This season we started with the World championships in November. Held at Milford, north of Auckland, NZ and attended by 20 Aussies, Congratulations to Darren, Adam and Stevie who had difficulty passing Jakub and Ravi and finished 3rd, 4th, 5th, Congratulations also to Jamie Jocheim who finished a credible 2nd, once again to a fast sailing Pol (Jacek). Landy, always in the mix, finished 3rd.
Our Australian Nationals were held later than normal in February at St. Leonards in Victoria. 51 competitors entered and enjoyed a week of variable conditions with one day lost due to gale warnings. Whilst most welcomed the later start time and thoughts of being well tuned over the January these ideas dissipated as the weather over the entire East coast in January was not conducive to sailing. Our numbers also suffered when some of the usual fleet competed in the F18 Worlds in Perth the week prior.
This year we celebrated 60 years of A class sailing and also celebrated Brian Cole sailing his last A regatta at the age of 80. Whilst Brian announced his retirement he omitted to inform us that he sailed a Quickcat in the A Division at the first event, 1966 Cat week. Congratulations on sailing 60 years in our class Brian. We will miss your competitive spirit.
The Nationals were won by Steve Brewin in the Open Division and Jamie Jocheim in the Classics. Jon Goodall won the Retro trophy and then decided to do the Northen road trip to sail all the State Titles.
The March Labour Day weekend saw us running the Vic States at Safety Beach. Unfortunately, only a small number of entries (17) with only 5 foilers. Stevie won the foilers, whilst Joey Randall finally got his act together and completed a regatta with a string of second places. Richie had a hard time of it and finally had to give up the Classic trophy to Dave McKenzie. Jon Goodall took out the retro trophy.
Two weeks later we held the NSW states at Mannering Park with another small fleet (19) and (disappointingly) no foilers. The event was a mixture of wind, hampered by light conditions.
The winner was Sam Bylett from Canberra and great to see nearly all the Canberra fleet in attendance. Jon Goodall again took out the retro trophy.
Two weeks later again, in the midst of war we held our Qld States at Lake Cootharaba over Easter. Whilst we had our largest State fleet (23) attend, many were forced to change plans due to fuel shortages and prices. Unfortunately, only 2 foilers attended. Also unfortunate was the weather gods who blew hard on the Friday, even harder on the Saturday (no racing) and nearly as hard on Sunday (only one race). Only 4 races completed and no discards. Jamie won the Classics from Landy due to 3 firsts on Friday. Chris Homan was crowned open champ.
To complete his clean sweep Jon Goodall took out the retro trophy.
Thank you to all those who competed and made the journeys to the various titles. See you on the water again next season.