(Port Phillip Bay, Australia)- Hugo Ottaway, a.k.a. ‘“Mr J/24”, and
long-time champion of introducing women to sailing on J/24s, in
particular, put a team together on his own J/24 recently to compete in
the Women In Sailing Regatta held at Sandringham Yacht Club. Here is
Hugo’s report on the proceedings:“Despite only one J/24 entry in the Sandringham YC Women In Sailing regatta 2017, the result sheet was full of our ‘J/Girls’ winning every division and 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Doris Little Memorial Perpetual Trophy. Amongst the entries were Krystal Weir, dual Olympic representative, Kirsty Harris, competitor at the 2013 J/24 World Championship in Sweden and Sophie Cisek, Volvo Round the World competitor and 2016 Victorian Female Sailor of the Year.
The regatta was sailed over 4 heats on Port Phillip Bay in ideal conditions with sunny skies and a breeze that freshened to 12 knots. J/24 BRUSCHETTA VI won the AMS division and placed 3rd in the Doris Little PHS trophy sailed by a mixture of girls from our Sandy J/24 fleet, skipper- Madeline Linton (Jet), Trim- Paulina Mattila (Bruschetta VI), Kirby O’Brien, and Maria Vasardani (both from Kicking).
Kirsty Harris and her crew from J/24 HYPERACTIVE sailed a modified Adams 10 to win IRC and come second in the Doris Little PHS trophy and Janet Dean, Past Commodore of RMYS and owner of Adams 10 ‘Jungle Juice’ and crew member on J/24 Kicking, winner of the Doris Little perpetual trophy and PHS division. There were also many other women J/24 sailors amongst the competitors.
The talent amongst our J/24 female sailors has risen to a point where they have repeatedly won almost all the Women’s sailing events in Victoria over the past few years. The number of women sailing J’s has risen to 30% + of our overall crew group, with the class focused hard on fostering growth in this area. These results are a reminder of the strength and depth of talent of our female J/24 sailors! Well done girls, you make us proud!!” For more J/24 Girls Rule sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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