By Ian Grant.
Sunshine Coast sailor Phil Gray topped up both his sun tan and trophy cabinet when he cleverly steered Dulon Polish to a 1 point win in the inaugural Audi Hamilton Island Race Week SB3 championship last week.
Gray has proved his talent in other classes including winning the Australian 505 dinghy championship and steering Nortruss G Wizz to two impressive line honours wins in the Brisbane to Gladstone blue water classic.
But last week’s win was one of his best surviving a 9 race duel to beat the Tasmanian World Dragon class champion Nick Rogers in Toll Shipping and the multiple National champion Sail Boarder Dennis Winstanley helming Jump.
Phil Gray and his Dulon Polish crew only won 2 of the nine races compared with 3 by Rogers (Toll Shipping) and 2 by Winstanley in Jump. Read more…
Notice of Race now available
Dear Etchells Sailors,
The Notice of Race for the 2010 Etchells Queensland Championship are now available.
Please assist the organisers by entering early!
We look forward to seeing you all at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron for this years regatta.
Etchells Brisbane – www.etchellsbrisbane.com
# # #
Suellen Hurling
Marine Sports Manager
07 3396 8666 | 0488 995 591
sailing@rqys.com.au | sailing.rqys.com.au
By Ian Grant.
Dual Audi Australian IRC ocean racing champion Rod Jones with further test his tactical racing skill on familiar waters when he contests the SB3 sports boat championship at Hamilton Island.
The Sunshine Coast skipper who has set a high bench mark on the Mooloolaba Yacht Club honour board has left nothing to chance when he contests the inaugural SB3 championship at the prestigious Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.
His tactician will be the Beijing Olympic coach Adrian Finglas who has just returned from the Australian Teams successful World championship campaign in England and Europe.
Finglas besides being a highly respected coach is an outstanding sailor and a master tactician and his inclusion with skipper Rod Jones and the Club Marine Blue crew lists them as a short priced favourite to win the weeklong series starting on Saturday. Read more…
Hi Everyone,
Well, the racing is over and the 2010 International 420 World Championships has finished! We had a fantastic regatta managing to finish 16th overall in the Womens Gold Fleet (including a race win in the final series),which met our goal of Top 20. We also really enjoyed the overall experience and learnt a lot which we can apply to our sailing in the future.
The final day of racing was the lightest wind we sailed throughout our entire time in Israel. The breeze was very unsettled so even before the start we knew it was going to be a challenging two races. The first race we didn’t have a fantastic start or first upwind, but after rounding the top mark in the 20’s, we managed to keep slowly fighting back to finish in 6th position. The second race we had a great start which enabled us to sail in the best pressure and after rounding the top mark in the top 10, we managed to finish in 6th position again, making a fairly consistent day! Read more…
Hi Everyone,
Well, here is our second update from Haifa, Israel. It has definitely been a busy few days so we hope you enjoy reading about it and you are all having a good time back at home and it’s not too cold!
Saturday was the invitation race so it was the first day out on the water with about 200 boats from all the different countries so it was pretty hectic! The racing is done in two separate divisions, Open and Womens, and within these two divisions they are broken down into two smaller fleets of approximately 50 boats. However, for the invitation race they decided to start all the Open fleet together, and then all the Womens fleet together so there were two very big groups! The races wasn’t a great gauge against our competitors as many people were starting up to 2 or 3 minutes early, however, it was great to sail around the course and check out the conditions.
The Queensland Beneteau Owners Group is organising the Queensland Beneteau Cup on 30/31 October 2010, once again at RQYS. This year we are incorporating a French Yacht Challenge on Saturday 30, which is an invitation passage race open to all French Production Yachts.
The Asian Optimist Championships were held in Pattaya, Thailand. There were 110 sailors representing 21 countries in the competition, and I was over there with the rest of the Australian Team of Nia Jerwood, Sam Blackburn and Chris Charlewood,from WA, and James McLennan and Jack Graves from Victoria. Jack, James and I were flying in to Bangkok from Melbourne late on Tuesday night. Customs was really easy to get through so we pretty much got a taxi to Pattaya straight away. The taxi trip was really long and boring. The hotel we were staying at for the regatta was called Cosy Beach Hotel. Our taxi dropped us off at 2am and we checked into our rooms. I was bunking with James, but he didn’t want to sleep in the camp bed so I was in the room by myself.
The next morning I woke up at 7 o’clock Bangkok time, which is about 10:00 at Airlie. Chris came into my room and told me that the breakfast buffet was being served. After getting dressed and ready, we went downstairs to the dining room. The breakfast was a delicious buffet with fried rice, toasts, waffles, pikelets and cereal. Afterwards we went up into our rooms and just talked until Diego called us down to the lobby. We then walked 700m to the sailing club to check the charter boats we were using and rig them up. At 11:00 we went out on the water to get used to the difficult conditions and trained for 2 hours. Diego then decided to do training races with the Singapore team until 3:30. After a hard day of getting used to the choppy conditions we headed back to the hotel. We talked a bit and then had dinner and dessert. Chris was sleeping in my room for the rest of the regatta so we got sorted and then fell asleep at about 10:00. Read more…
By Ian Grant.
Whitsunday Sailing Club played another pivotal role in gaining important tourism awareness for Airlie Beach when they hosted the successful 2010 Ice Berg Australian Tasar championship on their Pioneer Bay course.
The exciting 10 race championship attracted 186 one design dinghy sailors crewing 93 Tasar dinghies representing clubs from West Australia, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, The Northern Territory and Queensland where the colourful one-design dinghy fleet transformed the sailing venue into a spectacular scene reminiscent to butterflies fluttering in a gentle wind on the Bay.
More importantly many of the sailors and their families and friends were first time visitors to the Whitsundays and besides topping up their sun tan they enjoyed the pleasant tropical winter environment and the friendly hospitality which is always on offer at the Whitsunday Sailing Club.
Sure all of the competitors were in a relaxed mode on the rigging lawn but became more focused on testing the tactical strategy and individual boat speed on the water in what proved to be 10 exciting races to decide 2010 Australian champion and the Ice Berg trophy winner. Read more…
SPINNAKER TALES.
By Ian Grant.
Sunshine Coast female skipper Lauren Calder will again test her one-design racing skill against a formidable fleet during the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week SB3 Dart class championship next month.
Lauren and her all female crew have built a respectable reputation from the important experience gained from competing at the 2009 World championship in Portugal and the 2010 Audi Australian championship at Port Stephens in April.
Racing in a fleet dominated by physically stronger all male crews has become a career ‘benchmark’ for the Audi Girls who have made their presence felt with encouraging top of the fleet race results in major championships and were encouraged with their mid-fleet scorecard at the Australian championship.
They understand their racing role will generally always fall into playing ‘catch up’ but this has not affected their overwhelming enthusiasm which is evidenced in all of their races.
The strict class rules and clone nature of the Laser Dart SB3 provide all crews with an equal opportunity but the longer stronger and heavier hiking power of the male crews generally means the difference in results favouring the male crews in the stronger winds.
However both skipper Lauren Calder and her crew are not about to give up and treat every struggle in moderate to fresh winds as another step towards narrowing the gap. Read more…
