David Suda and his crew in Pacemaker did an awesome job winning the NSW States convincingly.
For the rest of the story in pictures of the first day, go to the picture gallery page under the NSW tab above.

The ranking page has now been updated to include the results of the 2012 season NSW State Championship at Gosford on Oct 1 – 2 2011

J24 Tips for speed by North Sails J 24 class experts

North Sails has been at the forefront of sail design for the J/24 class since the class first started in 1977. Throughout these years North Sails have designed and developed J24 sails which have won countless national and world titles with sailors choosing to use North sails.

North Sails have gone through a restructuring exercise recently. They are wanting to put more focus on One Design racing and will provide more tips on a regular basis – of course they would also like to sell you some sails as well !

Below are some key points from their class experts on how to maximise your J 24’s performance!

Click here to go to the North Sails page

What a weekend?…5 boats from VIC making the huge effort to come to Gosford.  4 boats from Pacific Sailing School with instructors skippering and students, some very new to the sport on board!  Terry Wise skippering Bandit!!  Some of the old die hard fleet returning for more hot racing!

Saturday giving us blue skies and a light breeze oscilating up to 50 degrees at times….difficult for most!!  Sunday was another story…torrential rain for the first race, coupled with a breeze most reckon was up to 35knots at times…tough conditions that saw just 8 of the original 15 boats race the final race of the day as one by one we saw J’s heading back towards the club!!

Gosford Sailing Club gave us the intended 4 races each day – an achievement in itself given the appaling conditions Sunday brought!..’Pure adrenalin’, ‘survival mode’…and ‘the reason we go racing’ were phrases that were bandied around back at the club….I think one member of Kaotic might have also mentioned  ‘wet’ ..and that wasn’t the rain!

The results below say it all….a very competitive fleet…5 of the race wins going to current VIC Champion David Suda on Pacemaker, Sean Kirkjian, current National champion took out the other 3 firsts!  They were strongly contended by many of the other boats though and competition couldn’t have been closer at times!

I am proud to be part of this fleet…and mostly…very proud to get through a State Championships and see not one red flag…and not one prang!!  Well done everyone and thanks!  Also, a big thank you to Gosford Sailing Club for hosting a great regatta yet again, and also to our sponsor, UVEX for providing great prizes once more.

Scratch Results 2011 State Championships.pdf

The J24 ranking page is now online. To find it look under ‘About J24’ on the top nav bar.

Lisa Simonov, the better half of  ‘Make My Jay’ at Sandy and head programmer at Smart Marketing has done a fantastic job of turning an algorithm provided by Sean Wallis into a full on ranking system, complete with all the data entry and database systems required behind the scenes.

Currently the system is ranking on the state regattas and the Nationals last season, in the near future we will add the previous season as well. The ranking is designed to be based over the previous two sailing seasons and rewards regattas sailed and finish placing with different regattas having different weighting.

We plan to put even more bells and whistles into it in the future, but for now ……. how do you rank in the national list ?

Remeber you have just a couple of days left to enter the NSW State Championships on 1 & 2 October.

State Championships 2011 NOR

NSW State Championships Entry Form

The summer sailing season is almost upon us and along with all the other things you are doing to your boat to get it ready – don’t forget one very important thing – you must have a current measurement certificate !

The onus for this is on the boat owner – no other person or body. This means that if you don’t have a current IJCA certificate organised through our National Measurer Peter Stevens in the last couple of years, then you are not a legal J24 and will not be able to race. The pic above is the top of the correct certificate, if yours doesn’t look like this you have the wrong one.

If you don’t have your correctors in, your V-berth or your shelves are not fitted or you have made any other changes and not remeasured then you will not comply.

Now is the time to act, either contact your state measurer or Peter direct if you have any questions or doubts about your compliance.

The class is getting more competitive and we need to make sure all boats are racing on an even basis.

We have had formal direction from the IJCA and I have had a number of members contact me informally concerned about this matter. The National committee will be right onto this via our national measurement register this year and I gauge the mood from various members is also a “get tough” attitude. A non compliant boat is a protest just the same as a port and starboard, so don’t forget this important item in your boat preparation.

Alyn Stevenson has written an excellent piece here for us that you should all read as well concerning this matter.

J24 Measurement compliance and playing fair

As a past president of the class and someone who is not on any committees but is passionate about the class I thought it prudent to write an article on compliance of boats and measurement certificates.

Firstly members should be aware that measurers are there to protect the Class rules and ensure compliance, and in turn take their directive from the J24 International Technical Committee.

Owners are responsible for their boat measurement!

The J24 Measurement certificate is the same as an IRC certificate without it you can’t race!

If you change anything on your boat it must be done in consultation with a class measurer.

Your Measurement certificate is the most important document in your racing kit – value and respect it.

It has come to my attention that over the last 18 months there are incidences of boats removing correctors and this certainly is clear breach of RRS never mind J24 class rules.

The stalwarts of the class that have won most Nationals over time with boats that are optimized to the n’th degree but they will measure and comply.

They know the value of optimizing a boat but also don’t want to lose a Regatta because the boat doesn’t measure. They know the difference between optimization and an invalid boat that doesn’t measure. (They respect the rules)

The Australian Fleet

Boats that have missing correctors, made alterations etc. and have not had a new measurement certificate need to contact their State measurer and fix this immediately. (There can be no exceptions to these infringements of the rules)

The second categories of boats are older boats that have some basic missing items that invalidate them. The peers in class need to assist these owners to get their boats up to standard so they comply.

Having said that – Owners need to accept their responsibility and comply with directives from class measurers.

Two main areas are missing V berths and missing shelves. All of these can be replaced cheaply with lightweight replacements that comply with the class rules. A lot of us that have been in the class for a while can assist with information on how to achieve this.

At the end of the day it is ATTITUDE and RESPECT of J24 Class rule that counts, and anyone wanting to have their J24 comply will receive enormous assistance from within the class. That is the strength of the class, helping new owners come in and progress through the fleet.

COME ON – let’s play FAIR and accept our own obligation of an owner and competitor.

Alyn Stevenson