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!!!
Hit the Mark ! Nov 2010
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.
What do you do when you are near the finish line and a crew member falls overboard?
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
NSW News
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
Sailpac wins J24 Division at Balmain Regatta
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.
Results – J24s 31 October 2010
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
What have all these people got in common ?
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
J24 Supporter, Rob Mundle's latest book is not to be missed
There’s a lot more to Captain Bligh than the Bounty, mutiny and convicts . . .
Read more about J24 Legends Dinner Master of Ceremonies, and J24 Supporter, Rob Mundle’s latest book – read more
V-berths and vermiculite
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.
Legends Regatta Photos
The Legends Regatta was born out of an idea from Peter Stevens early last year and it was decided to run it in NSW due to the larger amount of boats and Legends residing there and last weekend saw the culmination of a massive amount of work to make this event happen.
The Gosford weekend was a huge success for the class and I want to thank the members of the NSW Association that put in such a huge effort to make this all happen. The result is a real credit to the vision and hard work of Terry Wise, Arthur Crothers and Paula Shires-Clarke who were the main drivers of this event, I know personally that Paula has lived and breathed this event for the last 6 months, working tirelessly to make it all a success. Many others were involved and I wish to thank them for their effort also especially Tim Briggs for his support in offering sponsorship and help with the legends venue. Thanks must go to all the sponsors small and large that offered their help with the regatta, with around $50,000 worth of sponsorship this surely rank as the most amazing event of recent times within the class and indeed within yachting in Australia. Thanks to Gosford Sailing Club for running the regatta and to Graeme Watt and his wife Margo who came from Melbourne to bring their considerable experience as international fleet race officers to run the racing. And finally a huge thank you to all the competitors and Legends who came and made this the most exciting J24 event in recent Australian sailing history.
New J24 Division in Balmain Regatta
Balmain Regatta – New J24 Division
The historic Balmain Regatta is again fast approaching, and take place on Sunday 31 October 2010.
This year they are planning to run a number of One Design Classes as part of the Regatta including the J24’s for the first time as a separate Division with their own group start.
If you are interested in participating in a wonderful day of sailing and festivities please get your crew organised and submit your entry form without delay.
The plan is to run the J24’s on the West Harbour Course ie. from Balmain to Goat Island and Return, including roundings of Snapper, Spectacle, and Cockatoo, Islands.
Balmain Regatta is always a fun event so please support them so we can get a good J24 division running.