2021 Vic States

Westernport Yacht Club 11-13 March

Photos from the weekend

VIC STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS EVENT SUMMARY

What an Event!!! Westernport Yacht Club really turned it on. We got 9 races across 3 days.

With 17 Cats, 5 Sloops & 1 5.7

A mixture of conditions on each day varying from 5-15 knots meant everyone had a chance to shine

CAT RIGS

Day 1

Boats arriving left & right all preparing for the days to come. 4 Boats from NSW and 1 from Portland was great to see the interstaters and Portland team come down. Ant R came out of the blocks strong with 2 bullets and a 2nd closely behind Mick Colecliffe who showed some great speed and tactics to finish the day 2nd overall. Close and competitive races saw a few new faces at the front of the field, mixing it with a few of the seasoned front runners.

Day 2

Started slow with little to no breeze. It looked to fill in after a small delay but once we got out there it completely died forcing us all back to shore, this proved tricky as the tide was going out at about 3-4 knots. Eventually we all made it back where we stayed for a number of hours before a solid 10-15 knot breeze kicked in for the remainder of the day. Race 4 saw a tough race between Camo & Ant with Ant eventually sneaking through on the last gybe to the finish. Race 5 saw Ant looking to show another strong performance before making a very rare error and hitting the top mark, catching his rudder in the process and breaking the lockdown arm forcing him to retire for the remainder of the day. Seeing this the the NSW boys went into attack mode with Mick & Ant E scoring the remaining wins for the day, with James a close second & Jack scoring his best result of the regatta in the last race of the day a 2nd place also.

Day 3

The last day was tricky, with not a lot of breeze forecast the RO was left with a tough decision, hold us onshore until a breeze comes in or out use out there in the light fickle breeze & wait. Shortly before the scheduled start time a light breeze did fill in and it was decided to start on time. Race 1 saw carnage at the start boat with multiple boats crashing and banging together with Wayne eventually breaking his crossbar and returning to shore for a spare. This was mostly caused by the 3-4 knot tide pushing boats up onto the line early, Ant lead early on with Mick close on his tail, they swapped first place multiple times through the race with Ant eventually sneaking into first place for the finish with his repaired boat. Race 2 saw the breeze now increasing so that we could now trapeze around the course and really push hard. Camo lead off the start line and a close 2nd at the Top to James, downwind both were overtaken by Ant & Mick closing in to right behind them, Places stayed the same after that with Ant, Camo, James & Mick finishing in that order, however Camo over the line and therefore scored OCS promoting Jame & Mick. Race 3 & the final race of the regatta saw the U Flag come out meaning anyone over the line is out of the race even if they return, the tide caught 6 boats out in this race. Although many believed they were fine so raced on. Ant completed the day with 3 bullets to win the regatta after dropping his DNF & DNC because of his Broken Rudder the day before.

SLOOPS

Brad & Timmy 2X National Champs & defending state champions made the long trip down from Portland & for good reason taking the sloop fleet on with a Pickett fence score line. To take the title. Once again.

5.7

The 5.7 fleet this year was a tad small with only 1 boat in attendance, they enjoyed the regatta none the less even pushing hard enough to fall off the boat and break a tiller extension at one stage.

SPORTS RIG

We had 2 Sports rigs, Wazza using his sport sail which he purchased this season & has been tuning and giving feedback to the association through the season & Andrew Hill WYC member whose trialed it for the first time, both were sailing well, but once the breeze dropped were missing some grunt downwind to keep up with the bigger rigs, there’s a huge potential with this sail to introduce so many more sailors to the class.

SOCIAL Off the Water WYC put on great social function each night. With Saturday night Dinner and Special Guest Jim Boyer talking about his childhood and how the Taipan design came about, to 5.7s, Decksweepers, Carbon Masts, Rocker centreboard placement the lot, Jim spoke for a solid hour and gave great insight into the taipan Design and why it wasn’t overly supported overseas. Followed by trivia run by Adam Smith with some tricky rounds the fun games which kept everyone on their toes. Sunday night TCAA put on a BBQ which was sponsored by Craig Harden who generously donated the trophies so that a BBQ could be put on. All in all it was a great event with great competition and an awesome group of people. Looking forward to the next event to do it all again.

Cheers Camo AUS140