The World’s Most Popular One-Design Keelboat
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
Congratulations to the crew of J-Spot – storming around the MHYC race course on Saturday in Sydney Harbour – a beautiful day with a consistent 12knots, 25 degrees, a great Windward Leeward 4 lap course. Their now famous photo dragging the MOB over the finish must have boosted their ego (as well as stretching his arms) – a great win – just beating the always well sailed Vortex by 39 seconds!!!
From the Editor…
Yes folks…there’s an issue missing! During October the staff absconded and went on holiday… all of them. From what I can make out there was drink, sun burnt bums, casual carnal interactions, gambling and absolutely no sailing. I would tell you some of the stories but as the tee-shirt of one smart Alec I met recently proudly announced… “What goes on tour, goes on facebook”… so you can look up the high jinks for yourselves. The good news is that everyone is now back at their desks and the little fingers of our staffers re just a blur as they hammer out articles for your information and entertainment.
So click the link below to read the latest awesome newsletter from Dougie down at Crackerjack Journos.
Tell them to hang on and keep racing…
In Saturdays fantastic MHYC Race, the J fleet comments are that a lot of fun was had – blue skies, good solid breezes, dolphins on the start line… – probably not so much fun for the wet crew member off J-Spot…Post race comments from Skipper Adam were along the lines off telling him they were only 20m from the finish line so hang on….eye witnesses report it was more like 150m…
The picture says it all….
Photo courtesy of Nicole Scott – for more pics, www.sailingimages.net.au
For the latest on whats happening in NSW, November 2010 News.
The Nationals are only 2 months away and we encourage you to organise getting your boats to Sydney soon, if you are coming from Interstate – now is also a good time to think about accomodation and logistics.
You can enter online via http://www.mhyc.com.au/sailing-championships1.cfm
The Balmain Regatta is one of Sydney’s oldest sporting events, and has a long history with our waterways. It was first held in 1849 and continued until 1934, when sadly it was discontinued. It was revived in 1994 by the Wooden Boat Association, and Balmain Sailing Club participated in the Balmain Regatta in 1995 and 1996 as one of its Spring Series races.
In 1997, it was run as a separate event, jointly organised by the Balmain Sailing Club and the Wooden Boat Association. Today it is run by Balmain Sailing Club, in association with other sailing clubs and community organisations, and is a real celebration of Balmain, the harbour and our maritime heritage. The event attracts over 150 vessels on the water, making it one of the great annual spectacles around Balmain.
A couple of months ago I was contacted by Neil Hamilton from the Race Committee and asked if we could get a J24 fleet together as they would like to give us our own division – a lot of phone calls and encouragement later we have a fleet of 6, enough to race!! Wildfire’s Brett Hudson is always keen to race, as is Kaotic – both sailing down from Middle Harbour. Fun, newly owned by Paul Baker and David Lamb will, I’ve learnt, just be wherever you tell them to be, Madder ‘n Badder have the one design racing bug since coming to the NSW State Championship and local entry Maritime Training School made up the fleet, joined by our new crew on Sailpac.
A Spinnaker start in a 10-15 Northeasterly winds soon splits the fleet with Madder ‘n Badder getting away, Kaotic not far behind them and then a match race for the next 20 mins between Sailpac and Wildfire. Fun and Maritime Training School not far behind! Shifty winds and shadows from all the islands and headlands around make it a tactical race with a mix of works, kite runs and reaches.
Tim Briggs, steering Sailpac in only his fourth race is going well – I’m in the pit doing tactics and we scored the skills of Damien trimming – a definite advantage. Further around the course we see Janette steering Arthur Crothers’ Kaotic sail into a hole and as we come around Goat Island – with only Madder ‘n Badder in front of us a shy kite gets us where we want to be – in the lead. Holding that lead is the key, and finishing in front of Kaotic and Madder ‘n Badder, it was an absolute joy to see Tim steer a J over the line first – a huge confidence boost for a new owner!
Balmain Sailing Club doesn’t disappoint, with fun and festivities on the water front – a great regatta atmosphere, life raft demos, rowing, BBQ and raffles. A few wines later…the only thing sending people home on a glorious Sunday afternoon was the 6pm tropical downpour – a delightful days racing. We were also definitely in good company, hearing J24 Legends Gary Geitz and Ian Bashfords names dropped in post racing story telling!! Well done BSC! Hopefully with a larger fleet, we will definately be there next year.
1 Sailpac – Tim Briggs
2 Kaotic – Janette Syme
3 Madder’n Badder – Chris O’Neill
4 Wildfire – Brett Hudson
5 Fun – Paul Baker
6 Maritime Training School – Chris Lowe
They are all on my boat !
And they are all in Geelong.
That was last year at Geelong at the annual Geelong Audi Victoria Week regatta over the Australia Day weekend. And what a glamour regatta it was.
We had Terry Wise down from Sydney, Karl Chappell from Adelaide, both of whom are keen to come back. Call them and ask them what a good time they had !
Hmmmm …………… Quite a lot of girls on my boat too !
Actually there is lots of everything. Lots of boats – around 600, lots of yachties – around 3000, lots of cool refreshing drink (didn’t count), lots of bands playing lots of music (more than I could listen too) and well ….. lots of girls – and the sailing ones too !
I guess I should point out to the sailing girls – there are lots of guys too, but you knew that already. In fact if you can’t get a sail and a cool drink in Geelong then you are definitely not trying. Its one giant party and it’s been going for 166 years.
Last year there were around 25,000 people visited the annual Geelong Week Regatta and Festival (yes it is that big), it turns Geelong inside out. The weather was great and of course will be again.
The Melbourne J24 fleet is planning to make a big showing this season at Geelong and negotiations are underway to have our own division and prizes.
The week is ideally placed after our Nationals at the end of January and usually involves a race down the bay to Geelong and then a couple of days of round the buoys racing in mixed fleets at Geelong followed by a relaxing sail home to Sandy. Let me say it is a big event and you will feel like you have been through the wringer by the end of it but you won’t want to miss the next one once you have discovered what a blast it is. This is like no other regatta in the Southern Hemisphere.
For boats returning to Adelaide after the Nationals or (coming from Sydney) – bring your boats back through Melbourne and we will store them for you and then launch them at Sandy before the racing. If you want to borrow or charter a boat from our fleet – get in early as there may not be many available, my guess is most will be going to the party. Or maybe you just want to fly in and be a rockstar – do it, but get a crew spot early.
So the racing will be hot and if you’re coming from interstate, you will be racing against the likes of Dave Suda and Hugo Ottaway, or relative newcomers like Ron Thomson and Adam Evans, skippers that are dying to knock the best off their pedestals. Of course you will have to race with the rest of the fleet too, now around 13 boats.
So this is a party not to be missed and you need to plan ahead. If you want to talk to us in Melbourne about sailing to Geelong then give us a call.
Call State President Luke Mathews on 0403 233 589 or the other bloke Simon Grain on 0413 870 046.
To see more check it out at www.victoriaweek.com.au
Read more about J24 Legends Dinner Master of Ceremonies, and J24 Supporter, Rob Mundle’s latest book – read more
This article was originally written and published in the International J/24 Magazine in 2003. During the writing of that article an option occurred to me that I included in the article as an option. Since then, it has become clear to me that the option is really the best way to do the job, so it is the only way presented here.
Background – Some years back, J-Boats Italy introduced a new hull liner that effectively sealed in the v-berth area and the lazarettes to reduce the accessible interior space in the boat which in turn, reduced the tax that is assessed in Italy based on the internal volume of a boat. Additional benefits of this liner were added buoyancy and some cost savings. When US Watercraft took over production of J/24’s in the US, they added this feature for a cleaner look inside as well as the buoyancy and cost savings
To convert older TPI boats to take advantage of the buoyancy benefits gained here only takes the addition of three panels, a little fiberglass work, three inspection ports and lots of sealant. The conversion as described here, adds about 325 kg. (715 lb.) of buoyancy.