International J24 Victoria State Championship
Sandringham Yacht Club Melbourne
The Crew
‘Seven years racing together is what it took my crew and I to collect this 1st overall trophy’, David Suda, skipper of Pacemaker, speaking at the presentation. The regatta was mainly light winds and Pacemaker was on fire with 5 wins and a second. The winner of race 5 was Lynette Syme on an older boat rebirthed by the guys from Adelaide. Syme came home with 3rd place overall and the all girl crew from Melbourne 5th. Robyn the skipper of the all girl crew, said the guys better watch out at Gosford, as they will be hot after returning from the World Championships in Sweden.
Our crew did really well with only about seven minutes of training. Hank our skipper of Starpac, and his crew, managed three fifths and overall 8th, not bad for a new crew with little training due to no wind on training days and a few crew missed training due to work commitments.
The Starpac crew started as an all girl crew (bar Hank) with Penny on the bow, Sarah Marie at mast and Helen in the pit and Helen no 2 trimming. Unfortunately Helen No 2 had some bad news with Dad unwell and jumped on a plane back home. Luckily Zachary, an American Scientist, 75 kilos of muscle joined the crew and took over mast position allowing Sarah Marie to trim.
Starpac was plucked out of the water at the CYCA, mast removed, the bum polished, training sails replaced with racing sails and strapped down onto the trailer. 1,000km later we arrived at Sandringham, the mast was put in and the crew jumped on the scales, (no problem this time (30 Kg under) but the boat was too light. The chief measurer ordered that a drum of 10 Kg of water be added, a 5 kg tool box and the 2 kg esky making up the 17 kg shortfall. Hank looked on smiling, as clearly Starpac was looking in top shape, light and very fast.
The boat was flying on Day 1 with winds from the north at 10 knots. The first race Starpac came 5th, a very happy crew, the next race was looking even better with a third but unfortunately was OCS (On Course Side) at the start and were DSQ (Disqualified). We say that you can have the occasional OCS If you’re really trying hard, and they were, but we have to carry the points.
The evening was party time at one of the opposition yachts home beside the swimming pool, a night to remember. Day 2, although the wind was shifty our crew ended up very satisfied and asked when and where is the next championship, and a promise to do more than seven minutes of training next time.
Another great trip with over 2,000 kilometres; we made more great friends and enjoyed the best of the Melbourne restaurants.
Congratulations Sophie (in Middle Black Shirt)
Sophie crewed on Starpac at the Nationals and got a ride as foredeck and collected 3rd overall.
The October long weekend is the NSW State Championships and J24 Legends Regatta. Over 25 yachts have registered for racing and the Legends Dinner on the Sunday evening at the Crowne Plaza Terrigal.
PSS will have seven International J24 yachts at the event crewed by graduates of the spinnaker courses.
Details on Gosford Weekend Here
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