of first use of the wind they failed to match the handicap rated speed of the smaller Sydney Beneteau 45 Victoire .

Skipper Darryl Hodgkinson salvaged full use of his lower 1.130 time correction factor to provide Victoire with time in the bank when spinnakers were set for the final run.

His chase seemed to hold little merit when Living Doll sailed efficiently on all angles of the windward leeward course to outpace Victoire by 10 minutes 23 seconds but unfortunately the margin fell short when Victoire claimed the overall race win by 27 seconds over Living Doll while veteran Sunshine Coast skipper Bob Robertson steered Cracklin Rosie into third place another 3 minutes 55 seconds off the pace.

Nothing could match the all angle boat speed of Living Doll in the second race when the wind freshened slightly.

Living Doll was first out of an evenly contested start but was well in control of the race at the half way mark while her crew continued to ‘press on the gas’ in a chase for the elusive line and handicap double.

However after 59 minutes 49 seconds on near faultless sailing the Living Doll crew had done enough on the course to leave their rival with a hopeless chance to chase down her 1-23-27 corrected handicap.

They were simply to smart and too fast winning the important race 4 by 2 minutes 24 seconds over Victoire with another 57 seconds to Howard Lambourne’s Brisbane Farr 40 Lambourdini.

After four races Living Doll with her 1-2-2-1 score has firmed a stronger grip on back to back championships while Victoire 3-5-1-2 and Lambourdini 2-1-5-3 remained poised to stage a private match race for the minor places.

- Ian "Stripey" Grant