North Sails Experts Claim 2022 J24 World Championship
Emily Stokes
There are plenty of clichés in sailboat racing, and perhaps one of the best is, “you’re only as good as your last race.” And what exactly does this mean? We’ll get to the answer eventually, but let’s begin our story with Mike Marshall and his teammates on American Garage—trimmer David Hughes, tactician Allan Terhune, pit Jeff Hayden and bowman Rod Favela—as they are pacing near the signal boat at the J/24 World Championships in Corpus Christi, Texas, having been dinged with a black flag on the fourth and critical penultimate day of racing.
Ok, you can see this story as a bit of an ad for North, but if you dig more deeply into the content, thee are some huge lessons on J sailing here. Read more …
Congratulations to Mike Marshall, with crew Dave Hughes, Allan Terhune, Jeffrey Hayden and Rod Favela for winning the 2022 J/24 World Championship
Corpus Christi Yacht Club has a rich history of running world class regattas. ‘We have great wind, a short distance from dock to race circle, easy access, and South Texas hospitality. Our PRO, Mark Foster, is a past J22 World Champion and three-time winner of the St. Petersburg Trophy for race management. We may be a little harder to get to, but we’ll make it worth your while! ‘
‘We hope you enjoy your time here and we look forward to hosting y’all!’
Well that said, the Worlds are on and if you want to keep track of the racing here is a link to the results page
The fleet approaches the bottom mark in brilliant sunshine on Sunday – Photo Cam Way
J Talk Vic …. That’s a wrap
2022 J24 Victorian State Championships
It was with great expectation that 12 boats (11 Victorian & one interstate raider) hit the blue waters of Port Phillip Bay in what turned out to be glamour sailing conditions at the weekend.
A barmy 24-28 degrees, the water was flat & the wind was 6-10 from the south on Day 1 and then 6-12 from the North on Day 2…magic.
The script:
With newer skippers pressing hard and in good form and an intestate raider ACE attempting to take the spoils, interest was at an all time high
After the first two races on Day 1 it seems the script was written with ACE dominating Race 1 & 2 with two bullets taking with JAB and Baile de Luna filling the minor placings, the script seemed set with ACE by how far?
Huey obviously had other ideas, the more things change the more they stay the same!
This is exactly what happened next.
As if the clock was suddenly wound back a couple of decades the Title became an exclusive rumble in the jungle between two J24 Heavy weights.
To see Mr J24 himself, ably supported by Angels (& Bosley – James) take on the Grain Hermitage (apparently it’s a specially brewed bourbon) along with JET’s Flight crew, dominate and battle out the next six races was truly a sight to behold.
With the exception of a brief interlude in Race 6 where Baile De Luna took the chocolates, all other bullets were shared between Bruschetta IV (3 wins and nothing over a 4th to count) 16pts in 1st, and JET (2 wins and three 2nds, but carrying a 7th) 18pts in 2nd place, those two boats dominated the regatta.
Despite some blinding moments by Haywire, JForce and Joyride (winner of PHS) the rest of the fleet was lead in, many points behind, by the consistent JAB, the best of the rest finishing 3rd.
The Dogs made a late charge on day 2 slipping into 4th place and ACE battled hard at the end to finish 5th on count back
A heartfelt thanks to our outgoing President Warren Campbell on all his hard work over the last couple of years, to the SYC Race management crew for getting 8 superbly timed races in and of course to Kylie and Crew from Haywire for the wonderful catering, Nathan for the awesome drone footage and John Neville for his caring, empathetic approach whilst handing out trophies and raffle prizes.
Congratulations to our podium places:
One Design
1. Bruschetta IV ( 22 years between drinks, I bet this one tasted good!)
Big news for the J24 fleet at Sandy
Our fleet is growing ….. we have 5 new boat owners – three of them in the last 2 weeks. With over 20 boats our fleet is the largest in the country and is a strong and supportive community for both owners and crew.
We welcome our new owners –
Geoff Stuart AUS 2632
Daniel Drummond AUS 4474
Daniel Gallagher AUS 4457
Glenn Evans AUS 4470
Eduardo Sobelski AUS 4787
Sandy also has a busy racing calendar for the rest of this summer season
Upcoming Events are:
Sail Sandy 26/27 Feb
We have many local boats racing and Dave West from NSW will be racing with a hybrid ACE/Jet crew
AGM & New Boat Owners Welcome
Friday 1 April 2022 6pm
The J24 Committee would like to invite all new boat owners and the existing J24 Community along to the AGM
To be followed soon after by a new boat owners head wetting at SYC bar!
The J24 class is alive and well in Australia. Under threat of another Covid shutdown that has claimed the S80 and SB20 class regattas at Sandringham, the J24 class got away with a successful 12 race National Championship Regatta over 4 predominantly light and sunny (and stormy) days.
Our ‘new normal’ SE breeze stayed in for the regatta, with days one, two and four being in the 8 – 12 knot range with flat water and glamour sailing conditions, although extremely shifty, catching out many experienced crews. Day three was cloudy and a stronger 12 – 16 knot breeze that saw some competitors on jibs for the first two races, but most changed back to genoas as the breeze backed off in the afternoon.
The fleet did suffer a few covid losses in some crews and we had to find new people at the last minute and during the regatta to keep boats fully crewed.
Sixteen boats entered and finished the regatta, with a strong five boat representation from NSW and the balance being from our local fleet, the standard was as high as any we have seen in the last decade. At least six boats were sailing their first Nationals and were well represented across the finishing places, so yes the fleet is alive and well with a bright future.
There were the usual amazing stories in boat preparation and delivery, with one of the Sydney boats having to change drivers when Terry got called home with too many Coronas in the family and then Gardo having some night-time nav problems running into a tree and wiping out the pulpit and foredeck on the second half of the trip south. Still it was repaired urgently by JP, one of our excellent shipwrights at Sandy. Jack Felsenthal keenly preparing one boat only to find out it needed major work, so changing to ‘Sidetracked – Bandit’ and then finally succumbing to Covid in the family house after the first day. A great young skipper and keen, taking out a 4th in the 3rd race on the first day. Sometimes the luck just isn’t with you ! Despite this ‘Sidetracked – Bandit’, along with many other boats suffering from crew being ‘pinged’ as close contacts, the true ‘J24 Community spirit’ shined through where swapping/drumming up additional crew allowed all boats to see out the regatta!
So, how did it all turn out?
Tight, very tight and not sorted till the last race. For most of the regatta the top five were within five points of each other, so it could have gone a number of different ways right up till the end. Of course, there are some hard luck stories, mostly from second place down you might say, but in reality three first time competitors finished in the top five, with a total of 3 race wins going to two of the top three newbies. A real sign of up and coming and new talent to the class. Another sign of commitment was the number of new sails being pulled out. Investment in the class !
Steve Wright and the crew of ‘Tinto’
With some of the old guard finishing down the list a bit, and the competition being fierce all the way to the back, the podium was finally taken by new National President and sometime contender to the throne Steve Wright and crew on ‘Tinto’. Only three points behind was long time and multiple national champion Sean Kirkjian with the very recently damaged and repaired ‘Sailpac’. Third place was the very aptly ‘Covid’ named ‘Jab’, sailed by the very able Warren Slater and crew.
Places four and five were taken by newbies Adam Keys-Tilley in ‘Baile de Luna’ and Jack Fullerton in ‘Two Dogs’, with the long-time Victorian ‘Mr J24’ skipper and multiple nationals winner Hugo Ottaway in sixth on ‘Bruschetta VI’. Newly crowned NSW State champ Dave McKay in ‘Stamped Urgent’ only came in 7th. See how tough it was !
OK, so the rest of the rabble fought it out somewhere back there. Probably got hard luck stories and showed flashes of brilliance or good luck. Not covering them here in the OD placings, except to say they are the stuff of future or past champions and we love and respect their engagement and good company. They are the vital strength of the J24 class in Australia. Yes, I am one of them this year !
Close finishes shows a high standard of racing
Of course, this all changes in the Zimmer frame competition where the accent is on providing a level playing field for the fleet. Richard Taylor has done a maaaagnificent job of preparing his boat ‘Haywire’ and rightly took out the PHS section with four wins out of the twelve races. Somehow Dave McKay contrived to fall into second in between drinks and Mark Foster, a long time Sandy skipper in ‘Gridlock’ took out third.
On behalf of the Vic Assoc, John ‘Firecracker’ Neville once again conducted the prizegiving in his usual inimitable, enjoyable and politically incorrect style. Great job John ‘well played you’ – don’t go anywhere !
The race management team led by RO Chris Waters did a great job in the shifty breezes to get 3 races in on the first day before a huge thunderstorm, one race on the second day just before another huge thunderstorm trashed the racecourse and then four races a day on the remaining two days. Twelve in all.
Off the water, we had to make allowances for the corona problem again with staff shortages, so most of the action was held outside in the newly updated Ken King Centre. But with a bar and cold drinks at the centre of the action it wasn’t too hard to endure.
These Nationals were the qualifying regatta for the Worlds in Corpus Christi in Texas this year, but it doesn’t look like anyone wants to brave the covid travel problems. However next year’s Nationals are the qualifying regatta for the Worlds in Greece in 2023 and it looks like there is a large amount of interest to travel to there. That means the next Nationals at Cronulla in January 2023 will be a huge regatta. There are around seven boats with trailers in Vic and I think we would see most of those boats making the trip to the Shire for a little paddle in the ocean with the Med in mind. Woo hoo !
But before you all rush off to the travel agent, we have two great regattas happening at Sandy soon, Sail Sandy 19-20 February and then the Vic States 26-27 March, and with some NSW boats staying down and potentially more coming, you can bet it’s another couple of tough regattas. So put them both in your diary. The Vic Association usually puts on Coronas for that – the cold kind !
Our thanks to Sandringham YC for putting on the regatta under difficult circumstances, thanks to all the volunteers that made it possible, thanks to the Vic Association for getting it across the line and thanks to all the competitors for getting out on the track and making it a great and tough regatta. You know who you are – well done.
Venue: Sandringham YC, Victoria
8.30am, 8 January 2022
Members Present
Steve Wright
Hugo Ottaway
Simon Grain
John Neville
Jack Fullerton
Lawson Shaw
Warren Campbell
Arthur Crothers
David Mackay
Mark Foster
Warren Slater
Darren Cutts
Adam Keys-Tilley
Dave West
Kristian Thomas
Jordan Sunkel-Lozell
Apologies
Ron Thomson
PRESIDENTS REPORT (Outgoing President Ron Thomson)
Welcome to the J24 National AGM held in Melbourne 2022. Unfortunately I am unable to attend due to border restrictions but hope you are enjoying the National Championships currently underway. Sailing at Sandringham brings back great memories for me with the frustrating weather patterns, go left at all cost except when it is more favourable to go right. Watch out for the chop and ride those waves downwind whenever possible.
It certainly has been an awkward couple of years with various different regulations in the various States and Territories. Social distancing on a J24 is problematic at any time and silly rules put in place regarding who can be on your boat sailing. Like airlines, sailing is one of the safest sports during this covid period being out in the fresh air and the ability to put smiles on people faces helps during these times.
The National Committee has had to make some difficult decisions in the last year or so, none more so than having to cancel last year’s National event even though the environment was seemingly looking good at the time. I wish to thank members for their support and understanding. Queries were also raised about this year’s event but with nearly all borders open, there was no reason not to go ahead.
Regarding the J24 World scene, the 2020 Championships in Poole UK and 2021 in Argentina had to be cancelled however this year’s event in Corpus Christi, Texas USA is scheduled to go ahead in July 2022. Although the International Borders are starting to re-open, there are many challenges such as insurance, quarantine, vaccination issues to consider for those wishing to go. There are six spots available to Australians but do speak to the National Committee should you intend to go. The following year the 2023 Championships will be held in Thessaloniki, Greece which, fingers crossed, will provide a very scenic and different experience.
On a personal note I shall be stepping down from all J24 roles for the time being after taking a sea change in life moving to Perth. There is a fleet of J24s here and I will be making contact with them shortly. Currently I have been busy with the new house and indulging with 8 year old triplets. I wish to thank the National Committee members, Hugo, Simon, Arthur & Steve for their help and support over the past years and wish Steve well in taking over my role. I thoroughly enjoyed the J24s over nearly 12 years with a few regatta successes, many failures, interstate travels and jumping on at least 10 different boats. What has been the highlight is meeting J24 sailors some of whom are now personal life-long friends and colleagues with whom I will continually keep in touch. I even met my first Australian sailing hero but don’t mention this to him as it goes to his head. Sailing against some of the best sailors in Australia was a delight and hope this class continues to attract the best.
I must apologize for my hasty departures from Melbourne as I had only four hours to leave before the WA border closed. With no car, no home, limited clothes, I thank Simon for putting me up for a week and getting me to the airport with almost no notice. Lucky I did as the border has remain shut since. On my freedom day after 14 days quarantine, it was fantastic not to wear a face mask for the first time in 15 months. My sister Janette and Rob have also escaped from the big smoke and now live on Magnetic Island off Townsville. So no more Thomo Cups for a while and every regatta is now two boats short.
It is anticipated I will be back in Sydney and/or Melbourne within the first six months this year, tripled vaccinated and with face mask. So hopefully I will be able to catch up with you for a drink if not a sail. If you ever get to Perth (and allowed in!!!) do not hesitate to get in touch.
Best wishes
Treasurer’s Report
October 2020 Opening Balance
$ 8,014.26
SSF Memberships
$ 232.00
$ 310.00
$ 620.00
Sales of Royalty Tags
$ 900.00
Victoria Memberships
$2,676.84
Sydney Harbour Memberships
$2,294.44
Interest
$ 9.80
International J24 Memberships
Including new Royalty tags
($ 7,203.36)
January 2022 Balance $ 7,844.98
Election of Officers
Steve Wright was elected unopposed as President
Hugo Ottaway, Arthur Crothers and Simon Grain were returned to the committee, no other nominations were received.
State reports – informal reports by John Neville, Dave West, Simon Grain and Steve Wright were presented. Overall the class is in a reasonably healthy position with a number of new owners.
2023 Nationals – to be held in Cronulla in January 2023, Steve Wright to finalise details with CSC and advise.
Worlds – The 2022 Worlds are being held in Corpus Christi this year. There appears to be no interest in attending, but invitation to attend letters will be sent out to the first 6 placegetters.
The 2023 Worlds are to be held in Thessaloniki in Greece in September 1-9, 2023. There appears to be quite a lot of interest in going to these. The 2023 Nationals will be the qualifying regatta for these worlds.
General Items
Hugo brought up the subject of electronics allowed on board – further research to what is allowed is to be done by Hugo.
Geelong Regatta – not really a national matter but covered briefly – interest to go from 6 boats – (no one is attending now due to the RGYC not being able to put on a J Division)
Simon Grain requested recognition for the work that Peter Stevens does with measurement certificates, record keeping and class history. Appreciation given in the usual manner.
Just a reminder to those who have not completed the J24 membership application online already, you will be able to apply at registration 8:30 to 10:00 @ GSC. Please remember we are only able to accept CASH on the day ($60) & you need to be registered to take part.
Our Gosford Regatta is the ideal opportunity for your introduction to racing regatta’s and for those considering the Nationals in Melbourne. It’s the ideal regatta to fine tune those racing skills!
Talking of Nationals click here for a reminder of our 2020 Nationals hosted by MHYC to get you in the mood.
Emily Stokes
