A challenging day for most of the fleet, especially interstate boats who aren’t used to the 2m swell and shifty light winds.

Race 1 was convincingly won by Nev Wittey on Sailpac who led from start to finish, closely followed by John Crawfords’ Innaminka, skippered by his nephew, Robert Crawford and third place went to Death Star skippered by Sean Kirkjian.      Defending National champion, Sean Wallis came 4th on Lunatic Asylum.

Race 2 saw Neville Wittey win again, very closely followed by Sean Kirkjian with Sean Wallis only 9 seconds further back.

The third race of the day was  abandoned after a wind shift and was then re-run, this time seeing Sean Wallis take honours over Neville Wittey and Ace, sailed by David West coming third.

Overall standings after Day 1 are:

1st – Sailpac – Neville Wittey

2nd – Lunatic Asylum – Sean Wallis

3rd – Death Star – Sean Kirkjian

Great performances today also from David West on Ace, Wavecutter II skippered by Graeme Thorburn and Robert Crawford on Innaminka who took the next three placings.

Full race results are available at:

http://www.mhyc.com.au/files/results/2010/events/J24/series.htm

With the first warning signal at 1155 on Monday 10 January, you can view results for the Nationals throughout the week at http://www.mhyc.com.au/files/results/2010/events/J24/series.htm. With a fleet of 16, including 3 boats from South Australia and 2 from Melbourne, watch for some hot competition on the water!

J24 National Championship -Interstate Boats and Trailors

MHYC do not have crane facilities and RANSA have kindly agreed to the launch of our J24s for this event at cost of 50% of normal fee @ $65 per boat.

The J24 Association of NSW will meet that cost for interstate boats.

Important

To avoid parking penalties and some stress (welcome to Sydney), please stick to the following:-

On Arrival

Saturday or Sunday

· Call Terry on 0413 876184 to advise of your ETA.

· RANSA – New Beach Road, Darling Point

Terry will give you access to RANSA hardstand and operate crane.

1. Please get boat into water first and then insert mast

2. Please remove trailer and have one of your crew as soon as the boat is lifted off, take your trailer to the suggested trailer area.

· Via O’Sullivan Rd to Blair St , to  Military Road,  Nth Bondi (leave trailer alongside the North Bondi Golf course.)

· see map

http://www.whereis.com/nsw/north-bondi?id=4CB582D249C639

3. Motor to MHYC  (about 1 hour)

On departure

Friday afternoon or Saturday morning

Call Terry on 0413 876184 to advise of your arrival time at RANSA

RANSA – New Beach Road, Darling Point

Terry will give you access to RANSA hardstand and operate crane.

1. Please get boat to RANSA and remove mast while in the water

2. Collect trailer

3. Please remove trailer and boat to Newcastle St Rose Bay St ,  (along side Rose Bay golf course).

· see map

http://www.whereis.com/nsw/north-bondi?id=4CB582D249C639

Your boat will be legal here overnight.

Its fair to say that Editor Doug has packed another load of volatile J news into a few short pages of hot reading – aye that Scottish wit is as sharp as ever.

Another year of those who made it happen, those who watched it happen and those… well that didn’t know it happened!

So if you fall into the last category then you better get reading. Well done Doug !

Here it is  Christmas Issue, Hit The Mark! December 2010

And yes we do need a press officer, the position is up for grabs and I suggest you all send your votes in to me …………would Doug make a good PR man do you think?

Merry Christmas
Simon

Following the most recent national exec hookup we have set the following timetable on the review of the national constitution.

State Associations and individual submissions to be submitted in writing for evaluation by Jan 30.

Draft presentation to be available for final review by the Vic States on April 16th

The concept behind this review is that the current document is now quite old and needs to be reviewed in the light of the changing needs of the States and National Association. This means that if you wish to have input into the review, you need to submit your thoughts in writing (email is fine) to Simon Grain by end Jan 2011

I have attached a copy of the existing document J24 Australia Rules

The nationals have been confirmed today by Terry Wise. This means the National Assn AGM will also be held during the championships. The meeting will be held at MHYC at 9am Tuesday, 11th Jan 2011. Nominations for office should be received in writing prior to this meeting.

AGM Agenda Agenda for 10 11 AGM

Geelong will be huge this year with most of the fleet expected to go and interest from interstate strong.

This year the program is full on with the big passage race to Geelong and then 3 days of windward leewards. You get to party an incredible 4 nights (if you can) with wall to wall yachties, friends, locals, drinks and bands at the club, or escape to one of Geelong’s restaurants to chill out on good food and another drink!  Somewhere the J guys and girls will have a special dinner and drinks (more!) There’ll be fireworks and planes doing aerobatics – and always a racetrack the next day. Yet more parties on boats, more racing and if you make it to the end – a relaxing sail back to Sandy and if it’s a SW breeze, you get to surf home!

To enter you need to go to the website http://www.victoriaweek.com.au/index1.asp and then ‘Racing’ and ‘Enter Online’, click on the ‘J24 Class’ button and follow your nose.
Enter before 6/1/11 to avoid paying a late fee and your entry must be in by the 14th January at latest. 

If you are from interstate and want a boat or a crew spot or have questions then call Simon on 0413 870 046

Don’t forget to mark 10-14 January 2011 in your sailing calender for the J24 Nationals…Middle Harbour Yacht Club in Sydney are hosting the event and you enter online via http://www.mhyc.com.au/sailing-championships1.cfm

It’s promising to be a great week with 4 days of racing and a fun filled lay day.   Any questions, call Terry on 0413 876184 or Paula on 0404 539176.

The Audi Victoria Geelong Week is almost upon us again – seems silly to think that but it is just 60 odd days away and you need to be thinking about entry and accommodation for this event.

I have negotiated with RGYC to get a J24 Series down there within the Audi Performance Series category as part of the official racing rather than us just entering a performance handicap class and have achieved that (and overcome a few hurdles they put in our way) this means we will have our own set of results and trophies depending on the level of entries.

The format is to be :

Saturday 22 Jan – Passage Race to Geelong

Sunday 23rd, Monday 24th, Tuesday 25th – W/L races each day

Wednesday 26th – Cruising sail back to Sandy

You will notice that this is slightly different to the Audi Series as it has a passage race on the Tuesday, where we will be doing the W/L – but you enter the Audi Performance Series

To do this you will need to take only the Monday and Tuesday off work as the Wednesday is the Australia day holiday.

To get this series happening we need to have a minimum of 7 boats (1 trophy for first given), I have stuck my neck out and said I think we will get between 10 and 15 boats (2 to 3 trophies), (Vic boats plus a couple of SA boats on their way back and maybe a couple of Sydney boats ?)

So here is the really important part, we need to have an idea how many boats will want to go to Geelong be part of this series. Traditionally it is an awesome race weekend to do, just ask anyone who has done one.

Ideally I would like to give RGYC advance knowledge of the competitor numbers – this will help with things like berthing arrangements.

So please send me an email if you are planning to go with your boat – or if you want to fly in and do the rock star crew bit.

For more info go to the race week website here

Simon