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 !
Simon Grain
J Guys that make bigger boats go …. to Hobart
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 !
What a blast !
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.
Hit the Mark – Christmas Issue 2010
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 !
Here it is Christmas Issue, Hit The Mark! December 2010
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?
Merry Christmas
Simon
National Constitution Review
Following the most recent national exec hookup we have set the following timetable on the review of the national constitution.
State Associations and individual submissions to be submitted in writing for evaluation by Jan 30.
Draft presentation to be available for final review by the Vic States on April 16th
The concept behind this review is that the current document is now quite old and needs to be reviewed in the light of the changing needs of the States and National Association. This means that if you wish to have input into the review, you need to submit your thoughts in writing (email is fine) to Simon Grain by end Jan 2011
I have attached a copy of the existing document J24 Australia Rules
Notice of AGM
The nationals have been confirmed today by Terry Wise. This means the National Assn AGM will also be held during the championships. The meeting will be held at MHYC at 9am Tuesday, 11th Jan 2011. Nominations for office should be received in writing prior to this meeting.
AGM Agenda Agenda for 10 11 AGM
Geelong Regatta Update
Geelong will be huge this year with most of the fleet expected to go and interest from interstate strong.
This year the program is full on with the big passage race to Geelong and then 3 days of windward leewards. You get to party an incredible 4 nights (if you can) with wall to wall yachties, friends, locals, drinks and bands at the club, or escape to one of Geelong’s restaurants to chill out on good food and another drink! Somewhere the J guys and girls will have a special dinner and drinks (more!) There’ll be fireworks and planes doing aerobatics – and always a racetrack the next day. Yet more parties on boats, more racing and if you make it to the end – a relaxing sail back to Sandy and if it’s a SW breeze, you get to surf home!
To enter you need to go to the website http://www.victoriaweek.com.au/index1.asp and then ‘Racing’ and ‘Enter Online’, click on the ‘J24 Class’ button and follow your nose.
Enter before 6/1/11 to avoid paying a late fee and your entry must be in by the 14th January at latest.
If you are from interstate and want a boat or a crew spot or have questions then call Simon on 0413 870 046
JSpot's Unconventional Finish
After checking with the international committee, and referral to our local international judge, the following decision has been made:
There is no breach of any rule – including 42, 47.2, 49.1, 49.2, and the definition of finishing – as follows:
§ There is no breach of rule 42 unless, of course, the person in the water is kicking his legs to propel the boat.
§ There is no breach of rule 47.2 when the person who fell overboard is making a reasonable attempt to get back on board – as opposed to swimming away or making no attempt to get on board. There is also no definition of what constitutes ‘back on board’ and a person hanging on to the boat is, arguably, back on board within the meaning of the rule. The rule is intended to prevent someone (a crew member) from leaving the boat and swimming away / going ashore / getting on to another boat / etc. In those circumstances, the rule is breached if leaving was deliberate and, if not, the crew member must be back on board before the boat continues in the race.
§ There is no breach of rule 49.1 as the pulpit is not a device designed to position a competitor’s body outboard.
§ Rule 49.2 does not apply to someone who has fallen overboard. In this situation, the person overboard is not ‘positioning’ himself outside the lifelines in the context of the rule. For what it’s worth, there is no difference between a wire lifeline and a stainless steel tube pushpit as far as the restriction on positioning a crew member outside them is concerned.
§ The definition of finishing reference to ‘in normal position’ refers to equipment and not the crew.
Therefore NO rules were broken – just a crew member!
Peter Stevens
ITC Committee
Audi Victoria Geelong Week 2011
The Audi Victoria Geelong Week is almost upon us again – seems silly to think that but it is just 60 odd days away and you need to be thinking about entry and accommodation for this event.
I have negotiated with RGYC to get a J24 Series down there within the Audi Performance Series category as part of the official racing rather than us just entering a performance handicap class and have achieved that (and overcome a few hurdles they put in our way) this means we will have our own set of results and trophies depending on the level of entries.
The format is to be :
Saturday 22 Jan – Passage Race to Geelong
Sunday 23rd, Monday 24th, Tuesday 25th – W/L races each day
Wednesday 26th – Cruising sail back to Sandy
You will notice that this is slightly different to the Audi Series as it has a passage race on the Tuesday, where we will be doing the W/L – but you enter the Audi Performance Series
To do this you will need to take only the Monday and Tuesday off work as the Wednesday is the Australia day holiday.
To get this series happening we need to have a minimum of 7 boats (1 trophy for first given), I have stuck my neck out and said I think we will get between 10 and 15 boats (2 to 3 trophies), (Vic boats plus a couple of SA boats on their way back and maybe a couple of Sydney boats ?)
So here is the really important part, we need to have an idea how many boats will want to go to Geelong be part of this series. Traditionally it is an awesome race weekend to do, just ask anyone who has done one.
Ideally I would like to give RGYC advance knowledge of the competitor numbers – this will help with things like berthing arrangements.
So please send me an email if you are planning to go with your boat – or if you want to fly in and do the rock star crew bit.
For more info go to the race week website here
Simon
Hit the Mark ! Nov 2010
From the Editor…
Yes folks…there’s an issue missing! During October the staff absconded and went on holiday… all of them. From what I can make out there was drink, sun burnt bums, casual carnal interactions, gambling and absolutely no sailing. I would tell you some of the stories but as the tee-shirt of one smart Alec I met recently proudly announced… “What goes on tour, goes on facebook”… so you can look up the high jinks for yourselves. The good news is that everyone is now back at their desks and the little fingers of our staffers re just a blur as they hammer out articles for your information and entertainment.
So click the link below to read the latest awesome newsletter from Dougie down at Crackerjack Journos.