Simon Grain

My first race!

Mel Hawkes

Story of Day One of the Nationals by Mel Hawkes, sailing on Starpac

When my legs had finally stopped shaking and after I had stuffed a roll in my face I headed for the bar. Not normally a drinker I am finding I am quickly making up for that in the last few days. Still in a bit of a daze I found myself being asked how we did. I had no idea so was very surprised to find not only had we come fourth overall but we had been leading for a while on the first race.

The whole experience has been a steep learning curve and another one  I found was probably how to annoy everyone by me piping up I had no idea where we were I was too busy concentrating on my  two little lines that were my job. The correct terms for them would be the topping and the kicker line.

I must confess to shutting my eyes at each start as it looked more like a pack of bumper cars about to attack and judging by a rather loud thud at one point I think that theory was correct.

I have an absolute respect for all skippers especially mine as how they manage to pick their spots remains calm is a new mystery to me. I also have to rethink the theory that men can’t multi task as our skipper apart from helming and trimming the boat prevented me from hanging myself on more than one occasion and hoisting up the bow girl with the pole and that’s just the parts I had my eyes open for.

My goal tomorrow is to try and look up at one point. Baby steps! I started sailing with Pacific sailing school a few months ago after a holiday in st Lucia and I managed to flip a hobbie cat which I am told is pretty hard to do. Few months later I find myself racing in the Nationals way out of my comfort zone. Hank at the school reassured me that girls can be very good sailors let’s see what our skipper has to say at the end of the week.

2010 AGM

The AGM was held at the SYC on Sunday afternoon with a very good turnout of around over 60 competitors. The current executive was returned and the meeting received proposals for next season’s Nationals and NSW regattas from Terry Wise. You can read the President’s report on the Presidents’ Message page of this site.

Gripper presses go button

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“Wetty Gripper crewman Todd Harnett covers the pain area with electrical tape after a day of abrasion on the inside of his embroidered shirt.”

Sean Wallis in Wetty Gripper from Perth leads day one of the 2010 J24 National Championships being held at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne this week.

Melbourne really turned on the glamour weather with a 10 knot southerly and flat water. Bright sunny skies and warm temperatures meant competitors enjoyed great Port Phillip sailing.

The quality of the racing is obvious with the first five places being held by five previous national champions after 3 races today.

Hugo Ottaway a local Sandringham sailor in Vice Versa, is in second place pressing hard with a first, 2nd and a 4th’

Third place is held down by another Sandringham sailor David Suda in Pacemaker with a 2nd’ 3rd and 5th.

The battle of the Seans didn’t go head to head today with Sean Kirkjian finishing fourth for the day after a 4th and two 6s.

Doug McGain had an up and down day to finish in 5th. Racing is incredibly close with the leaders and the pack all within seconds of each other. The close racing and high standard of racing means some of the sailors expecting to be in the top bunch find themselves nearer the back.

 For full results go to http://syc.com.au/raceresults/2009/events/j24/SGrp2.htm

Sean V Sean

This season’s 2010 J24 Nationals at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne is  shaping up for a number of monumental battles.

In the last 6 years, this has been a battle of the Sean’s, with 5 wins between them, 3 to Sean Kirkjian and 2 to Sean Wallis, interestingly all in different boats.

Sean Kirkjian will be sailing Starpac and needs very little introduction to many in the sailing world, based out of Sydney he has achieved notable success in not only J24s in Australia in State and National Championships and in world championships, but also earlier in dinghies and in recent years helming or crewing on big boats such as Shogun, Yendys and Ragamuffin and is one of the youngest skippers every to sail in the Sydney Hobart. He has also won the 07 Sydney 32 One Design Championship and competed in Sydney 38s.

Sean Wallis from Perth and his team sailing Wetty Gripper sailed a brilliant regatta to win the 2009 National Championships last season in Adelaide and then followed that up with a resounding win in the first J24 Asia – Pacific Championship, also held in Adelaide in June 09. Previous to these wins Sean won the 06 Nationals in Melbourne. Sean’s sailing career started early both crewing and skippering International Cadets, winning an SA state championship. He then moved to 420s and Sharpies. He tried golf for a few years, but found he liked sailing better. In 1997 he had his first opportunity to sail a J24 and was hooked back in to sailing and the J24 in particular. In 1999 he was offered an opportunity to sail at the J24 nationals in Lake Macquarie and hasn’t looked back since then. He now finds himself doing his 11th consecutive J24 Nationals. Sean is also very much involved in Radio Sailing in Perth.

Both helmsmen will be out to win the nationals this season, Wallis going for his third title and the defending champion, Kirkjian to establish a dominant position in the J24 Roll of Honour. This is the hard to pick battle, both are very good in strong sea breeze conditions, which Melbourne is likely to turn on.

The other name that turns up twice since 2003 as a winning helmsman is Doug McGain sailing Code Violation from Sydney. Fresh from winning the NSW State titles in November, Doug is a no-nonsense, relentless skipper who is also very much in the fight for this season’s title.

Melbourne’s only previous Nationals winning skipper to be sailing this regatta is Hugo Ottaway, known colloquially in Melbourne as “Mr J24”, Hugo is a awesomely consistent skipper with a strong showing in all weathers, his boat “Vice Versa” has been totally renovated recently with the one aim – to win and go to the worlds. Look out !

But these guys won’t have it all their own way, also from Melbourne is David Suda sailing Pacemaker who is also very capable of winning this regatta. The Pacemaker crew has been together for years and have put in a huge amount of training in all weathers especially the strong sea breezes and are a force to be reckoned with on their home ground.

Also coming from Adelaide, are Alan Stevenson and Peter Stevens, and whilst not expected to win the regatta they are both very good in the similar Adelaide conditions and should be close to the podium if not giving the favoured boats a nasty surprise.

Nationals Sailing Instructions

The sailing Instructions for the 2010 Nationals are now available as a PDF download from the Nationals page.

Enter Online for the 2010 Nationals

Entry is now open for the 2010 Nationals. Entry is done online by clicking on the link on the Nationals page to the Top Yacht Online Entry System as used by Sandringham Yacht Club.

This system allows you to enter, change your details and pay online. Paperwork requirements for Insurance Certificates, Measurement Certificates and Measurement Compliance Certificates, Cat 6 Certificates and any other paperwork required will be done separately. You may be contacted by SYC and asked to fax these to the club, or if not, you will be required to supply these at registration on 2/3 January.

If you have any questions you want to direct to the club please ask for Monica Tonner on 03 9599 0999

Click here to go to the Nationals Page

There is also a link on the home page of the SYC site, look for a J24 button at the bottom right of the page.

SAVE 10% ON REGATTA APPAREL – ORDER NOW

Save money on your regatta souvenirs. Vests, shirts, hats and stubby holders are being produced with a striking regatta logo for you.

If you pre-order your requirements now you will save 10% on your purchase. This helps us gauge the demand and enable us to have enough stock on hand without wastage.

Click here to go to the Apparel page.

NSW State Championships

Doug McGain in Code Violation eventually won the NSW States in a seemingly convincing style with 3 wins, 2 seconds and a 10th finishing with 17 points. With no drops the regatta rewarded consistency and his 10th place nearly took him out of contention to Arthur Crothers also consistent Kaotic, steered once again by Ben Lamb finishing just 2 behind on 19 points.

John Crawford in Innnaminka came in 3rd with Steve Girdis in Convicts Revenge 4th. The regatta was significant for the return to competition of a number of boats and skippers and the interstate participation. Peter Stevens came from Adelaide to sail one of Terry Wise’s Pacific Sailing School boats, Pacatack and 4 boats from Victoria also made the trip.

Dave Suda in Pacemaker was the best of the southern boats with Hugo Ottaway making a welcome return to serious competition sailing in Peter Moulang’s new boat Duck for Cover. Simon Grain in Make my Jay and Ron Thomson in Kicking Bottom also made the trip.

Local knowledge and good sailing made the difference with the interstate boats finishing back in the pack. Conditions were I am told – unusual. Compared to the wide open spaces of Port Phillip, the harbor was jam packed with boats – our fleet, other fleets, power boats and ferries of all sizes. A constant vigil for all sorts of water craft, including the first ship to be anchored in Sydney for 3 years (I am told) was necessary.  Saturday’s breeze was a shifty SE of around 10 -12 knots, and with a false start when the first race was stopped due to a major shift, Kaotic got off to a good start with the first win of the day followed by a 3rd and 5th. Due to the difficulty of the course area the start was shifted around Bradley’s Head with the top mark up towards Rose Bay. Conditions were still shifty and banging the corners seemed to work the best, there were many bangs and bumps at the top mark in each race in some very hard fought racing.

The hard work from Terry Wise (NSW Pres) and RANSA showed again with a fabulous Saturday evening function, a spit roast and many frivolous and hilarious prizes handed out made for a great evening.

Sundays racing was held in 40deg heat and gusty northerly winds, a start line set in Double bay and some short courses gave a hot summer feeling to the racing. Doug McGain produced an almost clean sweep with a 1,1,2 for the day. Kaotic was unlucky to lose a first place when the last race was abandoned, unfortunately this was to cost them the title.

Congratulations to our winner Doug McGain, thanks to Terry Wise for all the regatta organization, thanks to RANSA and the race management team. The efforts of these people and the great turn out from the NSW fleet and the visitors made this tough regatta a resounding success and a good work up for the Nationals to be held in Melbourne in the first week of January.

Sail No Yacht Name Pts Pts Pts Pts Pts Pts Total Places
AUS 186 CODE VIOLATION

2

10

1

1

1

2

17

1
AUS 160 KAOTIC

1

3

5

2

3

5

19

2
AUS 172 INNAMINCKA

3

7

4

5

2

7

28

3
AUS 161 CONVICTS REVENGE

7

11

2

3

4

3

30

4
AUS 184 ACE

9

2

3

16

8

1

39

5
AUS 177 VORTEX

5

1

8

8

9

8

39

6
AUS 206 STARPAC

8

12

7

4

7

4

42

7
AUS4792 PACEMAKER

6

6

6

17

5

6

46

8
AUS4795 PACATACK

4

4

13

7

14

11

53

9
AUS5218 DUCK FOR COVER

11

8

11

6

6

16

58

10
AUS 167 J-SPOT

10

9

10

9

11

9

58

11
AUS4787 MAKE MY JAY

13

13

9

10

9

14

68

12
AUS 148 JAGGED EDGE

14

5

14

13

12

12

70

13
AUS 197 BLACK JACK

15

14

12

14

15

10

80

14
AUS1324 KICKING BOTTOM

12

15

15

11

13

17

83

15
AUS 193 WILD FIRE

16

16

16

12

16

13

89

16

Two Months to the Nationals

Two months from now the J24 Nationals will come alive at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne. The new clubhouse is a fantastic building right on the water with balcony views over the sailing area, members bar and social sundeck all overlooking the water and hardstand area. So gather your crews and families and come and enjoy this new venue, the Sandy team is planning a big regatta.

The Nationals page has new information on it and more will be coming very shortly, with online race entry, regatta clothing pre-order info and the many FAQs you will want to know the answers too. Click here to go to the Nationals Page

Nationals flyer thumb

Big Moves at National Hookup

Last night’s national Skype hookup, with representatives from NSW, SA and VIC online, made some far reaching decisions on the class future over the next 12 months.

Expect to see a much higher class profile in the very near future with a major promotional campaign coming on Sail-World.com, Australia’s leading and one of the world’s leading online sailing news sites.

Amongst a higher coverage of J24 events and news the campaign will be celebrating the class position as the birthplace of many keelboat sailing legends here in Australia and overseas culminating in a major event, “The Legends Regatta” to be held at Gosford on 2nd – 4th October 2010. Already we have significant interest from many Australian Sailing Legends, names you will already know well but not realised their involvement in the class in past years.

This site will soon begin a series of Legends features to profile these amazing people.

If you didn’t know it already   “J24 – Where Legends Begin”

Watch for more to come.

2010 NOR online

The NOR for the 2010 Nationals at Melbourne is now available online on the Nationals page