(South Australia- April 5th)- FUN-2 pulled off a remarkable comeback on day 2 to clinch the South Australian State Championship which was held at the Cruising club of South Australia. 2011 will go down as one of the most unusual and bizarre State Championships held. The Championship had six heats and no drop, and ended up with 6 different heat winners with racing sailed in 5 to 20 knot breezes on both days. Maybe FUN-2 gets a chance to win this "open air" version of the R8??
Championship favorites LUNATIC ASYLUM did not start heat 3 due to crew problems and FUN-2 did not compete in race 3 as they lost a crew member overboard prior to the start. NO EYE DEER retired from race one. This left it wide open for JUMPIN JACK FLASH (Doug Watson) who had a fantastic first day with a win and 2 seconds to finish day 1 on 5ts from VERTIGO on 10 pts and CODE VIOLATION on 13 pts. LUNATIC ASYLUM started the day with a win but the day went sour from there.
Day 2 Heat 4 saw NO EYE DEER and FUN-2 clear out from the pack to take first and second with GOOD COMPANY in third spot. Heat 5 was extremely tight and anyone of six boats were lining up to be first around the mark , but while they all jostled with a bit argy-bargy going on FUN-2 slipped through to take the lead and finish first with NO EYE DEER having another good result and LUNATIC ASYLUM in third spot. When heat 6 started Peter Stevens was determined to win as he knew he was close to winning the series but didn’t realize that FUN-2 was his biggest threat. CODE VIOLATION led from start to finish with FUN-2 in second and VERTIGO in 3rd. As CODE VIOLATION, FUN-2 and LUNATIC ASYLUM sailed back to Port Adelaide no one knew who had won, only that CODE was close. As we arrived back at Port Adelaide Sailing Club the news came through that FUN-2 had beaten CODE VIOLATION by 1 pt to take out the State Title for the 5th time.
Special mention to Doug Watson and his team showing they are a real force in the S.A. J/24 fleet and will only get better with more regattas sailed. Congratulations to Peter Stevens who gets closer to his first State win, on both CODE's performance but also for the magnificent work on his boat which now looks like new. For more J/24 South Australian States sailing information.