Paula

Manly Mini Festival of Sailing

Join in the only regatta in the world in which the crew  can win a car each!

The Manly Mini Festival of Sailing will be held over two days on January 21st and 22nd 2012 at Manly Yacht Club, Sydney and there are no less than six, yes six, mini cars up for grabs.

The mini regatta is open to all mono hull yachts whose length overall is greater than 6m and less than 11m, so join the Manly Mini Festival of Sailing and prove for once and for all, that size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it over  a series of 6 windward leeward type races in northern Sydney Harbour, that counts.

It’s from such humble beginnings that many of the worlds’ greatest regatta’s were born.

Too long the rock stars and their 100m yachts have been hogging the airwaves. Too many owners have driven away in the car that the crew won.  If you have a small yacht then sail up and be counted amongst the greats of this inaugural festival where each member of the crew can walk away with a car prize.

As well as the cars, there is an overall prize of 2 Nights at Pittwater YHA up for grabs along with the coveted Horses Ass Trophy and a variety of crew prizes such as the hotly contested Teabag award for the best foredecky. But best of all is the opportunity to sail into the history books as one of the founding entrants of the Manly Mini Festival of Sailing.

If you want to be able to say…”I was there when it all started….” then fill out the entry form  at http://www.myc.org.au/forms/1112/2011-2012_MiniRegatta_RaceEntry.pdf as soon as possible and send it in to Manly Yacht Club.  There is a mini-entry fee of $35.

Notice of Race can be found at http://www.myc.org.au/racing/mini/mr.shtml. A barbecue will be held after racing on Saturday at Manly Yacht Club and a prize presentation after racing on Sunday. For queries or further information contact the race director Chris Stockdale on info@manlysailing.com.au

We have 2 teams representing Australia at the J24 World Championships this year.  David West will be skippering Cinco Capitanes..yes, you guessed it…with 5 skippers on board…..Davids crew are Arthur Crothers, Scott Buckingham, Chris Lee and Greg Zyner.

Sean Kirkjian will also be racing with his Deathstar team of Tony Reynolds, Simon Cunningham, Tim Bilham and David Oliver.

Follow their daily progress from 15 November in a fleet of 60 at http://www.j24worlds2011.org.ar

Has anyone had problerms with outhaul cleats slipping?.. I have sailed on a few Js lately and all seem to have the same problem or the outhaul slipping under load, when the cleat teeth don’t necessarily appear to be worn.

I would be grateful if anyone has any suggestions for an alternate system so I can pass the information to  the owners.

Thanks

What a weekend?…5 boats from VIC making the huge effort to come to Gosford.  4 boats from Pacific Sailing School with instructors skippering and students, some very new to the sport on board!  Terry Wise skippering Bandit!!  Some of the old die hard fleet returning for more hot racing!

Saturday giving us blue skies and a light breeze oscilating up to 50 degrees at times….difficult for most!!  Sunday was another story…torrential rain for the first race, coupled with a breeze most reckon was up to 35knots at times…tough conditions that saw just 8 of the original 15 boats race the final race of the day as one by one we saw J’s heading back towards the club!!

Gosford Sailing Club gave us the intended 4 races each day – an achievement in itself given the appaling conditions Sunday brought!..’Pure adrenalin’, ‘survival mode’…and ‘the reason we go racing’ were phrases that were bandied around back at the club….I think one member of Kaotic might have also mentioned  ‘wet’ ..and that wasn’t the rain!

The results below say it all….a very competitive fleet…5 of the race wins going to current VIC Champion David Suda on Pacemaker, Sean Kirkjian, current National champion took out the other 3 firsts!  They were strongly contended by many of the other boats though and competition couldn’t have been closer at times!

I am proud to be part of this fleet…and mostly…very proud to get through a State Championships and see not one red flag…and not one prang!!  Well done everyone and thanks!  Also, a big thank you to Gosford Sailing Club for hosting a great regatta yet again, and also to our sponsor, UVEX for providing great prizes once more.

Scratch Results 2011 State Championships.pdf

Remeber you have just a couple of days left to enter the NSW State Championships on 1 & 2 October.

State Championships 2011 NOR

NSW State Championships Entry Form

J24 Rudder urgently needed.  Please call Patrick on 0415 537524 if you have a spare and can help!

Latest news and racing dates for NSW – J24 NSW News May 2011

Hugo, Hugo, Hugo….watch out for him..and his new boat!!!  Mr Ottaway is the proud new ower of Bruschetta…passing ViceVersa on to a new J owner at Sandringham, John Neville.  We welcome John to the class, and if he can sail Vice Versa half as well as Hugo did he will be on to a good thing – good luck both of you battling it out on the race course in the near future!!

Last weekend saw some 300 boats over 13 divisions compete in the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta – we managed to get a J24 fleets together with 6 boats on the saturday start line! A solid 18 knots – some decent gusts – some great wind shifts and a huge tide…mmm..not the easist day! 

Marc Tromp steering Waterborne again came out with a great lead in race 1, followed by a win for Kaotic and a win for Ace.   Seeing Kaotics crew half under water at one point was pretty funny after a big gust and shift – …only to find ourselves on Wildfire also suddenly very wet too and fighting to stay on board….Brett claimed he couldn’t get the main sheet off quick enough but I reckon it was something to do with me being his tactician for the first time….iniaation  processes and all that….even funnier was then seeing David West do the same to his crew…but didn’t settle for just once!!!..Twice – at least the water is still 23 degrees!!

Day 2 saw lighter winds…but still a bit flukey…unfortunatley Waterborne Again couldn’t race so we were down to a fleet of five…Fun and Wildfire trying hard to catch Kaotic and Ace who won race 4 and 5, and Madder and Badder who picked the right side well to win the last race of the regatta!

Great sailing everyone….tight results – Janette Syme steering Arthur Crothers Kaotic finished equal first with David West on Ace – on countback David just clinched it…Lucky guy -now gets to go car racing at Eastern Creek in the challenge for a new Audi – we’ll let you know if he wins!!!!

Day 4 was breezier than the rest of the week, with all boats carrying jibs today!  Race 9 saw Sean Kirkjian come out early and take the lead, with Sean Wallis in second and Nev Wittey in third.  Race 10 saw the same result, leaving no doubt that Sean Kirkjian was the first person to win 4 J24 Nationals – Death Star was hard to beat this week and out of 10 races, had 5 wins. 

Congratulatins to all competitors for some great racing this week, and for the efforts of 5 interstate boats making the trek to Sydney.  Thanks to MHYC for hosting a great regatta and for all those involved in making  this event a huge success.  Please also support Nicole at www.sailingimages.net   – she did a great job catching all the action on camera this week.

Overall Results

1st – Death Star – Sean Kirkjian

2nd – Sailpac – Neville Wittey

3rd – Lunatic Asylum – Sean Wallis

Full race results are available at:

http://www.mhyc.com.au/files/results/2010/events/J24/series.htm