Simon Grain

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.

J24_Newsletter_2010_11

What have all these people got in common ?

The masses at Geelong

They are all on my boat !

And they are all in Geelong.

That was last year at Geelong at the annual Geelong Audi Victoria Week regatta over the Australia Day weekend. And what a glamour regatta it was.

We had Terry Wise down from Sydney, Karl Chappell from Adelaide, both of whom are keen to come back. Call them and ask them what a good time they had !

Hmmmm …………… Quite a lot of girls on my boat too !

Actually there is lots of everything. Lots of boats – around 600, lots of yachties – around 3000, lots of cool refreshing drink (didn’t count), lots of bands playing lots of music (more than I could listen too) and well ….. lots of girls – and the sailing ones too !

I guess I should point out to the sailing girls – there are lots of guys too, but you knew that already. In fact if you can’t get a sail and a cool drink in Geelong then you are definitely not trying. Its one giant party and it’s been going for 166 years.

Last year there were around 25,000 people visited the annual Geelong Week Regatta and Festival (yes it is that big), it turns Geelong inside out. The weather was great and of course will be again.

The Melbourne J24 fleet is planning to make a big showing this season at Geelong and negotiations are underway to have our own division and prizes.

The week is ideally placed after our Nationals at the end of January and usually involves a race down the bay to Geelong and then a couple of days of round the buoys racing in mixed fleets at Geelong followed by a relaxing sail home to Sandy. Let me say it is a big event and you will feel like you have been through the wringer by the end of it but you won’t want to miss the next one once you have discovered what a blast it is. This is like no other regatta in the Southern Hemisphere.

For boats returning to Adelaide after the Nationals or (coming from Sydney) – bring your boats back through Melbourne and we will store them for you and then launch them at Sandy before the racing. If you want to borrow or charter a boat from our fleet – get in early as there may not be many available, my guess is most will be going to the party. Or maybe you just want to fly in and be a rockstar – do it, but get a crew spot early.

So the racing will be hot and if you’re coming from interstate, you will be racing against the likes of Dave Suda and Hugo Ottaway, or relative newcomers like Ron Thomson and Adam Evans, skippers that are dying to knock the best off their pedestals. Of course you will have to race with the rest of the fleet too, now around 13 boats.

So this is a party not to be missed and you need to plan ahead. If you want to talk to us in Melbourne about sailing to Geelong then give us a call.

Call State President Luke Mathews on 0403 233 589 or the other bloke Simon Grain on 0413 870 046.

To see more check it out at www.victoriaweek.com.au

V-berths and vermiculite

This article was originally written and published in the International J/24 Magazine in 2003. During the writing of that article an option occurred to me that I included in the article as an option. Since then, it has become clear to me that the option is really the best way to do the job, so it is the only way presented here.

Background – Some years back, J-Boats Italy introduced a new hull liner that effectively sealed in the v-berth area and the lazarettes to reduce the accessible interior space in the boat which in turn, reduced the tax that is assessed in Italy based on the internal volume of a boat. Additional benefits of this liner were added buoyancy and some cost savings. When US Watercraft took over production of J/24’s in the US, they added this feature for a cleaner look inside as well as the buoyancy and cost savings

To convert older TPI boats to take advantage of the buoyancy benefits gained here only takes the addition of three panels, a little fiberglass work, three inspection ports and lots of sealant. The conversion as described here, adds about 325 kg. (715 lb.) of buoyancy.

Read more

Legends Regatta Photos

IMG_3018_TH

The Legends Regatta was born out of an idea from Peter Stevens early last year and it was decided to run it in NSW due to the larger amount of boats and Legends residing there and last weekend saw the culmination of a massive amount of work to make this event happen.

The Gosford weekend was a huge success for the class and I want to thank the members of the NSW Association that put in such a huge effort to make this all happen. The result is a real credit to the vision and hard work of Terry Wise, Arthur Crothers and Paula Shires-Clarke who were the main drivers of this event, I know personally that Paula has lived and breathed this event for the last 6 months, working tirelessly to make it all a success. Many others were involved and I wish to thank them for their effort also especially Tim Briggs for his support in offering sponsorship and help with the legends venue. Thanks must go to all the sponsors small and large that offered their help with the regatta, with around $50,000 worth of sponsorship this surely rank as the most amazing event of recent times within the class and indeed within yachting in Australia.  Thanks to Gosford Sailing Club for running the regatta and to Graeme Watt and his wife Margo who came from Melbourne to bring their considerable experience as international fleet race officers to run the racing. And finally a huge thank you to all the competitors and Legends who came and made this the most exciting J24 event in recent Australian sailing history.

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The second Bob Ross article from 1982

This is the second of the two articles I found in old Australian Sailing magazines written by Bob Ross. This one from April 82.

“In winning the J24 worlds, Mark Bethwaite and his Soling crew Ian MacDiarmid and Glen Read brought a fresh approach to tuning and equipment detailing that cut across much of the conventional wisdom in the class.   ………. (look under boat talk or Click here for more)

J24 Singapore at Worlds

Dear Friends,

I thought it would be nice to share the experience I had recently…..

Our team has just come back from Malmo Sweden after participating in the J24 World Championships. The J24 class is the world’s largest keel-boat sailing class and each boat has a crew of five people. On our boat are: Borstnar Valdimir (helm), Ng Daojia (trimmer), Borstnar Rafaela (center), Ronnie Tay (mast), and Omar Agoes (bow). This year’s world championships had a total of 55 boats with teams from 14 different countries. Asia Pacific was represented by three countries; Japan with four entries, Australia with two, and ourselves as the sole Singapore entry.

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Hugo's 2010 Worlds Report

Hugo is back and talking about the Worlds – very interesting! And there is stuff I know he can’t put in here that he has told me. No doubt more will come out as the crews come back. Read Hugo’s very informative report on the 2010 Worlds in Sweden. Click here to read and keep checking back on this page as we will be putting more stories online as we get them.

Come and try a J24

Want to find out what you are missing out on?

Interested in sailing on a J24?

If you are in Adelaide the SA Association & the Port Adelaide Sailing Club fleet invite you to come & try a J24!

Come & try a J24!