Results from first Victorian Spearfishing Commission Boat Based Competition held from Sorrento on November 10, 2013:
Sunday November 10 saw fair conditions for the first Victorian Spearfishing Commission “Hannan” boat based spearfishing competition. Five teams of four divers competed and some amazing fish came in. (Note: It is still not too late to nominate your team with 2 heats to go and some guys have not nominated. It costs nothing to enter and you do not have to dive as a team)
The conditions in the southern Port Phillip Bay were only reasonable with light to moderate winds and visibility varying from 3-7 meters. Unfortunately, the tide and currents were not very favourable and made for some challenging diving conditions.
Brett Illingworth had a “cracker” of a day landing 11 species and won the day convincingly. He also had some great Hannan species for his four man teams with standout fish being silver spot cod, conger eel, mullet, stargazer, trevally, rock flathead and black drummer. His fellow team mates (Monoghan, Watson and Petersen) chipped in well also with other good Hannan species such as pike, cod and whiting. This team are early leaders but with 2 more rounds to go l am sure things will even up with the 2 next competitions based out of Newhaven and Port Fairy. Time will tell.
There is only first prize for this prestigious competition and the “A Grade” boys are off to a great start. How many more species will they crack over next 2 comps? Is 30 species attainable?
The VSC would like each team to have a designated team name, so please advise name of team by next competition for future score updates.
Results of Hannan Competition after round 1:
1st Team with 17 species
Murray Petersen, Brett Illingworth, Chris Monaghan and Nathan Watson
2nd team with 11 species
Rob Torelli, Joe Bednaret, Bob Manning, Tom Adamson
Equal 3rd teams with 8 species
Paul Dorfstatter, Marcus Dorfstatter, Mac Riddle, Peter Riddle 8 species
Andrew Vibert, Trent Crane, Kyle Hippsley, Stojance Parlovski
4th team with 7 species
Scott Walker, Pete Thomson, Paul Blackborrow, Hamish Thompson
Boat Aggregate Results:
Brett also has a good early lead in the Victorian Spearfishing Commission Boat Aggregate competition. (Run on total of percentages from all 3 boat competitions). This new prestigious trophy will be run over the next 2 boat competitions as well and time will tell if Brett’s nice lead of 20% will carry him through the next 2 heats at Newhaven and Port Fairy. Port Phillip Bay is certainly Brett’s domain.
However, we all remember Murray Petersen’s impressive 18 species at Newhaven last year and Rob Torelli may raise his head along with fellow Port Fairy based abalone diver Pete Riddle come the Port Fairy competition in April. Not to mention “old time” Bob Manning who has made a very impressive debut to this seasons round of competitions. Boat comps will suit Bob him and he loves scouting and doing his homework. It’s “game on” and we have an exciting round of competitions on our hand with the newly formed Victorian Spearfishing Commission.
Overall Results from 1st Victorian Spearfishing Commission Boat Competition:

Brett Illingworth-11 species-100%
Rob Torelli-9 species-80.35%
Bob Manning-9 species-80.30%
Murray Petersen -8 species-72.66%
Nathan Watson -8 species-71.60%
Mackenzie Riddle -7 species-62.13%
Chris Monaghan -6 species-55.06%
Peter Riddle -6 species-52.84%
Scott Walker -5 species-47.54%
Andrew Vibert-5 species-44.90%
Trent Crane-5 species-44.68%
Paul & Marcus Dorfstatter (Ist in Pairs) -4 species-37.21%
Geoff-4 species-34.58%
Paul Blackborrow-4 species-34.12%
Kyle Hippsley -3 species-27.83%
Tom Adamson-3 species-27.28%
Russel-3 species-25.56%
Joseph Bednaret-3 species-24.88%
Stojance Parlovski-1 specie-9.03%
Pete Thompson - 1 species-8.69%
The Victorian Spearfishing Commission would like to thank the Southern Freedivers for hosting this pioneering first boat and Hannan competition run on a state level since 1988. A special thanks to those who volunteered time and effort for weigh in and BBQ.
Best Regards
The Victorian Spearfishing Commission.