World title to Peter Gale

Press, 1 March 1982, Page 22

World title to Peter Gale

Peter Gale, a concrete contractor from Melbourne, narrowly won one world yachting championship in Napier on Saturday and will begin the defence of another . in his home waters tomorrow. . Sailing Oysters Kilpatrick To Go, and with' Mark j Rimmington as his for’ard ? hand, Gale made certain of j over-all success in the world i Flying Fifteen series with a i fifth placing in the final heat. L The versatile Gale is also I the reigning world O.K. I dinghy champion, and will be I attempting to retain that | monotype crown in Mel- | bourne this week. t .But Gale’s triumph at t Napier was a near thing. He ; and Rimmington conceded 42 J points to just nudge out the « Auckland pair, Roger Cradf dock and Stephen Battley > (43.42 points) in Saffron. J Craddock seemed poised to I retain the title for, New ZeaI land midway through the last r race. He had trailed. Gale by r only 5.7 points before the I start, and at that stage was « 12 positions ahead of his ) Australian rival. J However, Craddock came 1 out worse when a wind shift i on the third beat caused a j reshuffle of placings. Gale t improved from twentieth to tenth, but Craddock ad-

vanced only from tenth to seventh. They continued to make inroads on those ahead of them, and Craddock filled third .at the finishing line. It was then necessary for Gale to be fifth to ensure over-all victory, and he managed that by a mere quarter of a boat length over Jim Ruddy and Gordon Wells, of Britain. Third place in the final standings went to John McCann and William Bassett,’ from Ireland. They lost 56 points, compared with 62 by Garry Wiig and David Zorn, from Napier. Results — Seventh race: Fighting Fit (N. and G. Heath. Britain) 1. Twenty Forty Two (A. Ballintine and P. ! Alexander, Wellington) 2, Saffron (R. Craddock and S. Battley, Auckland) 3, Ffinito (G. Wiig and D. Zorn, Napier) 4, Oysters Kilpatrick To Go (P. Gale and M. Rimmington. Australia) 5. Contageous (J. Ruddy and G. Wells, .Britain) 6, Jindivik (V. Kernot and J. Wilson, Australia) 7, Jemina (I. Keely and P. Matthews, Britain) 8. Final placings: Oysters Kilpatrick To Go, 42, 1; Saffron, 43,42, 2; Turbo Charged (J. McCann and W. Bassett, Britain), 56, 3; Ffinito, 62, 4; Jemina, 71, 5; Twenty Forty Two, 85.7, 6: The Uffa One (K. and B. Chappell, Auckland), 87, 7; Contageous, 89.1, 8; Cunning Stunt (I. Cleaver and D. Love, Britain), 89.7, 9; Mussurana (G. Liddington and A. Waddell, Britain), 93.7, 10.