For the first time in a long time we can truely say that the 2013 Nationals may well be a 25+ boat regatta, so now is the time to get your plans in place to be part of the biggest J24 regatta in Australia since the Worlds in 2006, also at Sandy.
The NOR is online on the Nationals page and the Sailing Instructions will be online shortly, if you need help with accomodation, getting to Melbourne, using a trailer or anything that helps you be a part of this big event then you need to contact the organising team, details on the poster.
AS AT 11/12/12 A LOT MORE INFORMATION HAS BEEN PUBLISHED ON THE 2013 MUSTO NATIONALS PAGE, UNDER THE REGATTAS LINK ABOVE – PLEASE CHECK THIS PAGE REGULARLY AS IT IS CHANGING ALMOST DAILY
Many Thanks to Janette Syme – Skipper of Whisper for contributing her version of events at the NSW J24 Championships RPEYC – Sydney Harbour
Friday – the day before the regatta – boats arrive at RANSA from various points on Sydney Harbour, Victoria and one from South Australia. There is a mixture of crews, skippers , boats owned begged borrowed and stolen – pieced together . And crew all keen – boats sleek, shiny and cleaned. They were all ferried around to moorings outside RPEYC.
RPEYC has a magnificent aspect of the harbour at Point Piper. Essentially an historic building, oozing character, it was comfortable and welcoming. We all sat waiting for the wind on Saturday morning, perched on the verandah, or reading books in the lounge or feet up on the lawn( as you do at regattas!) After a couple of weeks of seabreeze, southerly busters and generally plentiful wind, there was nothing, and grey clouds!( think it must have been the Mexican influence).
None-the-less off we all went at first puff and bobbed around within a couple of start line shifts until a reasonable Easterly settled in. 5-10knots. So the first day only managed 2 races but hotly contested in the light airs. Dave Suda ( Sandringham YC) in Pacemaker secured a win as did Sean Kirkjian (RPEYC) in Sailpac. The racing was set around mid harbour – across the chanel – windward/leewards. Sean Wallis (Perth ) sailing Kaotic was first to the windward mark in race 1 only to hit it – lost 4 places doing penalty turns. Creditable sailing from Ace (MHYC), Vortex(MHYC) , Kicking Bottom ( Sandringham YC) and El Fidelo (SA CYC) , Code Violation (Sandringham YC) and By the Lee ( Sandringham YC)to fill the places.
Sunday started with a 10 knot sea breeze NE – sun shining– the harbour littered with the usual power boats, ferries , speed bumps etc. Definite western shore lift and turning tide run out – affecting all boats up and down stream especially races 5 and 6. The wind lifted to 15-20 knots NE , perfect seabreeze and great sailing. Downwind legs generally favoured the shoreline and boats mostly headed for the starboard gate. Ferries had a habit of splitting the fleet with many boats gaining or loosing a place because of a ferry or two. All in all, the series was predominantly clearly contested which is great to see.
So after 6 races I think we could all feel our arms, shoulders and hands and wore a generous amount of sea spray and wind burn. But for the most part everyone was smiling.
Congratulations to Dave Suda and the Pacemaker crew who deservedly won the NSW title again. To Sean Kirkjian and crew a fabulous 2nd and Sean Wallis and crew in Kaotic ( Arthur Crothers)rolled in third. Handicap winner was Jagged Edge ( Leon Ratner REPYC), 2nd By The Lee (Brendan Lee Sandringham YC) and 3rd Whisper ( Janette Syme with fab all girl crew MYC).
Many thanks to NSW committee especially Sean Kirkjian for organizing a great regatta – see you next year same time same place!
Many thanks to Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club for hosting the 2012 NSW J24 State Championships and too all entrants for their participation in another great regatta. Very light breeze on Saturday building to a decent 15knots by the end of Sunday meant we still got 6 races in, blue skies and all round great weather! We appreciate all the efforts for skippers for racing and recognise the efforts of the interstate boats in getting to Sydney and hope you will continue to return for many more regattas. To All NSW owners, we apologise that the Trophies again went to Victorian, Dave Suda..he’s hard to beat but lets keep trying!!!
The NSW Women on Water trophy went to Sophie Kennedy for her continued support of the class, over the years racing on various boats from Sailpac, Kaotic, Wildfire and Whisper.
Thanks also to Danny, AJ and James for your help with tenders and photos!
There have been some changes to towing rules that all J24 Sailors should be made aware of. These changes will allow easier transportation of your J24 between states and hpoefully encourage more of you to travel to regattas!
Chris Furey is an ex J sailor and a great J friend from Sandy – he shot this pic and info to me this arvo, thought you might like to see it. Taken by Chris off Williamstown in the early 80’s, this is Athol Lidgett’s J24 ‘Jailbreak’ seen here on the burst in classic J style. Chris says, “It was during a JOG regatta out of RYCV when the race officials decided it was far too windy to race so several of us J sailors decided we would go for a blast anyway. The guy on the deck in the blue jacket is John Hooper, the sail maker. The helmsman was Mark Bethwaite (from the famous Bethwaite clan) who went onto win the World J-24’s held in Sydney a few years later. He did this a week after winning the World Soling title in Perth I believe. John and Buster were active J-24 sailors sailing with Kevin Hill I recall. (Additional comment from Rob Hartnett) John and his brother, Olympic Coach Buster, both sailed on the boat.
Jailbreak met an unfortunate end when sailing back from a Mornington race into a strong northerly that built to well over 35 knots. Athol decided they had taken enough punishment in the strong wind and seas and reached off into the lee of Rickets Point where they picked up a mooring just off the old Keefer’s Boatshed near Beaumaris Motor Yacht Squadron. The crew were picked up and taken ashore but that night the wind suddenly switched to an equally hard south westerly with enormous seas. The boat was torn from its mooring and smashed to unrecognisable pieces on the rocky Beaumaris shore just below the Beauy Pub. Somewhere on the rocks not far offshore there is a J24 lead keel!”
The Gosford J24 Clasic Regatta was once again a great success with a fleet of 13 making the huge effort to sail and trailer to Gosford from Sydney and Lake Macquarie. Saturday delivered very gusty westerlies with an average of 25knots all day. We saw some fantastic broaches, whole crews hanging off life lines up to their eyes in water which thankfully wasn’t as cold as Sydney, a man overboard, a few cautious kite hoists and someone with a very squeaky voice now! Day two gave us a virtual glass out mixed with some nice 10knots and at one point saw boats changing to a short lived jib.
Scratch Results
1st Sailpac – Sean Kirkjian
2nd Innaminka – John Crawford
3rd Wildcard – Brett Lewis
Handicap Results
1st Waterborne Again – Oloff & Marc Tromp
2nd Pacatack – John Gardiner
3rd Katoic – David West
This year we recognised boats that are antifouled or live in boats bags, competing against hard stand boats.
1st Overall Antifouled boat:
Black Jack – Riccardo Bertozolli
1st Overall boat kept in a Boat Bag:
Innaminka – John Crawford
Thanks to Gosford Sailing Club for running good courses in touch conditions, to Terry Wise for bringing 6 Pacific Sailing School teams and introducing them to the fantastic world of J24 Racing, to Water Hound for the huge effort to get their boat to their first regatta – they assure me they are now hooked…and we will be seeing more of them…to Waterborne Again for breaking away from club racing and joining the fleet…to all our usual loyal skippers who come back year after year for the fun…and everyone for competing.
Many thanks to Kevin Phillips for his on water photos and for full results and some great photos go to http://3gwiz.com.au/j24gosford/If anyone wants a full sized image circa 12Mpixels and 6Mbytes email Kevin on kevinphillips@telstra.com quoting the photo number.
We hope to see you all at Balmain Regatta on 28 October, and the NSW State Championships on 3 & 4 November at RPEYC. Remember, we will be presenting a Travellers Award at the end of the season so the more you enter, the better your chance of being the best overall NSW J24!!!
The 2012 AGM for the NSW J24 Association will be held on Friday 2 November 2012 at 8pm at Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, Wolseley Road, Point Piper – all current members welcome.
On some parts of the website you might notice that reference is made to an email address “admin@j24.com.au”. We (I) have just discovered that this email address has not been working for a considerable period of time. If you have attempted to contact us using that email address and had your email bounce back, We (I) apologise. It is working now, and will be checked on a regular basis.
We have skippers looking for J24s to charter for the NSW State Titles on 3 & 4 November – they are boat owners and skippers who have chartered before – reliable and responsible, so if you have a J24 and wont be entering the NSW States (although we hope you will) please let us know and we can put you in contact with the relevant parties – Paula 0404 539176.
