Close racing expected in Palm Beach Sydney 32 One Design regatta

by Media Services on 18 Mar 2005 The Sydney 32’s are becoming a major One Design force on the Australian sailing scene with nine Sydney 32’s lining up this weekend to compete at the Palm Beach Regatta sailed out of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.

At the Palm Beach regatta Sydney Harbour will be represented well with five Sydney 32’s, all keen to take the championships back to the Harbour after previous successes from Pittwater’s Mainstay Marine and Martin Cross’ if.

Relatively new class member Stuart Muirhead’s syndicate sailing Quickie have shown great results to win the most recent event and must be considered a strong chance to challenge this.

Martin Thompson from Sydney Yachts will be sailing on Groove giving new owner and sailor Felix Marks some tips for his new crew

Next weekend is the JOG championships the Sydney 32 class also feature very well in with the Sydney 32 being the current JOG National Champion boat.

Only a few weeks ago at the South Australian championships there was great racing between six Sydney 32’s with race wins by almost all boats and an eventual title win by David Buckland on Full Bore.

Competitors at Port Lincoln race week felt this new class was the biggest step forward in sailing in South Australia in many years.

Growth continues on all fronts with new Sydney 32’s being built for Japan and Sydney Harbour with the first boat shortly to ship over to Europe after strong class interest has been received. Sydney Yachts representatives are currently in Europe looking into One Design construction of the boat in the Northern hemisphere to support this interest and class growth.

With total fleet numbers now reaching 30 boats, up to 15 Sydney 32’s are expected to compete in the Australian Championships later this year with at least three of the Port Lincoln teams keen to come up to race in the event.