Australia Day Medals and Contender Melges – A Hobie kind of Day

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 27 Jan 2014 The 20th Hobie 16 World Championships, being held on the South Coast in Jervis Bay from January 31 to February 15, has attracted an entry of over 500 competitors from 27 countries. A great event ahead.

Harry Melges’ is the 2014 Melges 24 Pre-Worlds Champion, the lake sailor from central USA on the Australian titles on Geelong’s Corio Bay, Next week the worlds at the same location.

The final race of the Contender Worlds 2014, sailed out of Belmont 16 foot skiff club on Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney Australia. A good day for the big boys with a 25 knot south east wind gusting to 30.

Jono Neale appeared to clinch the title with a second in today's race despite not being one of the heavy weights. Mark Bulka finished third.

However drama ashore, a protest from Mark Bulka against Jono Neate.

Bulka protested Neate for an incident on the first reach in race 10. Neate was the windward boat. Contact claimed between end Neate's boom and Bulka's back. Bulka won the protest with member of the jury having witnessed the incident.

Mark Bulka is the 2014 Contender World Champion. Second is Jono Neate, third is Matt Mulder.

Mat Belcher and Will Ryan had a great 2013. Right now they are attempting to win their 19th event in a row, this time Miami OCR. Looking ahead their focus has turned towards September 2014 and the ISAF Worlds to be held in Santander, Spain. This event will offer competing teams the first opportunity to qualify their country for the Olympics!

Tomorrow is the start of 25th annual ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami. US Sailing's premiere racing event gets underway this Monday with 580 of the best Olympic and Paralympic class sailors in the world representing 50 countries.

This year's participation total is the sixth highest in event history. The six-day regatta marks the third stop on the 2013-14 ISAF Sailing World Cup series and the lone event held in North America.

With the Australian Honours Awards yesterday many Australian sailors received accolades, congratulation to them all:

A big week ahead... check out current stories below.