Simon Grain

Chris Furey is an ex J sailor and a great J friend from Sandy – he shot this pic and info to me this arvo, thought you might like to see it. Taken by Chris off Williamstown in the early 80’s, this is Athol Lidgett’s J24 ‘Jailbreak’ seen here on the burst in classic J style. Chris says, “It was during a JOG regatta out of RYCV when the race officials decided it was far too windy to race so several of us J sailors decided we would go for a blast anyway. The guy on the deck in the blue jacket is John Hooper, the sail maker.  The helmsman was Mark Bethwaite (from the famous Bethwaite clan) who went onto win the World J-24’s held in Sydney a few years later. He did this a week after winning the World Soling title in Perth I believe. John and Buster were active J-24 sailors sailing with Kevin Hill I recall. (Additional comment from Rob Hartnett) John and his brother, Olympic Coach Buster, both sailed on the boat.

Jailbreak met an unfortunate end when sailing back from a Mornington race into a strong  northerly that built to well over 35 knots. Athol decided they had taken enough punishment in the strong wind and seas and reached off into the lee of Rickets Point where they picked up a mooring just off the old Keefer’s Boatshed near Beaumaris Motor Yacht Squadron. The crew were picked up and taken ashore but that night the wind suddenly switched to an equally hard south westerly with enormous seas. The boat was torn from its mooring and smashed to unrecognisable pieces on the rocky Beaumaris shore just below the Beauy Pub. Somewhere on the rocks not far offshore  there is a J24 lead keel!”

Thanks Chris – keep those old pics coming !

On some parts of the website you might notice that reference is made to an email address “admin@j24.com.au”. We (I) have just discovered that this email address has not been working for a considerable period of time. If you have attempted to contact us using that email address and had your email bounce back, We (I) apologise. It is working now, and will be checked on a regular basis.

Cheers, Luke.

BIG, REALLY BIG
Over 100 J/24 teams are breathlessly anticipating the start of the first
“open” J/24 Worlds in decades. With racing on September 17-21, a strong
American contingent will be doing battle against a cadre of past World,
European, North American, South American, Canadian, Bermudian, Brazilian,
Argentinean, Chilean, Peruvian and Japanese Champions.

Hosted by the Rochester Yacht Club in Rochester, NY, located on the south
shore of Lake Ontario, the teams are anticipating how best to get out of
the starting blocks with over 100 boats on one huge line with multiple line
boats calling the start and keeping the aggressive teams in check.

For those interested in the 2012 Worlds in Rochester in September I have posted a report on it on a separate Worlds page – click here

The dates for the 2013 Nationals at Sandringham YC have been confirmed as follows

Measurement – Saturday 5th January

Measurement and Invitation Race  – Sunday 6th

First Race – Monday 7th, racing each day with 12 races planned till

Last Race – Thursday 10th. There will be no lay day.

Presentation Dinner Thursday evening

The Victorian Association will post more information in the near future, so keep your eyes on the website for an increasing amount of detail to help you plan a great holiday and regatta in Melbourne next summer.

Look out mums and dads – Middle Harbour Yacht Club Juniors are joining the Sydney City Marine Winter Series.

Middle Harbour Yacht Club (MHYC) Junior Sailing is pleased to announce the entry of J24 ‘Whisper’ in the MHYC Sydney City Marine Winter Series which commences this Saturday 5 May. Teenagers from the MHYC Junior Sailing dinghy program will be crewing Whisper in a foray into keelboat racing.

Reintroduced in 2008, the current MHYC Junior Sailing program was the brainchild of Rear Commodore Carl Crafoord. Since then it has gone from strength to strength with over 150 kids currently active in the program. The hard work of building numbers and getting kids into sailing is paying off with healthy fleet sizes, strong representation at interclub events and many happy children. The strong Junior Sailing base at MHYC provides the Club with a great opportunity to try new and interesting programs, namely an introduction to keelboats for young sailors.

The boat Whisper is currently owned by the J24 Association who has very generously lent it to MHYC Junior Sailing for some rising talent to get into competitive keelboat racing. This great gesture provides the Juniors with some great racing on a well established class of boat.

Leon Wilson, Chief Instructor of the MHYC Junior Sailing program commented ‘I’m delighted to have the opportunity to not only introduce our Juniors to the Clubs keelboat fleet racing but to train them in a class that has strong One Design numbers and some really competitive racing. The commitment and enjoyment shown by our older kids is the right stuff for classes like the J24 and our vision is that this will help pave the way for them getting involved with a strong and fun class.’

The MHYC Junior Sailing team works hard at providing positive and memorable experiences for kids on the water. This introduction to competitive keelboat racing in the Sydney City Marine Winter Series is a great opportunity for Juniors from MHYC to experience a type of racing that many adult Members enjoy. And the Juniors are more than happy to get out on the racecourse and test their mettle against friends and family!

by Alana Whitting via Arthur Crothers

Story by Andy Hunting

Our first state championships; first day together; or second day on the water – call it what you want –  certainly made for a trying weekend for the newly developing team on Jive (Sidetracked). The team undoubtedly began to learn how to sail a J24 as the races when on with the final race on Saturday being the most successful and just sneaking inside the top ten.

Tactics and starts were arguably the strongest aspect of the team thanks to the wisdom of Ben Gunther and Chris Fawke, coupled with the experience of Oliver Mckeon calling the shifts. Sunday saw the bow work of Nathan Anderson being put to the test – especially on the leeward drops; however it was the rigging which could not handle the wrath of the new superstar team with the starboard inner turnbuckle proving to be the weakest link.

In hindsight, the softer brass nut atop the turnbuckle had its thread ripped clean by the stainless steel thread of the turnbuckle below – potentially due to being un-oiled or a gradual demise from salt and grit over the years.

At the time of failure, the inner tension read between 19 and 21 (on Adam’s gauge). The immediate reaction of the team was to tack onto port so that the tension could be taken by the opposite shrouds so that work could be carried out on the damaged inner.

Several thicknesses of rope were used to loop the flange at the top of the thread to the deck plate, and once tied, another rope; fastened between the slack (newly repaired) inner and the adjacent outer was tied, and as it was pushed skywards, the tension on the inner wire again increased to prevent the mast from buckling inwards.

Once the team had the mast secured, it was a single tack back to the yacht club and up to the bar.