Australian Farr 40 Championship 2013 - Double celebration

by Lisa Ratcliff/Farr 40 media on 24 Feb 2013 Aberdeen Asset Management Australian Farr 40 Championship 2013. Quick responses, crew handling and keeping the mast pointing towards the sky in the gusty NNE winds on a wild and woolly Sydney Harbour were key ingredients on the final day of the John Calvert-Jones Trophy to decide the Australian Farr 40 champion for the 2012-13 season.

After nine races, Guido Belgiorno-Nettis’ Transfusion has been declared the winner of the John Calvert-Jones Trophy and named the Aberdeen Asset Management Australian Farr 40 Champion.

Transfusion won all three state titles and has now collected the clincher, the nine-race national one-design regatta sailed over just two days after horrendous conditions forced yesterday’s racing to be abandoned. This is Belgiorno-Nettis’ fourth national class title.

Second by one point was Lang Walker’s Kokomo (25 points) and third overall and first Corinthian Farr 40 was Andrew Hunn and Lloyd Clark’s Voodoo Chile (26 points) from Tasmania.

Five races were completed in quick succession today, two laps of the course set off Clarke Island outside Double Bay per race with a hard windward work to the top marks laid off Nielsen Park at Vaucluse and lots of crash gybing and kites flogging in the following breeze once they turned the corner.

This weekend’s national one-design series was dedicated to the country’s Farr 40 forefather and the first Australian Farr 40 World Champion, John Calvert-Jones, who was on the water watching the final day of competition and will this afternoon present the trophy to the ultimate victor.

'I am surprised and greatly honoured to have the regatta named after me,' said Calvert-Jones, who has been involved with the Farr 40s since their inception 16 years ago, but hasn't raced since 2005.

'The key to this class is the quality around the world and the fact they haven’t been modified hugely because they are fundamentally well-designed and already so competitive,' he added.

Crews are packing up boats and gathering for the official trophy presentation at the host club, the Royal Sydney Yacht Aberdeen Asset Management Australian Farr 40 Championship 2013