Princess Royal Sailing Club keeps winners of Gallipoli Cup in-house until trophy night

The annual Gallipoli Cup takes place on the closest possible date to Anzac Day and last Saturday three divisions began together in a handicap flying start over a harbour course with a brisk south-easterly at a steady 16 knots making for quick times.

The results weren’t announced after the race as sailing director Grant Tickell decided to build up the suspense until the official results are given out on trophy night in a fortnight.

There is much speculation as to who the winner might be.

However, the racing was good especially between the only two division-one yachts, Brett Hawker’s Jessie James and Geoff Oliver’s Excitabull.

Hawker led the way for most of their encounter until a torn spinnaker saw Oliver catch up.

It was an exciting finish when Oliver put Excitabull over the line a mere two seconds ahead of Jessie James.

Division-two yacht Flasheart, skippered by Stephen Lee, showed the way throughout and was too quick for Chris Oldham in Joker, Mark McRae in Sicarius and Ian Johnston, sailing solo in Cambio.

Oldham just couldn’t get the best from Joker but had an interesting tussle with McRae, who continues to find form with the new boat.

Flying Fifteens started well but misfortune struck Aileen Lucas when, shortly after the start, she snapped her fore stay on Crazy and was forced to retire.

Wayne North began well with Frequent Flyer but was no match for Simon Lucas, who even had FForever Young matching it with the big boys.

He finished well up and could be a winner.

All will soon be revealed.