(Gosford, NSW, Australia)- What a weekend!? Five boats from Victoria
making the huge effort to come to Gosford, New South Wales for the J/24
NSW Championship! Four boats from Pacific Sailing School with
instructors skippering and students, some very new to the sport on
board, making it to Gosford, NSW! Amazing!! Terry Wise skippering
BANDIT! Shocking!! Some of the old die-hard fleet returning for more
hot racing! Just can't stay away from that hot, hot, hot one-design
called the J/24. 24 what? The over-the-hill gang rides again and
initiates a few new swabs for crew along the way. Love it! You can
recruit new crew from ANYWHERE-- free food, free beer, free sailing, you
just can't lose on that proposition. Saturday gave the teams assembled from across the vast expanse of Oz blue skies and a light breeze oscillating up to 50 degrees at times--- hmmm, difficult for most!! Sunday was another story altogether-- torrential rain for the first race, coupled with a breeze most reckon was up to 35knots at times. Tough conditions that saw just 8 of the original 15 boats race the final race of the day as one by one we saw J’s heading back towards the club!!
Gosford
Sailing Club did a helluva job, tip a few "tinnies" to the GSC PRO and
RC and "lovelies" helping out. Gosford gave us the intended four races
each day – an achievement in itself given the appalling conditions
Sunday brought! "Pure adrenalin", "survival mode", "what, this is why
we go racing" were phrases that were bandied around back at the club
afterwards. We believe one member of KAOTIC might have also mentioned
"wet"-- and that wasn’t the rain! Ha, Ha, Ha. Lovely, those boys.The results say it all. A very competitive fleet. Five of the race wins going to current VIC Champion David Suda on PACEMAKER, while Sean Kirkjian on SAILPAC, current National champion, took out the other 3 firsts! They were strongly contended by many of the other boats though and competition couldn’t have been closer at times! Behind these two teams, lying third was Chris Lee on VORTEX, fourth Hugh Ottoway on BRUSCHETTA VI and fifth Brendan Lee on BY THE LEE!
Said Paula about the racing, "I am proud to be part of this fleet. And, mostly very proud to get through a State Championships and see not one red flag and not one prang!! Well done everyone and thanks! Also, a big thank you to Gosford Sailing Club for hosting a great regatta yet again, and also to our sponsor, UVEX for providing great prizes once more." For more J/24 NSW Australia Championships sailing information
