Australia's VX One distributor, Andrew York, updates on the growth of this exciting two/three person one design sportsboat in Australia, another active fleet sails in USA, with a third fleet being established in New Zealand.
He writes: There are three VX Ones on the east coast. Fred Kasparek in Canberra and Michael James brought theirs into Australia in May 2012. I got mine in August. We are all looking to establish one design sailing in the class. While we are working on getting more people into the VX One, the best racing we can do is in the sportsboat fleet.
Michael competed unofficially in the Queensland State Titles last year, Fred has done a regatta at Eden and last weekend I competed at the sportsboat regatta at RPAYC on Pittwater. It was a great test to see how competitive we will be at the nationals in Williamstown at Easter. We all have extensions fixed to our hulls so that we meet the minimum length required to sail in ASBA sanctioned events.
The first two races on Saturday were in six to eight knots and eight to 12 knots in the next two. We had some close racing and were pleased to finish the day with 2,3,3,4 to be third overall. Sunday brought a different game. The forecast was for a strong southerly that would be 22 knots around start time and 28 knots by 3pm. If you consider there would be gusts on top there was going to be plenty on.
We set our kite on the way out to the start and hit 20 knots. We did a few gybes and checked our settings upwind. This was going to be a good day! We were the smallest boat in the fleet but I knew we would be quick downwind. I was interested to see how competitive we would be upwind.
In the Race 5 we were a close third at the top mark and had a good tussle with Barely Legal the Shaw 650 all the way around. Our quick hoists and drops from the spinnaker shute allowed us to carry our kite significantly longer which was very helpful. Half way down the last run we crossed them but they found some extra pressure and beat us home.
The final race was to be three laps. We hit pin end at speed on the gun and led around the first lap quite handily. There were gusts to 28 knots on the run so the committee decided to shorten the race at the next top mark and send us home. We had some great rides on the run into the bottom mark and had plenty of work on to keep her going well upwind. Finishing over a minute in front and getting two firsts on SMS for the day is an encouraging lead up for the Australian Sportsboat Nationals.
I have two boats arriving in Sydney next Monday, one has been sold and the other is for available to anyone who wants to put a bit of excitement into their sailing. Contact Andrew York at www.vxoneaustralia.com if you have an interest.
Michael James is sailing with Fred Kasparek on his boat Weapon of Choice at the ASBA Nationals and Andrew York will have Melbourne locals Glenn Collings and his son Stephen sailing on Andrew's boat Tachyon with him.
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