A FLEET of eight 125 boats took to the water for three races on Sunday.

Sailors travelled from Whyalla and Port Lincoln to take on the Tumby Bay fleet that included recently crowned State 125 champions Peter Henderson and Roy Gossink sailing Carnivore.

Amongst the visitors were Ryan Kelly and James Flint who have purchased Mk2, which was the boat that won the national championships that were sailed recently at Henley Beach.

This set up a showdown between the current State champions in Carnivore and the Australian champion boat.

The first race was held in very gusty conditions. Jeff Schramm sailing with Millie Nankivell in Clueless showed all his guile and experience to hold a prominent position early in the tough conditions in his timber boat, but eventually the stiffer fibreglass hulls of Carnivore and Mk2 wore him down.

The top windward mark was set just in front of the clubhouse in shallow water and it proved challenging for many of the crews.

Spectators on the shore heard some interesting commentary from skippers trying to negotiate the tricky rounding.

Carnivore worked her way into the lead and sailed away to take victory from Mk2, followed by Clueless.

A steady southeasterly set in for the second race, making it a little easier with the windward mark out to sea.

Mk2's crew showed they are fast learners, reversing the result from the first race to take the win ahead of Carnivore.

Chris and Caleb Trenberth in Smorstok were the big improvers, moving up from second to last in the first race to fourth in the second race.

Last place was also closely fought out with the Whyalla crew of Mick Casey and Rhys Sudholz in Smoke beating home Andrew Stanley and Alysha Gossink in Rubidium by a mere five seconds.

In the final race Carnivore had the better of Mk2 early but Mk2 worked its way to the front on the final windward leg and sailed away to victory.

Carnivore has been a super consistent performer, which makes the efforts of Ryan Kelly and James Flint all the better in their first hit-out in Mk2. Eyre Peninsula now looks set to have two of the leading 125 crews in Australia.

It was a fantastic day of sailing with no more than seven minutes separating the fleet in any of the races.

Sailing is again on Sunday this weekend followed by a pizza night at the club.

n By Andrew Stanley