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No17 seconds the difference after seven days and nine races
The closest divisional battle of the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week was within IRC Passage 2 where Harvey Milne’s Archambault 31 Aroona from Sydney and the Matthew Owen skippered Sydney 36 Local Hero, racing with a majority ACT crew, fought tooth and nail for seven days over nine races to finish a point apart..

Sydney 36 Local Hero - Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010
photo by Andrea Francolini

Owen clinched the series with today’s 17 second win over Aroona in the Lindeman Island Race, not a bad result for a bunch of dinghy sailors from Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin campaigning a 15 year old boat.

“Does it get any closer?” questioned Owen this afternoon. “We sailed the ultimate race today and we are really happy it all came together for us. We just hope we didn’t cost the Aroona boys an Audi.”

Owen is referring to the four-part Audi IRC Australian Championship which began in January and came down to a week-long tussle between Aroona and IRC Grand Prix division winner, Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki, the eventual Championship winner by 0.31 of a point.

“I’m very happy for Local Hero’s owner Peter Mosely who strangely I met in a bunker at Middle Head in Sydney while we were both watching our boats race in the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta,” said Milne today “We got him at that regatta and in the Southport race, and he has got us here.”

Neither both was ever out of the top three, Local Hero finishing on 8 points with four firsts, two seconds and a third place and Aroona scoring three firsts and four second places.

Full results at: http://topyachtsoftware.com/results/2010/hirw/series/index.htm

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