Sports Boats NSW State Titles

by Darren Spence on 22 Feb 2013 This weekend kicks off a busy month for Australian Sports Boat Association sailors around the country with the 2013 ASBA NSW State Titles at Royal Motor Yacht Club, Toronto getting underway at midday on Saturday.

Over the next two months there are no less than four State Titles and the Association’s National Title regatta at Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, in Williamstown over the Easter weekend.

The fun begins this weekend in Toronto with a classy fleet of seventeen boats, from three states, lining up in the first stand alone NSW Titles event.

The crew on Raptor (Mark Buchbach) have travelled down from Brisbane for the weekend looking to restart their battle with Stealthy (Bob Cowan) from Airlie Beach Race Week in 2012 where they finished first and second. The difference this time is that the battle will be on Stealthy’s home waters. Raptor has won its first two events after being launched in the middle of 2012 and is looking to add the NSW Title to the Qld Title they already hold.

They will both also have to contend with the Geelong crew on Monkey Business (Cam Rae) who was the Sports Boat winner at the Festival of Sails in January and new comer to the fleet Mark Griffith (Circus School) who won four races in Geelong.

The fleet is made up of a number of local boats and crews, some doing their first Sports Boat event and others keen to go again after racing in Geelong. The Tickety Boo (Mick Hinchey) crew are considered by some insiders to be dark horses in the fleet along with Barley Legal (Scott Kennedy).

Doing their first ASBA event are the crews on Jedi, Junior, Bazinga, Emma Peel, Watch Me and Release the Hounds. All will be looking to get there hands on plenty of Gill clothing, 3 Oceans Wine and a free dinners at Hogs Breath Cafe.

The fleet’s main concern today though is the weather. The forecast for Saturday is not flash with winds of over fourty knots being registered across the lake today and the odd shower of rain.

ASBA State Titles are also being run in conjunction with the Crown Series in Hobart this weekend, Sail Mandurah in Western Australia next weekend and then the Victoria Titles are on the weekend of the 23-24 at Royal Brighton in Melbourne. There is also a Sports Boat division as part of the Sydney Harbour Regatta on the 2-3 March and a Sports Boat regatta as part of the boat show at RPAYC on the weekend of the 16-17 March.

So by the time the crews line up for the National Titles at RYCV at Easter they’ll either be race fit or exhausted.

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