“Wetty Gripper crewman Todd Harnett covers the pain area with electrical tape after a day of abrasion on the inside of his embroidered shirt.”
Sean Wallis in Wetty Gripper from Perth leads day one of the 2010 J24 National Championships being held at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne this week.
Melbourne really turned on the glamour weather with a 10 knot southerly and flat water. Bright sunny skies and warm temperatures meant competitors enjoyed great Port Phillip sailing.
The quality of the racing is obvious with the first five places being held by five previous national champions after 3 races today.
Hugo Ottaway a local Sandringham sailor in Vice Versa, is in second place pressing hard with a first, 2nd and a 4th’
Third place is held down by another Sandringham sailor David Suda in Pacemaker with a 2nd’ 3rd and 5th.
The battle of the Seans didn’t go head to head today with Sean Kirkjian finishing fourth for the day after a 4th and two 6s.
Doug McGain had an up and down day to finish in 5th. Racing is incredibly close with the leaders and the pack all within seconds of each other. The close racing and high standard of racing means some of the sailors expecting to be in the top bunch find themselves nearer the back.
This season’s 2010 J24 Nationals at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne is shaping up for a number of monumental battles.
In the last 6 years, this has been a battle of the Sean’s, with 5 wins between them, 3 to Sean Kirkjian and 2 to Sean Wallis, interestingly all in different boats.
Sean Kirkjian will be sailing Starpac and needs very little introduction to many in the sailing world, based out of Sydney he has achieved notable success in not only J24s in Australia in State and National Championships and in world championships, but also earlier in dinghies and in recent years helming or crewing on big boats such as Shogun, Yendys and Ragamuffin and is one of the youngest skippers every to sail in the Sydney Hobart. He has also won the 07 Sydney 32 One Design Championship and competed in Sydney 38s.
Sean Wallis from Perth and his team sailing Wetty Gripper sailed a brilliant regatta to win the 2009 National Championships last season in Adelaide and then followed that up with a resounding win in the first J24 Asia – Pacific Championship, also held in Adelaide in June 09. Previous to these wins Sean won the 06 Nationals in Melbourne. Sean’s sailing career started early both crewing and skippering International Cadets, winning an SA state championship. He then moved to 420s and Sharpies. He tried golf for a few years, but found he liked sailing better. In 1997 he had his first opportunity to sail a J24 and was hooked back in to sailing and the J24 in particular. In 1999 he was offered an opportunity to sail at the J24 nationals in Lake Macquarie and hasn’t looked back since then. He now finds himself doing his 11th consecutive J24 Nationals. Sean is also very much involved in Radio Sailing in Perth.
Both helmsmen will be out to win the nationals this season, Wallis going for his third title and the defending champion, Kirkjian to establish a dominant position in the J24 Roll of Honour. This is the hard to pick battle, both are very good in strong sea breeze conditions, which Melbourne is likely to turn on.
The other name that turns up twice since 2003 as a winning helmsman is Doug McGain sailing Code Violation from Sydney. Fresh from winning the NSW State titles in November, Doug is a no-nonsense, relentless skipper who is also very much in the fight for this season’s title.
Melbourne’s only previous Nationals winning skipper to be sailing this regatta is Hugo Ottaway, known colloquially in Melbourne as “Mr J24”, Hugo is a awesomely consistent skipper with a strong showing in all weathers, his boat “Vice Versa” has been totally renovated recently with the one aim – to win and go to the worlds. Look out !
But these guys won’t have it all their own way, also from Melbourne is David Suda sailing Pacemaker who is also very capable of winning this regatta. The Pacemaker crew has been together for years and have put in a huge amount of training in all weathers especially the strong sea breezes and are a force to be reckoned with on their home ground.
Also coming from Adelaide, are Alan Stevenson and Peter Stevens, and whilst not expected to win the regatta they are both very good in the similar Adelaide conditions and should be close to the podium if not giving the favoured boats a nasty surprise.
Entry is now open for the 2010 Nationals. Entry is done online by clicking on the link on the Nationals page to the Top Yacht Online Entry System as used by Sandringham Yacht Club.
This system allows you to enter, change your details and pay online. Paperwork requirements for Insurance Certificates, Measurement Certificates and Measurement Compliance Certificates, Cat 6 Certificates and any other paperwork required will be done separately. You may be contacted by SYC and asked to fax these to the club, or if not, you will be required to supply these at registration on 2/3 January.
If you have any questions you want to direct to the club please ask for Monica Tonner on 03 9599 0999
There is also a link on the home page of the SYC site, look for a J24 button at the bottom right of the page.
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Doug McGain in Code Violation eventually won the NSW States in a seemingly convincing style with 3 wins, 2 seconds and a 10th finishing with 17 points. With no drops the regatta rewarded consistency and his 10th place nearly took him out of contention to Arthur Crothers also consistent Kaotic, steered once again by Ben Lamb finishing just 2 behind on 19 points.
John Crawford in Innnaminka came in 3rd with Steve Girdis in Convicts Revenge 4th. The regatta was significant for the return to competition of a number of boats and skippers and the interstate participation. Peter Stevens came from Adelaide to sail one of Terry Wise’s Pacific Sailing School boats, Pacatack and 4 boats from Victoria also made the trip.
Dave Suda in Pacemaker was the best of the southern boats with Hugo Ottaway making a welcome return to serious competition sailing in Peter Moulang’s new boat Duck for Cover. Simon Grain in Make my Jay and Ron Thomson in Kicking Bottom also made the trip.
Local knowledge and good sailing made the difference with the interstate boats finishing back in the pack. Conditions were I am told – unusual. Compared to the wide open spaces of Port Phillip, the harbor was jam packed with boats – our fleet, other fleets, power boats and ferries of all sizes. A constant vigil for all sorts of water craft, including the first ship to be anchored in Sydney for 3 years (I am told) was necessary. Saturday’s breeze was a shifty SE of around 10 -12 knots, and with a false start when the first race was stopped due to a major shift, Kaotic got off to a good start with the first win of the day followed by a 3rd and 5th. Due to the difficulty of the course area the start was shifted around Bradley’s Head with the top mark up towards Rose Bay. Conditions were still shifty and banging the corners seemed to work the best, there were many bangs and bumps at the top mark in each race in some very hard fought racing.
The hard work from Terry Wise (NSW Pres) and RANSA showed again with a fabulous Saturday evening function, a spit roast and many frivolous and hilarious prizes handed out made for a great evening.
Sundays racing was held in 40deg heat and gusty northerly winds, a start line set in Double bay and some short courses gave a hot summer feeling to the racing. Doug McGain produced an almost clean sweep with a 1,1,2 for the day. Kaotic was unlucky to lose a first place when the last race was abandoned, unfortunately this was to cost them the title.
Congratulations to our winner Doug McGain, thanks to Terry Wise for all the regatta organization, thanks to RANSA and the race management team. The efforts of these people and the great turn out from the NSW fleet and the visitors made this tough regatta a resounding success and a good work up for the Nationals to be held in Melbourne in the first week of January.
A new J24 fleet is being established in Adelaide based in the Port River in a new marina. Several High Schools are now basing their sailing programs at the club as well as Sailability.
Port Adelaide is the base in South Australia for Sailability with multiple cranes on the wharfs to assist.
Alyn Stevenson sailing Fun2 has relocated his J24 for 3 months to help establish the fleet and Peter Stevens has bought Haywire and this J24 will go to the PASC as well. 2 boats for sale are being moved to the Port as well as a couple a members who have not hit the race track for several years also in the process of moving.
A clear goal of 10 J24’s within 18 months has been set and will be achieved. The aim is to get older boats out of circulation and back in the club scene in an easy sailing environment. The river offers owners the opportunity to sail shorthanded or with inexperienced crew.
Having said, it also offers the opportunity to get some of S.A’s top juniors involved in the J24’s and the river is great training for the experienced teams wanting to sharpen their skills in shifting breezes, tides and up and down pressure.
Whilst it is early days in the project we now have interest from another club in the river region as the J24 has been dubbed “Pocket Rocket” by the members.
Port Adelaide Sailing Club was recently relocated to a brand new Marina and boasts superb facilities at affordable prices with Membership under $500 per year and hardstand fees at around $900 per year. This makes it attractive to get those older J24’s back on the water and sailing and affordable to most people.
Several large Regattas are already in the planning stages including a Junior Keelboat Regatta inviting all the States top juniors.
Anyone interested in joining the latest J24 fleet in Adelaide can contact
Alyn Stevenson 0400227562 J24 Australia Vice President
Warwick Ward 08 83417103 Port Adelaide Sailing Club
Peter Stevens 0417802640 J24 National Measurer
Two months from now the J24 Nationals will come alive at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne. The new clubhouse is a fantastic building right on the water with balcony views over the sailing area, members bar and social sundeck all overlooking the water and hardstand area. So gather your crews and families and come and enjoy this new venue, the Sandy team is planning a big regatta.
The Nationals page has new information on it and more will be coming very shortly, with online race entry, regatta clothing pre-order info and the many FAQs you will want to know the answers too. Click here to go to the Nationals Page
Last night’s national Skype hookup, with representatives from NSW, SA and VIC online, made some far reaching decisions on the class future over the next 12 months.
Expect to see a much higher class profile in the very near future with a major promotional campaign coming on Sail-World.com, Australia’s leading and one of the world’s leading online sailing news sites.
Amongst a higher coverage of J24 events and news the campaign will be celebrating the class position as the birthplace of many keelboat sailing legends here in Australia and overseas culminating in a major event, “The Legends Regatta” to be held at Gosford on 2nd – 4th October 2010. Already we have significant interest from many Australian Sailing Legends, names you will already know well but not realised their involvement in the class in past years.
This site will soon begin a series of Legends features to profile these amazing people.
If you didn’t know it already “J24 – Where Legends Begin”
Two of Australia’s best known sailors drowned in the 2009 Sydney to Flinders Islet race on Saturday morning.
Ocean racing veteran Andrew Short owned and skippered the 80 foot (24.5) metre yacht, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the former ShockWave 5, which ran aground on outlying rocks off Flinders Islet off Port Kembla just before 3:00am on Saturday.
Sally Gordon, was one of the most experienced women ocean racers on the Australian scene having sailed in 15 Sydney to Hobart races. She was the CYCA Ocean Racing Crew person of the year back in 2000.
Along with 16 other crew, the two sailors were taking part in an overnight race between Sydney and Flinders Islet. (Sail-World)
Many past and current J24 sailors have known both Andrew and Sally, sailing with and against them. Andrew won the 85 and 86 J24 Nationals and would have been a keen competitior in the Legends Regatta planned to be held in Sydney next year.
Terry Wise, our NSW President, has known both very well for many years and says, “Sally and Andrew are a part of our CYCA sailing family, both regular, very experienced happy faces, will be sadly missed.”
I am sure you all join me in offering our personal and J24 class condolences to their families in this tragic loss.
