Taipan 4.9 Cat was won by current world A-class champion Glenn Ashby.
Taipan 4.9 Sloop was won by former world A-class champion, and this year's runner up, Steve Brewin.
Taipan 5.7 was won by 'The Beast', Russell Denholm.
Rob.
Folks,
Take a look at the sail numbers of the boats at the pointy end of the fleet.
No wonder the Taipan has such good re-sale value.
Regards,
Phill
Top 3
cat rigged = uni T4.9
SAIL n.... BOAT NAME.... SKIPPER
155....Ashby Sails.... G Ashby
3........Venom.............N Grellet
107....JO-JO.............. W Morse
Is that boat with sailnumber 3 a timber boat from 12 years ago ?
Wouter
Top 3
sloop rigged T4.9
SAIL n.... BOAT NAME.... SKIPPER
AUS056....Brewin Sails... S Brewin
AUS051....Live Wire.........M Homan
AUS147... Wet Willy.........A Williams
Considering the youngest boat competing was Taipan 285 it would seem that indeed the oldies are doing very well.
I guess micheal Coffman # 32 and Kirt Simmons # 159 can breath relieved and continue to hope for a while longer. 
Wouter
Come to look at it I see that this Taipan Nationals featured two (ex) world champions.
Glenn Ashby (Current A-cat world Champion)
And Steve Brewin (2001 A-cat world Champion)
(A now for a punch below the belt)
Which other class was bragging about their Hot-shot participation again. I forgot already, must 've been the fact that they didn't feature any recent champions.
Ahh well, this one is definately for the Taipan class.
Mind you Glenn did win with straight bullets, but Steve had to fight for it. Andrew Williams Aus 147 was hot on his trails from the results of day 5.
Anxiously waiting for the full results.
Wouter
Wouter,
You are correct that No.3 is a timber boat and it is at least 12 years old.
Actually I think it is more like 14 years old.
Noel has been sailing it from the beginning.
I would guess no.51 and 56 to be around 10 years and I think 155 would be around 5 years. Mind you these are my estimates based on my T 4.9 (130) plans were bought around 1995.
The pointy end of the Taipan fleet in Australia is very competative.
I wonder if other classes of boat hold their competative nature in this manner.
Regards,
Phill