We have had significant interest from various parties regarding participation in the CN Management South Australian J24 Titles being held at the CYCSA over the weekend of the 9^th and 10^th of March. Our primary aim is to get as many local boats out on the water as possible and have had a good response from both local and interstate crew. As things stand we have 3 boats still available for charter. These have been offered to local sailor s from other classes but would also be available for any interstate crews. Boats currently still available include Amazing Grace, a Peter Stevens refit special, with the current owner keen to join in as part of a visiting crew and last years winner JJF, an older boat but with practically everything excluding the hull replaced for new in the last two years. Both of these boats could be absolutely on the pace and will be allocated on a first comer first served basis. So man up! Bring your sails, and we will hopefully see a few of you in March.

Link to the NOR below:

http://cycsa.com.au/racingdocuments.html

Simon’s note: I know there is a growing swell of interest in Melbourne to go to Adelaide for the SA States, better book a boat sooner rather than later if you want to be on the water !

The Monjon 2013 Victorian State Champs being held on the 20 – 21st April is likely to be a repeat of the the hugely successful and very competitive 2013 Musto J24 Nationals just held. Although we expect a different weather regime which should suit those who like a lighter breeze. Tradionally known as the “Balmy Regatta” for its warm balmy, hazy days, the Vic States is already attracting a swag of interstate entries with several boats being left here from the Nationals.

Once again we are expecting a fleet of over 20 boats competing for the title, which for many years has been owned by Dave Suda and his crew on Pacemaker but last year taken off him by Ben Lamb, our recent Nationals winner. Better sharpen up Dave, the nationals results show this one may not go your way either. And that means there will be a number of top yachts vying for the top spot. Arthur Crothers plans to be back to defend (Bennie not yet confirmed I gather). Steve Girdis will be back, as will the SA sprinter Doug Watson (Two legged Donkey! – you have to be kidding) and Peter Stevens in Haywire, a renovated boat that will turn your head with it’s interior fitout, we have yet to see how fast it is. I hear Terry plans to get a couple of boats down – that may mean Sean is back, we don’t know yet but with a string of seconds recently Sean must be keen to take out a title pretty soon. Seems like he has been in the desert for a while. Could we entice Wallis from retirement and radio controlled playthings, if you have a good yacht and need a top skipper – why not try your luck with a call to him. He did pretty damn well in Sydney with barely a practice day or night out.

Looks like the Thommo Cup will be back on too, with Janette planning to come down with a hotshot girl crew – this is going to be a party for sure, you need to be here !

Then there is the growing list of locals that are at the pointy end on any given day, younger guys like Adam coming up, veterens like Hugo getting back into it again, there’s the girls and Brendan – it’s gonna be a fight on the track again but one thing for sure about the Balmy Regatta, the social side is a big one too and I hear Sarah and her team are at it again with the onshore antics.

So plan to come to Melbourne, if you do then give us a call soon and we’ll organise some accom and all the other things that make your stay in our city just the best time you can have in a J.

NOR will be out soon so check back here for a copy to download.

Contact Sarah Thompson on 0415 761 046 for more information.

March sees 2 of Sydney’s premier yacht clubs hosting regattas with J24 Divisions – you all keep telling us you want more one design class racing so here’s the perfect opportunity for you to race against other J24s.

http://www.shr.mhyc.com.au/

www.rpeyc.com.au – NOR will be available soon.

Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne dished up a wide variety of conditions for the 2013 Musto J24 Nationals this week. Starting with 25 knots for the invitation race on Sunday, competitors sailed through the complete wind range from zero to postponement conditions.

Handling the conditions the best and proving he is the most well deserving National Champion skipper is Ben Lamb in Kaotic with a winning margin of 8.5pts over fellow NSW skippers, Sean Kirkjian in Sailpac and Steve Girdis in Convicts Revenge. Adam Evans in SDM, the top Victorian skipper in the regatta was 4th and Doug Watson sailing El Fideldo (means ‘two legged Scottish donkey’ !) from SA placed 5th.

Defending champion Dave Suda sailing his new Pacemaker from Victoria crashed in the placings for the regatta with a wild Chinese gybe on the windy Wednesday injuring his sister Rachel and retired for the day to get medical help at the hospital. Even Dave knows the game is up when you have to carry a DNC and your two drops are also a DNF and a DNC. Happily, Rach is ok and sailed again on the Thursday, with the whole crew wearing crash hats to honour her injury and recovery. The local hospital took in 2 wounds from the racing with Tim Briggs also attending. What they and the general populace think we do out there must be interesting as the girl crews generally end up battered and bruised as well, so much so that we had a bruising comp at the presentation dinner – you had to be there !

You had to be there to try and understand Victorian Vice Pres and the presentation MC Doug MacGregor, as like all Scots they have a thick accent and a great sense of humour (well questionable anyway). With President Sarah Thompson away producing her first baby for most of the regatta, her Vic Association committee went into action without her onsite to produce a great regatta that has been a huge success for organisers and competitors alike. Sarah did front on the night and did the thanks to all concerned and presented the trophies to our worthy winners.

Although Ben has been here in Melbourne taking out trophies before (2012 Vic States), this is his first Nationals crown and he and his crew with long time boat owner and class stalwart Arthur Crothers have been planning their campaign since coming second last year. With 5 wins, a 2nd and two 3rds they were always going to be hard to beat. But impressive as it is, the competition meant they had to earn it the hard way.

The first day’s racing in moderate but shifty conditions meant we had a number of newer and less expecting competitors take single digit positions in the first race, pushing some of the guns down the ladder a bit. Sean Kirkjian took out two wins and a 5th for the day with his largely sailing school crew – nice one Sean !

Tuesday morning and the wind was pretty light and a less likely winner (yours truly) was battling Sean for the lead and (I think winning) when the wind and the race committee finally gave up and sent us all in to the club for lunch. With the wind returning, two races were sailed in the afternoon with 20+knots giving great sailing in a building southerly wind and sea. Ben and the Kaotic crew, went out and smashed the fleet with two solid wins in the heavy breeze. A predicted change arrived about 30 min after we got back to the marina and sent an impressive roll cloud and 40+knots over the top as we all packed up – great timing from the race committee ! Many happy minds quietly thanking them for not being out in that. PRO Graeme Watt from Sandy and his team of volunteers once again showing the fleet the sort of high quality race management that has become his trademark and our good fortune to have him in J regattas around the country.

Wednesday and the wind is still blowing hard, (see the chart). The race committee showed their unruffled competence and kept us on the beach till we got a window for 3 races in moderating breezes and great sailing conditions in big seas, making great surfing downhill. Once again Ben sailed impressively to take two wins and a 3rd, with Sean taking the other race out. Steve Girdis quietly sneaking in to take the minor daily placings, that seems to be his trademark too, as he is often next to you on the racetrack but always seems to be on the podium at the end of it – Mr Consistent !

Also out on the water was Chris Furey and camera, taking some great shots, Chris is a long time J sailor (and will be again) and supporter of the class. Check out the great shot of the Hyper Girls above. There will be a pic gallery added shortly.

Further down the finishing list, amongst a myriad of boat on boat battles, another success story is quietly going about her work. Jess Davis, skipper Gatsby, of one of the Sandy J24 youth boats provided by Vice Versa skipper John Neville is sailing her first Nationals in J24s and 80kg under max crew weight with her crew of mostly girls is improving steadily to come off the back end of the fleet to end the competition with a run of 12s and 13s, that’s an improvement of half the fleet. Awesome Jess !

So well has she sailed that she has taken out the PHS title (including three PHS 1st placings) ahead of an Pete Moulang in Sanguine and new class entrant, but very experienced Sam Haines from UK Sails in Melbourne who learnt the boat on the way out to the first start on his first sail in Make My Jay.

Day four and the last day, provided stunning sailing in 10 – 12 knots, sunny skies and flat water, a relief to many crews finding the heavy going of the last few days starting to hurt bodies. Another win to Ben and then to cap off the regatta for Dave, a display of power sailing to come through the fleet and take out the last race.

There is a zillion stories and ‘if onlys’ throughout the fleet, too numerous to mention. However this year we have had a number of new skippers and owners that have filled out the fleet numbers to create an impressive and larger than previous Nationals fleet. Coming the farthest by a big margin was Brian Dowling and crew from Cairns, having bought Kaos from Hobart and doing the regatta on the boat’s way north. (watch out for an FNQ Regatta coming up). The three placings from NSW already mentioned and Peter Stevens, Robin Townsend and Doug Watson all from Adelaide made up the national fleet. From Melbourne we had Sam Haines, Hamish and Jock Macadie, Peter Skillington and Mark Foster all doing their first nationals and all with little or no previous sailing experience in J24s. The class is alive and well! So good was the regatta that several interstate boats have been left in Melbourne for the Vic States in April, so if you want to be part of the next party – start planning it now !

Once again Richard Hewitt and the SYC team did a great job hosting the regatta both on and off the water, a big thank you to our Jury, all our volunteers and to the competitors.

2013 Nationals OD results

2013 PHS results

See you next time !

The CN Management South Australian J24 State Championships will be held at the CYCSA over the weekend of the 9th and 10th of March with 7 races scheduled over 2 days.

After the success of last year’s national championships, held over the same weekend, at the same venue, the SA J24 committee are looking to attract as many local and interstate boats as possible.

The bonus of a public holiday on the Monday means that any travel time need not eat into precious holiday entitlement!

There are currently boats available for charter for the weekend giving those further afield the opportunity to come and join in without the transport costs/hassle.

Anyone wishing to secure an boat for charter should contact Doug Watson on 0415 677 886.

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!!!

NSW J24 State Championships Full Results

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!