Yet another chapter in the Cotter V Allan battle unfolded at Dee Why beach last Saturday. This time Jeremy Cotter came out on top after two very narrow seconds to the inform Ben Allan.
Allan now has three wins and a second in the national series with Cotter at 2 seconds and a win after missing the King of the Cape. There are 6 races to run out of a possible eleven with the best seven placing taken to decide 2010/2011 National Champion.
At this stage these two have a strangle hold on the series but there is a long way to go.
Conditions could not have been any worse on the weekend with screaming offshore winds and a huge ground swell. In what was supposed to be a downwind race, organizers opted for a triangular course to offset the gale force offshore winds. This would have allowed for a substantial downwind section. What almost brought the event unstuck was an unpredicted 2-3meter swell that closed out Long Reef Beach.
Faced with two options either cancel of have a whole bunch of broken gear organizers opted to move the course to another beach. After some frantic phone calls to council officers permits were put in place and a four lap out and back course from Dee Why to Curl Curl was laid and the event got underway.
The race started smoothly with Murray Stewart and Cade Barnes going for the ASN (Australian Sports Nutrition) Hot Spot. This time Muzza got the jump on Shuey and took home a cool $500. Kate McGrath took the ladies.
A pack developed soon after with Jez, Ben, Muz, Reece (WA Specialist) Baker, Nathan smith dicing for position. Closely behind were Michael Locke, Bruce Taylor, Cade Barnes, Dane Sloss,Tony Shumacher and Sasa Vujanic all jostling for the prime spot in the second pack.
Jez lead the first lap back to the turn with he and Ben slowly pulling away from the rest of the field. By this time small runs were developing on the inbound leg with Jezza making the most of these and gaining a small advantage over Ben in the closing lap.
Muzza pulled a monster of the last turning can to come along side Ben in the closing stages only to slew and come off the wave that was to take Ben to his second placing behind Jezza.
The rest of the field came arrived, in quick succession with a few newcomers making their presence felt. Youngsters Adam Rowe, Cory Hill and Kendrick Louis all had great races considering the depth at the top end of this field.
Reece Baker dubbed the WA specialist finally put a good race together on the East Coast with a solid fourth. This will not however relieve him of his tag and he will be known forever as the WA specialist. Nathan Smith rounded out the top five.
Great race for marathon kayak champ Kate Mcgrath with a solid win in the ladies and a fairly good result overall.
Next race is guaranteed to be downwind as we have had every other wind for the first two races.
Thanks again to all our sponsors particularly Fenn, Smartline and Finn Kayaks. Great job done once again by the Long Reef SLSC members under extremely testing conditions.
