* J/24 Crews Make Bigger Boats Go FAST To Hobart-
Sure enough, Down Under with our Aussie friends, it's pretty clear that
J/24 training and experience comes in handy for "big boat" owners who
are trying to make that 600+ nm dash from Sydney to Hobart a bit faster
and safer. Amongst the VELOCE crew and friends with some of the booty
from their win to Hobart are NINE (9) J/24 sailors in the crew picture--
e.g. most of the crew!!Once again some of the little boat guys went to do battle on big boats to Hobart – seems they like us out there. Or as Tim Bilham from Sydney points out, the Sydney-Hobart was their training ground for their subsequent J/24 Nationals victory. Coincidentally, their Hobart ride was on the First 45 VICTOIRE, another larger Tupperware version of their J/24 VICTORY.
Tim says, “our training for the J/24 Nationals on DEATH STAR has been predominantly centered around Hobart preparation. On our J/24 crew, we have Duncan (bow), me (pit) and Sean (helm) who all did the Syd-Hobart on VICTOIRE (Beneteau First 45).
We won our IRC and ORCi divisions and came 5th overall on IRC. Only plastic production boat in the top ten. Shane (our trimmer) sailed the Hobart on INVESTEC LOYALK. I’m sure he’s using a lot of the knowledge gained from sailing a 100 foot maxi with powered winches in his J/24 sailing”.
“David (our mast guy on the J/24) is the smart one and skipped the Hobart but this doesn’t seem to be holding him back at all on the J/24.”
As we know the Hobart fleet had some moments out there and some boats didn’t make it, although we think all the J Guys got there.
By comparison, the other overwhelmingly J/24 crewed boat was the Elliot 44 VELOCE out of Melbourne doing the M2H Eastcoaster. VELOCE was one of the front 3 that got away from the fleet and had a dream ride to Hobart, beating the old race record and finishing in a time of 2 days 2hrs 40min to take the race and series wins and just to keep the boys happy, hitting around 24 knots down the coast of Tassie in the middle of a very black night. VELOCE also set an additional informal record as the smallest boat in many years to win the King of the Derwent Double with line honours and handicap wins. Making the boat go to Hobart were Melbourne J/24 Guys; Mark Houghton, Kelvin Oldridge, Simon Grain, Noel Duffy and, of course, Fitzy. Joining us for the race in Hobart were Stewart Geeves, Neil Wallace, Priscilla Cutter and Lisa Simonov. So you might say most of the crew !
Jane Flowers who sails on MAKE MY J went down the east coast in luxury on the 60ft Swan DREAMCATCHER 3 and Rowan “Two Dogs” Pollard also out of Sandy, won 1st place in Cruising Division of the S2H (keeping himself a much tidier boy than previous ‘escapades’ offshore).
So that’s at least 13 J24 Guys that I know of doing the Hobart thing. Well done everybody. And then many of us fronted up for further training in Sydney! For more J/24 Australian Sailing news.