On Saturday 2nd of April the Derwent Sailing Squadron held the Tasmanian J24 Championships. With a lot of work behind the scenes, Peter Bingham (Streetcar) managed to secure five boats to compete in the championships.
Racing was tight in the first two races, with Drumbeat (J. Cooper) taking the honours from Another Toy (G. Rowlings) and Divine Madness (C. Squires). After the first race the wind died and the DSS racing committee flew the AP flag. The wind must have had a numbing effect, as a number of boats miscounted the numbers of laps on the subsequent race!!
Race three was a tightly contested affair, with numerous lead changes over the course of the day. Newcomer to the class, Greg Rowlings (Another Toy) secured his first win for the series followed closely by Streetcar and Divine Madness.
After a short break, racing in the afternoon saw the wind pick up to 20 knots with numerous white caps in the Derwent. Another Toy (Greg Rowlings) showed a clean pair of heels taking out these two races and subsequently the series. Drumbeat and Streetcar fought it out until the end with Drumbeat finishing runner-up on a countback. What is more remarkable is that the owner of Drumbeat, John Lewis, donated his boat to the Cooper boys (Johnny and Tom) and fellow students from St. Virgil’s College, who displayed excellent boat handling skills in their first up regatta in a J24. Watch out for these boys in years to come!
A special mention must go out to the Derwent Sailing Squadron who continue to help support the Tasmanian J24 Association. They put on a magnificent series and backed it up with a great BBQ at the club afterwards.
Final Results
Another Toy- Greg Rowlings AUS4431 – 5
Drumbeat- Johnny Cooper AUS137 – 10 2nd on countback
Those who have been sailing the J24 class in Australia over 20 years (yes unfortunately there are some), have seen three cycles of growth in the J24 class in Australia. These spikes in our numbers coincided each time with a pending World Championship.
Excluding the worlds in 1982, the first cycle was 1988, the second 1996 and third in 2006. The first two regattas saw our numbers increase by a minimum of 20 boats nationally, in 2006 we saw only a modest increase of about ten.
These World Cup Regatta’s whilst great for our class, created artificial growth, with class jumpers getting in to do a worlds then dumping their boats, often below market value and moving on.
This year we have seen a natural increase in J 24 sailing which I have never seen before.
The class in Victoria has grown by approximately six boats this season, with other boats also swapping owners as well. This growth is a result of a strong class with a dedicated team of owners and committee members, who have created a class structure that appeals to sailors, many who are interested in getting back into meaningful sailing. The competition is hot, high level, one design sailing at its best.
There are more potential owners out there, and space at SYC is an issue, however we also will run out of boats. We no longer have a builder, however I suggest the class start looking to the possibility of encouraging new and existing owners who may want to up-grade to look off shore. Our Dollar is super strong and in a weak international economy, I suggest some bargains may be had for those wishing to take the plunge. There are class associations overseas who would assist with information, and one only need look to the U.S. or Italy for a good yacht.
Alternatively, there are still some good J’s sitting around unused interstate, we should identify them and speak to our local boat builders about a information package to upgrade them to a competitive yacht that would appeal. We should know approximate costs so potential owners know how much to budget.
Our recent Victorian title, saw a influx of sailors from other classes. We had the current Victorian Laser champion sailing along with S80 Champions, SYC dinghy sailors and many others.
This new crop of sailors really liked what they saw and will come back again.
The point to all this back slapping is that the class needs to look forward to the next stage by appealing to the next generation and supplying them with competitive boats that are up to date and fast.
New owners look to the class for advise when making a purchase, and the class needs to be geared up to provide that information. Well done to those who have worked so hard to get this up to speed, lets help them keep it going.
Hugo.
The Victorian J24 State Championships sponsored by Lend Lease are done and won.
In the biggest state fleet seen in Melbourne for many years, 18 boats and around 100 yachties and race officials enjoyed great weather and sailing over the two day regatta.
Although Pacemaker sailed by Dave Suda had to settle for a 4th on the much lighter Sunday race, his clean sweep on Saturday’s four races meant the result was effectively all wrapped up on the first day.
Pacemaker was sailing without owner Herschel Landes this year after a health scare, but it didn’t matter and with a 15 – 18knot South Easterly blowing on Saturday, Pacemaker showed pure dominance in what must now be called Super Sudaday. With a marginal edge in speed and height and a clear edge in tactics and crew work, Dave and his crew put the work in to earn the 2011 State Title.
This year the fleet was like a pack of hungry wolves, tight and very competitive and plenty of hard racing with close and hard fought mark roundings, a fair amount of ‘one design’ banging together (no major damage) and quite a few protests. Exciting and fierce competition as the standard of the whole fleet was up considerably on past years.
With 14 boats from the Vic fleet and 4 interstate boats sailing, the fleet is one of many changes. Hugo Ottaway bought Bruschetta VI a week before the champs and was coming to grips with his new boat, Andrew Stefano has recently bought Gridlock back from Hobart, John Neville bought Vice Versa from Hugo and surprise package Brendan Lee bought ‘Hi’ (now called ‘By the Lee’) from Pete Stevens in Adelaide.
From interstate we welcomed Arthur Crothers with Dave West steering, brought Kaotic from Sydney, Terry Wise brought two boats from Sydney, Sailpac (Sean Wallis’ old ‘Wetty Gripper’) steered by current National Champ Sean Kirkjian and Starpac steered by Hank Beyer. Admiral Stevens brought his ‘newest’ boat, Code Violation over from Adelaide. For those who knew the boat when Doug McGain had it you just wouldn’t recognise it, Pete is a master of cleaning up boats.
If Dave blasted into first, Kirj quietly made his way into second place with an impressive and consistent score, reminding us all that you don’t need a win to be up there in the placings.
Third and fourth were the two surprise packages of the championship. Brendan Lee sailing in his first J regatta, put in a solid series to show us all that the new guys need to be well respected and with placings between 4th and 8th took out fourth place.
Some of you may know Adam Evans as occasionally part of the old Pacemaker crew. Most won’t have seen his 3rd place coming in quite the way Adam showed us how to sail this weekend. Like a breath of fresh air reminding the old guard of our pasts, Adam, crew, ghetto blaster, black cans and life turned up to loud, in my opinion stole the rest of the show. A very consistent and dedicated youth program trained sailor, Adam is now sure to follow Dave Suda as one of our most important role models for the attraction of a new generation of young J sailors. Only a tangle with yours truly at the top mark and an arbitration experience kept him out of 2nd place. I would confidently expect him to be a future Nationals winner.
Cam Dale and Adam Evans
David Suda and the Pacemaker crew
Rounding out the top 5 was Hugo Ottaway, who could have been 2nd or 3rd if you factored out a loss in ‘the room’ from the last race.
Another interesting battle with results in the middle of the fleet, was two of our newest owners stepping into the middle of their boats and having the two top Victorian S80 skippers and some of their crew come aboard to contest the series. Andrew Stefano had Gary Mackinven, twice a state S80 winner from Blairgowie, steer for him and between the two, won with a solid 9th, current S80 State Champion Luke Reinehr from Sandy jumped on John Neville’s Vice Versa for the first time on Saturday and although only finishing 12th overall sailed to an impressive win the Sunday’s race in balmy lighter airs.
I could go on, the results as usual are full of ‘if onlys’. However the fleet is now full of guys and girls at all levels doing their thing and getting amazingly better at it, Doug MacGregor on Crackerjack found himself at the pointy end of the fleet, scary stuff Doug ! Ron Thomson had a few tangles and left green in places and Make My Jay has a bit of stainless pipe bending to do as well. There were the usual didn’t see you last minute tacks, 720s, plenty of mark rounding shouting and heart stopping moments.
The Hyper Girls (and Rob) six up, finished in a tie for 5th with Dave West getting 6th, about a metre ahead and therefore one point ahead of Make My Jay 8th in the last race – could have been the other way around so easily!
Out the back this time, but just as important to the fleet were Chris Hely (a good 14th overall), Peter Moulang (Jack’s just married and Pete is probably thinking about golf), Michael Lewenhagen (best place a good 12th) and Warren Campbell (best place an excellent 9th). These guys are also improving and spending on their boats, which shows that the interest is there right to the end.
Once again (and thanks) Lisa Simonov gave us her house for another great party on the Saturday night, the class association buying a liberal amount of food that was not only enjoyed on the Saturday but enough for leftovers to be enjoyed again at the club BBQ on the Sunday presentation. Thanks also to the hard work put in by the Victorian J committee, the club and the race team headed by Graeme Watt for running a faultless regatta. We again appreciate the effort made by the interstate guys bringing their boats.
The ‘Hard Luck Wheel’ award must surely go to its’ originator Pete Stevens for burning out the clutch on his car less that 50 clicks out of Adelaide in the middle of the night. Alan Stevenson didn’t make the regatta, but in a late night show of support for Pete, his Jeep did.
For those of you that didn’t come – and you know who you are (Wal) – don’t make the same mistake at Gosford in October, because it just keeps getting better. You can bet the NSW guys don’t want the best regatta of the year to be the Vic States.
Doesn’t the J future look bright !
See Herschel Landes top mark on sunday video here:
[youtube]Tr7zeL4Q7QE[/youtube]
On water photos courtesy of Steb Fisher, people shots Simon Grain
To Contact Steb Fisher for photography of your boat, please email or call: photo@steb.com.au Mobile: 0438 16 07 53
Fun2 pulled off a remarkable comeback on day 2 to clinch the South Australian State Championship which was held at the Cruising club of South Australia.
2011 will go down as one of the most unusual and bizarre State Championships held.
The Championship had six heats and no drop, and ended up with 6 different heat winners
with racing sailed in 5 to 20knots breezes on both days.
Championship favorites Lunatic Asylum did not start heat 3 due to crew problems and Fun2 did not compete in race 3 as they lost a crew member overboard prior to the start. No Eye Deer retired from race one.
This left it wide open for Jumping Jack Flash (Doug Watson) who had a fantastic first day with a win and 2 seconds to finish day 1 on 5ts from Vertigo on 10 pts and Code Violation on 13 pts.
Lunatic Asylum started the day with a win but the day went sour from there.
Day 2 Heat 4 saw No Eye Deer and Fun2 clear out from the pack to take first and second with Good Company in third spot.
Heat 5 was extremely tight and anyone of six boats were lining up to be first around the mark , but while they all jostled with a bit argy bargy going on Fun2 slipped through to take the lead and finish first with No Eye Deer having another good result and Lunatic Asylum in third spot.
When heat 6 started Peter Stevens was determined to win as he knew he was close to winning the series but didn’t realize that Fun2 was his biggest threat. Code Violation led from start to finish with Fun2 in second and Vertigo in 3rd.
As Code Violation, Fun2 and Lunatic Asylum sailed back to Port Adelaide no one knew who had won, only that Code was close.
As we arrived back at Port Adelaide Sailing Club the news came through that Fun2 had beaten Code Violation by 1 pt to take out the State Title for the 5th time.
Special mention to Doug Watson and his team showing they are a real force in the S.A. J24 fleet and will only get better with more Regattas sailed. Congratulations to Peter Stevens who gets closer to his first State win, on both Codes performance but also for the magnificent work on his boat which now looks like new.
Doug’s fantastic newsletter takes a quick look at the up coming Vic States – looks like 19 boats this is going to be one hot fleet – and Hit the mark takes a hot look at it.
One point to note in the newsletter re the day pass requirement – this is not now relevant as all competitors not already SYC members will be given honorary membership for the regatta.
With 14 boats now on the hardstand at Sandringham Yacht Club, the home fleet is posed to enjoy the biggest State fleet in Victoria for over a decade.
Up to 5 boats are expected come from interstate for the regatta, known locally as the Balmy Regatta due to Melbourne’s often experienced long Indian summer giving warm sunny, hazy days and lighter winds.
The Sandy fleet’s newest boat, bought by Brendan Lee, a Laser and Flying Fifteen sailor, is “Hi” from Peter Stevens in Adelaide. With the fleet now at modern record numbers, space on the hardstand is becoming tight, racing is tight and with another 3-4 people currently interested in becoming J boat owners, competition is expected to be even more fierce over the next few years as the fleet grows even more.
Pacemaker (David Suda) is still the boat to beat, but they are not having it all their own way recently. Make My Jay (Simon Grain), who have come second in the last two Vic States (one on a countback, last race result) and are currently second by 1 point in the J24 Summer aggregate at Sandy are just one boat breathing down Pacemaker’s neck. Ron Thomson in Kicking Bottom who just seems to prove green is fast and getting faster, the girls in Hyperactive and Adam Evans in Get Smart are all currently capable of winning races in this fleet.
‘Mr J24’ Hugo Ottaway has become the dark horse in Melbourne with only irregular appearances this season, but make no mistake, when it comes to the states and if Hugo has even a half decent crew together he will be at the pointy end without doubt.
STOP PRESS:Hugo is truly our “dark horse” and at the last minute has sold Vice Versa and bought Bruschetta and plans to raid the trophy cabinet at the Vic States this year !!!
There is plenty of competition further down the fleet as well, with an emerging group of boats keen to shift up a gear and plenty of new guys looking to make their own name in the class too. Interest is also being shown by people outside the class looking for either a boat to beg, borrow or charter as they see the level of competition increase.
Need to know more about coming to the Vic States?
Now is the time to set up a crew slot if you want to come from interstate, we will billet any crews so don’t waste money on accommodation.
The dates are the 16 & 17 April 2011, NOR is not available yet (will be shortly) but normal program is 4 races on Saturday and 2 races on Sunday. Racing is run by SYC in conjunction with the SYC One Design Regatta and this will include other one design classes on separate starts.
Boats will be expected to have a current measurement certificate and crew weight is the normal 400kg.
Contact the Doug McGregor of the Victorian State Association on 0400 584 067.
The other row of J24s, including 'Hi' - recently arrived
Editor Doug McGregor comes up with some beauties, but this time in addtition to his own quick wit, he has the dulcet tongue of Ron Thomson on the Thommo Cup to aid his story telling. Hugo tells it like it was at Geelong this year, J24 Victoria launches a new Facebook page and a very Sanguine Jack Crawford is about to tie a not very nautical knot. Five pages of great reading !
The Veloce crew and friends with some of the booty in Hobart. There are 9 J24 sailors in the crew picture.
Once again some of the little boat guys went to do battle on big boats to Hobart – seems they like us out there. Or as Tim Bilham from Sydney points out, the Sydney-Hobart was their training ground for their subsequent Nationals victory. Coincidentally their Hobart ride was on the First 45 Victoire, another larger Tupperware version of their J24 ‘Victory’ .
Tim says, “our training for the Nationals on Death Star has been predominantly centered around Hobart preparation. On our J24 crew, we have Duncan (bow), me (pit) and Sean (helm) who all did the S2H on Victoire (Beneteau First 45).
We won our IRC and ORCi divisions and came 5th overall on IRC. Only plastic production boat in the top ten. Shane (our trimmer) sailed the Hobart on Investec Loyal. I’m sure he’s using a lot of the knowledge gained from sailing a 100 foot maxi with powered winches in his J24 sailing”.
“David (our mast guy on the J24) is the smart one and skipped the Hobart but this doesn’t seem to be holding him back at all on the J24.”
As we know the S2H fleet had some moments out there and some boats didn’t make it, although we think all the J Guys got there.
By comparison the other overwhelmingly J24 crewed boat was the Elliot 44 ‘Veloce’ out of Melbourne doing the M2H Eastcoaster. Veloce was one of the front 3 that got away from the fleet and had a dream ride to Hobart, beating the old race record and finishing in a time of 2 days 2hrs 40min to take the race and series wins and just to keep the boys happy, hitting around 24knots down the coast of Tassie in the middle of a very black night. Veloce also set an additional informal record as the smallest boat in many years to win the King of the Derwent Double with line honours and handicap wins. Making the boat go to Hobart were Melbourne J Guys; Mark Houghton, Kelvin Oldridge, Simon Grain, Noel Duffy and of course Fitzy, joining us for the race in Hobart were Stewart Geeves, Neil Wallace, Priscilla Cutter and Lisa Simonov. So you might say most of the crew !
Jane Flowers who sails on ‘Make My Jay’ went down the east coast in luxury on the 60ft Swan Dreamcatcher 3 and Rowan “Two Dogs” Pollard also out of Sandy, won 1st place in Cruising Division of the S2H in Scarlet Ribbon, a Buisen 48, (keeping himself a much tidier boy than previous ‘escapades’ offshore).
So that’s at least 13 J24 Guys that I know of doing the Hobart thing. Well done everybody. And then many of us fronted up for further training in Sydney !
Veloce winning Line Honours and Handicap in the King of the Derwent.
The 2011 J24 Nationals are done and dusted, with ‘King of the Dusties’ only managing a 3rd this year – more bottled lube next year Sean !
In what became a shifting ballgame this year, Wallis said to me after the second day “I think we are in trouble” and that proved to be the case, not that it wasn’t hard fought, it was, but it just wasn’t to be, “he, always beats me when I come to Sydney” being the other comment of note from Sean.
‘He’ is Kirj, Kirjo, or more formally Sean Kirkjian and the arch rival of Wallis who interestingly had this to say after last year’s national’s win “And I couldn’t let this one past, congrats to Kirj for his 3rd on h/cap – trophy should look nice on your lounge room wall!!!” – stuff comes back to bite doesn’t it !
Happily the 3rd on Handicap Trophy goes on this authors wall this year.
Still here we have the best of the best of the last few years with Kirj taking out his 4th nationals win – pretty impressive effort in anyone’s books. Wallis has 3 titles and Wittey, has none.
But don’t let that result fool you. Nev Whittey is an awesome skipper and he put the recently used Laser (4th out of 72) away to split the Seans for a second that could have been a first overall bar a couple of things that didn’t go his way, like being a shade to aggressive on the start line under a black flag “that’ll be the drop” was the comment I heard as he had nothing higher than a 5th otherwise and most were 1s and 2s. Hope you get to Adelaide next year Nev !
So after Wallis on 23 points, the results table went west, with 4th place on 52 points being taken out by David West sailing Ace, back from recent medical scares, David put in a sold performance to beat John Crawford’s nephew Robert (a 470 sailor who had never sailed a J) in Innamincka. There is so much talent in the J fleet !
Notice how many local sailors at the pointy end yet. You guessed it, plenty of local talent and local knowledge. Conditions were tricky to ….. well, some of the visitor’s were heard to use other words and we’ll leave it at that, except to say 2m swells and 90deg windshifts with halyard busting bullets, otherwise just your average light and shifty day. That all changed on the last day and jibs replaced the big sails, some even going for poled out jibs downhill ! Not for the brave of course, ask Ron Thomson who decided that to show is all that his keel really was white not green !
Quite a blast really !
Actually that refers to the starters horn and the small liner required to support it. I made the decision not to be too close to the boat when the horn was going off, not only loud, but long ! Guys, turn it off please, I can feel the vibration of it in the rig “are you sure it isn’t a ferry coming!”
Many personal battles as usual, from the Seans to the backmarkers. In a now traditional rivalry Make My Jay has finally beaten Admiral Stevens by more than one place – at last, (and Pete is inviting me over to the SA States – for revenge I think). Sister has had to take humble pie from brother this time as Ron in Kicking Bottom takes out the Thommo Cup from Janette steering for Arthur on Kaotic. And a very nice Graeme Thorburn is apologising to everyone for his growing tally of little hits – at least he doesn’t leave green on your boat when he does it !
So that was the short story of the Nationals in Sydney this year. On behalf of the class I want to thanks the NSW guys for all the hard work they did in getting us organised, the MHYC for hosting the regatta and the Race Committee and all the other volunteers for making it happen. The wind gods need to be thanked for giving us mostly good breezes and Terry for organising a great layday at the Q Station. Thanks also to Nicole Scott for taking the regatta pics, you can see them on her website www.sailingimages.net
Next year the plan is to do a 3 day Nationals in March in Adelaide, but this is only the plan at this stage so stay tuned, keep looking at the website and see how it develops. Sean and his guys will be setting the next one up and will have the details ready for you in the future – but at least you know when you should be thinking about booking holidays.
Its fair to say that Editor Doug has packed another load of volatile J news into a few short pages of hot reading – aye that Scottish wit is as sharp as ever.
Another year of those who made it happen, those who watched it happen and those… well that didn’t know it happened!
So if you fall into the last category then you better get reading. Well done Doug !
And yes we do need a press officer, the position is up for grabs and I suggest you all send your votes in to me …………would Doug make a good PR man do you think?
