Thursday, April 7, 2011

J/24 ACE Wins Duel For New AUDI Car

J/8 racer
J/24s Have Fun @ Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta
(Sydney Harbour, Australia- Mar 8)- Here's a quick report from the boys Down Under- "Last weekend we saw some 300 boats in over 13 divisions compete in the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta – we managed to get a J/24 fleet together with 6 boats on the Saturday start line! A solid 18 knots – some decent gusts – some great wind shifts and a huge tide-- hmmm, not the easiest day!

Marc Tromp steering WATERBORNE again came out with a great lead in race 1, followed by a win for KAOTIC and a win for ACE.   Seeing KAOTIC's crew half under water at one point was pretty funny after a big gust and shift--- only to find ourselves on WILDFIRE also suddenly very wet too and fighting to stay on board.  Brett claimed he couldn’t get the main sheet off quick enough but I reckon it was something to do with me being his tactician for the first time.  Intuition processes and all that--- even funnier was then seeing David West do the same to his crew-- but didn’t settle for just once!!!  Twice in fact-– at least the water is still 23 degrees C!!

Day 2 saw lighter winds.  But still a bit flukey-- unfortunately, WATERBORNE again couldn’t race so we were down to a fleet of five.  FUN and WILDFIRE were trying hard to catch KAOTIC and ACE who won race 4 and 5, and MADDER'N'BADDER who picked the right side well to win the last race of the regatta!

Great sailing everyone.  Tight results – Janette Syme steering Arthur Crothers KAOTIC finished equal first with David West on ACE – on count-back David just clinched it. Lucky guy -now he gets to go car racing at Eastern Creek in the challenge for a new Audi – we’ll let you know if he wins!!!!  For more J/24 Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta sailing information.