As this is going to press the competitors at the Wet Tech Rigging Cronulla J24 Short Course Regatta will be either lowering boats into the water, cleaning out all the accumulated junk from a summer of club racing or simply catching up with old friends and acquaintances made in previous years.
The Cronulla J24 Fleet has seen a surge in interest and over the past 3 years has resurrected a regatta to support the J24 Class and to promote participation in sailing for all who wish to be involved.
12 boats have entered with an expected final number on the start line tomorrow of some 15, possibly more, J24 one design boats.
The Cronulla Fleet is lead by the forever young, David McKay with his race boat Stockcar plus his personnel fleet of 2 other J24’s. Hot on his heels will be Barry Ryan with Pinot, Clinton Hood in Vertigo and Steve O’Rourke in Cini O’ Bryne, last years scratch winner with Steve Quigley on the tiller.
Visiting boats include Hugo Ottaway from Victoria sailing Arthur Crother’s Chaotic, John Crawford, NSW Class President with Innamincka and David West on Ace, both from Sydney Harbour, all getting some insider knowledge on the Cronulla venue host for the November NSW Championships and the Australian Titles in January 2017.
The racing is sure to be close with a windward/leeward course of no more than 800 metres. Conducted in the waters of Bate Bay or the confines of the Port Hacking Estuary should strong winds come into play (forecast to happen ! – ed).
The Regatta is proudly supported by Wet Tech Rigging, Macquart Marine, Quantum Sails, Cronulla Marina, Afloat Magazine, Spot a Yacht Photography and AUSSEA Sailing School.
All results will be posted on the Cronulla Sailing Club website at www.cronullasc.com and the Cronulla Sailing Club J24 Facebook page. Standby for a full race report next week.
Article by Mick Reynolds (The ‘motivator’ at Cronulla)
Watching Two Dogs being christened by Jack’s girlfriend was the culmination of a three year youth program achieving what we had all hoped for, another keen boat owner.
Jack Fullerton entered the J24 world as a youth crew, before graduating as skipper on one of two youth boats, sponsored by class members John Neville and Simon Grain and subsidised by Sidetracked Entertainment Centre, Sandringham Yacht Club and the Victorian J24 association. The J24 class in Victoria has fostered youth sailing, which this year saw Steph Strong and her all girl crew and Jack’s boys team sail in the State titles amongst several past and present Australian Champions.
Following the state titles, Fly Away J came on the market and Jack leapt at the opportunity to get his own J24. I first heard of the purchase when I saw him working on the boat straight after signing the deal, returning the J back to its original name ‘Two Dogs’.
Nothing is more satisfying than seeing the next generation of sailors, getting their teeth into the best one design sailing world wide, it’s the future of our class, well done Jack, welcome and fair sailing in your new boat ……. enjoy……………
‘Stompin’ John Neville rounds ahead of the Black Prince
True to recent form, the real regatta results centred around who would come second, sad really, but the Black Prince is supreme, almost untouchable. I say ‘almost’ because he is, ‘Mr J24’ Hugo Ottaway creamed one off him and ‘Stompin’ John Neville almost did.
In the challenging lighter conditions National Champion ‘Pacemaker’, skippered by David Suda (aka The Black Prince of Sandringham’), sailed what could be described as his best ever regatta. Despite an uncharacteristically larger number of average to poor starts, the Prince silently slipped through the fleet to record a perfect score after the drop. Many thought it would be game over from a position like that however, with great boat speed and excellent tactics it didn’t seem to matter. “Did you see him go past?”, asks my crew, “no, must have gone the other way up or down”, “which way was that?” they ask, “well not the way we went, that’s for sure”. We had a bad regatta.
So who did come second. Well he isn’t a J sailor, none of the crew are J sailors, but they are all bloody good, 49er and top dinghy sailors. Michah Shuwalow is the SYC club coach – seems he knows his stuff. Simon lent his spare boat ‘Make My Jay’ to get him on the water and told him to sail it like a dinghy – looks like that worked ! MMJ might be worth just that little bit more – better rewrite the ad !
Michah Shuwalow – 2nd overall in Make My Jay
And third, collecting the bronze medallions was a resurging Hugo Ottaway ‘Mr 24′, consistent across the regatta and absolutely blitzing Dave in race 3, could have made the Princes’ pedestal a bit wobbly right there Hugo.
This year’s 2016 Monjon Victorian State title saw 20 entries including two from South Australia and two from New South Wales. The depth of talent included past national champions and multiple runners up all vying for a top finish. In true J 24 spirit the regatta began with many boats not passing the maximum crew weight of 400 kgs, (the Jet crew lost 10kg in the last week before) of particular amusement was Brendan Lee running up and down Beach Road wrapped in a plastic garbage bag.
Day one and I was somewhat alarmed to see the measurer (Mr J24) walking down the marina armed with a pair of bolt cutters and blatantly cutting the life lines off an offending yacht – not as alarmed as the owner ! However it was quickly fixed and then ready to sail, despite the concerns of the owner.
The weather range was from 0 to 15 knots with direction the full 360 degrees, fortunately this settled, however there was no consistent pattern making it a fresh challenge every race. With lighter winds, some awkward slop at times and an often tight 20 boat fleet, clear lanes were not easily found, so back in the pack quickly meant further back.
This year we saw new faces in the front pack with Michah Shuwalow second overall and Stephen Byrne in ‘Code Violation’ scoring a 2 & 4 in the last two heats. The race for the minor places was tight with one point between second and third and three points between fourth and sixth. Of special note was the performance of ‘Stompin’ John Neville and crew on Vice Versa, finishing 5th, who made a rush just to get to the start line after repairs from a major collision several weeks prior. They were a regular appearance at the front of the pack only losing one race to Suda on the line. John has become a class stalwart in Melbourne, always with a quip and a smile and soon to take on the running of the Vic Assn from ‘Wee Dougie’ who has done an immense and amazing job of running the association for the past 3 years. We will miss the briefing and presentation speeches from Doug. but as you all know, ‘Stompin’ John has his own brand of humour and presentation. Never a dull moment in Melbourne !
Who could have imagined a couple of hours waiting for wind on Sunday morning at the ‘Balmy Regatta’. Don’t know who started it but we have a new light weather sport – ‘Boat Ball’. With all the boats milling around a small ball is being thrown from boat to boat, some catch it and some don’t, which means a boat scramble to pick it up. Hours of aimless fun in the sun with many dipping into their attitude adjuster supplies – well what the hell, we may not even get to race. But we did.
Boat Ball is in full swing as we wait
A light SW came in and we got away to two smooth water races in the sun and warm conditions – purrfect sailing. Even yours truely put in a better one. He who chose to win banged off another two bullets, visiting ‘Other Dougie’ on the three legged donkey ‘El Fideldo’ and Dave ‘Westie’ West sailing local boat ‘Fly Away Jay’ cemented their 4th and 7th positions. Thanks for coming guys- always a better regatta with you here. Brendan Lee was in there at 6th after having just weighed in finally.
Back in the pack the normal fun loving, hard sailing J crews battled it out, better in some races and down in others – there have to be lots of stories that I don’t know about, I think there was a man overboard somewhere and I know there was plenty of mark yelling at times. Ron beat Janette on points, but Janette won the Thommo Cup – not sure how that one worked out, maybe it was done on PHS this time. Warren Campbell on ‘J Force’ was suddenly fast, blitzing the starts, seems he discovered a huge amount of ‘long time’ water in his forward buoyancy tanks – goes better without it. Nothing wrong with the boat now!
There’s the usual people who get in the same people’s way – you know who you are – there’s the little races within a race actions, the fight for second last place, the younger crews on youth boats and the older guys hanging in there. Once again the women sailing in our fleet is running at about 40% (a much prettier fleet than some), we have female skippers and crews with incredible talent enjoying competitive racing in the J24 fleet. Eat your heart out skinny boat class !
Massive thanks to the sponsor MONJON, SYC race officials who only flew one Black Flag and the interstate competitors who travel thousands of kilometres to make our regatta, of national standard. Thanks also to Luis Ferreiro for taking the most amazing pics out of a less than visually exciting regatta. I will be doing another article featuring more pics from Luis. To see his pics go to www.sportsnap.com.au
With a final score of 5, all bullets, it is no surprise that the Black Prince of Sandringham is once again crowned Victorian Champion.
Day 2 got off to a slow start with the fleet drifting around playing ‘boat ball’ whilst waiting for the wind to settle. Finally two races were held in perfect light balmy conditions. The Prince ran away with the day’s races and that was game over. Well done Dave and crew.
Michah Shuwalow edged ahead of Hugo Ottaway by one point to take second.
John Neville had a great regatta taking out 5th in OD and first in Handicap from Steve Bryne and Simon Picket.
Full report and pics to come. Results on SYC site.
Not surprisingly the Black Prince of Sandringham is once again stamping his mark on the ‘balmy regatta’.
What is surprising is John Neville sailing Vice Versa showing a turn of speed that nearly took a race off the Prince, only losing the lead just before the finish in race 4. John is currently in 5th place.
Mr J24 himself, the old master in the class, Hugo Ottaway is back and in a tight second place overall after the first day.
J24S can be a tough gig to step into, but SYC coach Michah Shuwalow racing Make my Jay with a crew put together at the last moment is running second equal on points with Hugo. Must be the reason he is the coach.
The ever present Doug WatSon in El Fideldo from SA is 4th.
Racing today was tight with 20 boats competing, conditions ranging from 12kn through to 15kn by the end of the 4th race.
For full results go to www.syc.com.au/ raceresults
From a wee Scotsman, our own Vic Pres – Doug MacGregor
J Folk! It’s time once again for the best regatta on the calendar. Often called the balmy regatta as more often than not the wind sits around 10kts and temperatures will have you sailing in T shirts and shorts. (by the afternoon!) Thanks once again to our incredible sponsor, John Moncrieff, owner of MONJON (Australia) Ltd (the very best security company in the land!!), we will be supplying brilliant racing, excellent race management, free welcome BBQ, free presentation BBQ and free snazzy J24 T shirts. Entry fees are being kept to a minimum and we estimate that 20+ boats will be on the start line at the best yacht club in the southern hemisphere. There’s no charge to berth your boat, no charge to use the crane, no charge for leaving your trailer in the yard and towing vehicles will be able to use the club car park and all of that means there’s no excuse for you not to enter.
EARLY BIRD RATE EXTENDED TO 11 MARCH!! If you race a J24, there is a dedicated division for you to race one design over the 2016 Easter long weekend on the pristine waters of Botany Bay. Entries open, see the Notice of Race and promotional poster
Email the organisers at regatta@bbyc.com.au or call Kelly on 0439 404 156 if you would like to know more.
The J24 elite will converge on Japan in September this year for the 2016 World Championships. Wakayama is a seaside town near Osaka and in September the weather is perfect for yacht racing, with average temperatures at 25 degrees and winds generally in the 8 -10 knot range. The Japanese are very friendly and love J24’s, so this is a regatta well worth putting in the calendar if you can get there. Charter boats are still available, and very good boats can be chartered for around $3600 for the regatta and return airfares are available from $1200 with Qantas. This could be the best value World Championships we will see for a long time!
World Championships are the greatest events on the sailing calendar and start life long friendships and memories, so let me know if your interested and we will try and put an Australian team together. To get one of the very few charter boats still remaining, please let me know by the end of February if you would like to be there.
Just in case you missed the Nationals AGM, longtime J24 measurement guru Peter Stevens and recently awarded J24 Life Member, has a modified role and is now our class records and technical officer. We must thank Peter for his continued support of the class, much of his hard work goes unnoticed!
In 2016 we are going to be focusing our measurement efforts on inventory and safety equipment.
Just about every J24 still racing competitively has been measured in detail over the last ten years and now our focus will shift to ensuring that everybody is carrying all inventory items that they list on the inventory.
For more information on this article and 2016 measurement, please go to the Measurement page here
