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(Sydney, Australia)- This year’s J/24 Nationals were sailed on the fabulous
Sydney Harbour and the teamwork at the host club, Royal Prince Edward YC, was
nothing short of amazing. Though the fleet had thirteen teams
participating, the depth of talent was huge and great skippers were back in the
pack. Midway through the regatta, Ben Lamb, Dave Suda and Steve Girdis
all had a mathematical chance of winning the regatta. It was incredibly
close racing all the way until the end. In fact, big changes could (and did)
happen on the final day of racing in the middle of the pack where just 6 pts
separated six 
places! In this
group, Rolex Sydney-Hobart winning tactician Sean Kirkjian, Vlad (Singapore),
Doug Watson, J Spot, Ron Thompson, Dave West, are all great skippers and would
be treated to a “roller-coaster” ride of ups & downs all the way to the
end.
Steve Girdis sailing CONVICTS REVENGE was crowned the Australian 2014 J/24
National Champion in an ultra-tight battle in the last two races, winning by
just one point as a result of winning the last race! It was not an easy title
to come by with so many tough cowboys vying for the podium. It was
consistent sailing that ultimately won the day for the CONVICTS, posting a
3-3-3-6-2-3-1-2-4-1 scoreline for 23 pts net. Early regatta leaders, Ben
Lamb’s KAOTIC crew, surely must’ve “blown a fuse” after winning four of the
first six races 
(maybe it was too much
grog?). In races 7, 8, 9 they posted a disastrous 6-5-10 and basically
had to win the last race to gain the title. Alas, that was not in the cards for
them, watching Girdis’s CONVICTS win the finale and bragging rights as “Top
Gun” in the Australian J/24 fleet.
Dave Suda’s gangsters on PACEMAKER were lying second after eight races with a
very consistent scoreline of 1-4-2-4-4-2-3-1. But, like their colleagues
on KAOTIC, they also experienced a bit of chaos with the “wheels falling off
their shopping trolley” in the last two races. PACEMAKER’s 5-7 in races 9
& 10 dropped them into third overall, taking the bronze in a tough, tough
fleet. Rounding out the top five were BY THE LEE and Kirkjian’s SAIL PAC
in 4th & 5th, respectively. For more J/24 Australian Nationals sailing information
PACEMAKER Overcomes CONVICTS REVENGE
(Victoria, Australia)- Two days of hard competitive racing saw Dave Suda
sailing ‘Pacemaker’ regain the Vic States crown – just. Not his closest
winning margin (that goes to a previous tussle with yours truly, winning on a
countback in the last race), but by one point from Stephen Girdis sailing
Convicts Revenge from Sydney. The most important point to take out of all this
for the rest of the fleet was the lack of individual dominance that has been
seen in the class over the last few years. Dave won with a score of 25 points,
rather than the single digit scores we have seen sometimes recently. Put that
down to the shifty conditions or to the growing depth in talent of the top half
of the fleet. You choose, but congratulations go to Dave and his crew.
Previous winners Ben Lamb and Arthur Crothers didn’t defend, Ben is in the
wilds of NT or FNQ (gone a roving for work … nobody knows) Sean Kirkjian was
another missing face from interstate amongst many missing out on a great
regatta this year. But with 19 local boats (including two interstate crews) and
another two boats from interstate, the 21 boat fleet fought it out over 4 races
on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.
Third was taken out by Adam Evans in SDM and it seemed this was a popular
placing as the next 4 boats all came very close to coming third, with only 6
points separating 3rd from 7th and with a number of stories of ‘if onlys’ and
‘might have beens’.
Doug Watson from SA will be thinking if only he hadn’t gone deep
to the left going downhill on Sunday when the wind came from the right he would
have been third. Ron Thomson giving an awesome display of ability in the old
green boat will be thinking how close he came to winning a new kite in the
middle of the field when his OCS was reinstated back to a first, but if he
hadn’t had the uncharacteristic 11th on Saturday he would have been 3rd. The
girls on Hyperactive with their new ‘import’ calling the shots would be
thinking that a couple of double digit placings on Sunday morning took them out
of 3rd and then there is Jet going hard left to engage the forecast change when
running 3rd found the breeze went the other way, losing those 6 points made all
the difference.
Brendan Lee sailing ‘By the Lee’ finishing a bit further back could have been
3rd too – if only he hadn’t had the DSQ after communing with Doug MacGregor at
the top mark. Doug didn’t sail after that either. If only !
Hard luck stories abound in racing, Hugo lost a rudder on the first day, the
only one he had so that was catastrophic to his cause, Warren Campbell lost his
kite pole around his foredeckies ear, meaning a new pole and hospital surgery
for his bowman after an ambulance ride. Sam Haines and his crew all came down
with gastro on Saturday night so MMJ did no work at all on Sunday – did they
eat together ?
But really – was it that bad, well apart from the aching bones and sore
muscles, the fleet went about it’s business in a pretty orderly way. A
southeasterly on Saturday around the genoa /jib mark with many changing back
and forth and a little lighter then windier from the north east on Sunday, but
shifty, very shifty. It’s not often you see Dave Suda mixing it with some of
the back markers and some of the back markers were pretty surprised to find
themselves next to Dave !
And the Sunday was nearly Dave’s undoing, after ones and twos on Saturday and
being required to wear the new ‘Club Pro T-shirt at Mike Lewenhagens great BBQ
night (thanks again Mike) in the evening as he wielded the BBQ tongs and downed
the sherbets, Dave put in a very ordinary day by his standards on the Sunday.
With a 7,8,4 he only just scraped home ahead of Convicts Revenge. Can’t have
the title going to NSW two years in a row !
As usual we had a cast of worker bees and volunteers doing the planning and
organising to get us all on the water, thanks again to Sarah, Doug, Kirby and
Jill, mainstays of the Vic Association, plus the committee and hangers on.
Thanks once again to MonJon Security for their most appreciated and continuing
support. Special mention to Sam Haines from UK sails for putting up a new kite
to be won by the boat coming 11th out of 21 boats, This is to show his support
for the middle of the pack, the unsung heroes of the bulk of our fleet, out
there every day learning and moving up the pecking order. Of course it was won
by Robin and Jim Townsend, two of the nicest people in the class …. from SA.
Well Sam the plan was good and much appreciated. Sam has chartered ‘Make my
Jay’ this season and is now buying the boat, pity he hasn’t got to sail it much
and only got one day out of the states. Much more to come from Sam I think !
So the racing was tough, the course legs around a mile, longer than we do in
club racing, but the learning curve for many is steep and rewarding. Many
skippers telling me of their experiences and enjoyment, a tough but a good
regatta by any standard. The highest placed new owner, Mark Foster sailing
‘Gridlock’ at 9th a very good effort, no major ups or downs, just a good
consistent performance. Andy Hunting, one of our youth boat skippers at 10th
with a best placed 3rd, Michael Lewenhagen a long time class stalwart, now in
Vertigo has jumped up the placings to 13 and at times was right up near the
pointy end. Best placed newcomer though was Bruce Alexander in ‘Melbourne
Sailing’, the old ‘Dolly’ which he recently picked up for a song (and maybe
some dance).
Bruce also took out the handicap win for the series ahead of John Neville in
‘Vice Versa’ (raffle winner as well) and Robin Townsend sailing in Good Company
(well-- renamed from Excite Your Senses for the regatta)
Perhaps the most unusual thing to happen was a text message from a new French
crew member to be sailing with Janette Symes in the middle of the night to
indicate the potential success he was about to have with an Australian woman
and the subsequent no show! Rotten luck Janette, I didn’t see it awarded,
but that would be where you lost the Thommo Cup this year I guess!
The results this year mean the racing is wide open, Dave is nearly beatable
(last seen recharging his confidence with a beer under the boat) and although
the usual suspects are still near the pointy end the pattern is definitely
changing. Victoria is the place to race J/24s at a club level at the moment in
Australia with consistent racing all year and a strong ‘traveling’ group of
owners as well. However, some of the best sailors still come from Sydney and I
know Steve Girdis is taking the message home to the harbour city that the storm
is coming from the South in the next two major regattas.
Now is the time to start thinking about going to the NSW States on Cup weekend
at RPEYC and the Nationals at the same venue in early January and mixing it
with our Sydney mates.
Finally, thanks go to all the owners, skippers and crews, their traveling
companions and those left at home, without you this group of sailing loving
people could not get together regularly and tell old stories while they make
new ones. For more J/24 Victoria States Championship sailing information
