NS14 New South Wales State Championships - Easter 2013

by Kylie Tasker on 30 Apr 2013 The NS14 NSW State Titles were held this year at Gosford Sailing Club over the four day Easter long weekend. With 60 entries from 21 clubs, including a couple of interstate visitors from ACT and TAS representing the class, we had a great turn out. We had warm weather and decent breezes for the majority of the time, making for a great event for sailing and socialising.

Friday, the first day of the long weekend saw us arrive in Gosford and manage to fit in two races that afternoon to kick-off the regatta.

On day two conditions were again good to get two great races in.

On day three the long course was set, and with wind variation each lap saw significant variation in placing from lap to lap over the approximately two hour course.

Unfortunately, lack of breeze on the fourth day had the fleet floating around Brisbane Waters for a good couple of hours before racing was abandoned and it became a slow race back to shore.

Competition this year was fierce, with Peter V and new crew Dimity taking out the series having won just one first place out of the five races sailed. See top ten Scratch results below.

Being a development class, with a huge variation in boats and crews across the fleet, prizes in the handicap points are keenly fought for. The handicap results at Gosford showed some very close competition with first and second place awarded both on 36 points, third place on 37 points and fourth place on 38.5 points. See top ten Handicap results below.

This year was the first time the NS14’s have trialled a Silver Fleet, with a shorter course to encourage participants to join in, who might not otherwise attend regattas. This worked well, and the Silver Fleet showed some great competition. Let’s hope the introduction of a Silver Fleet encourages even more boats to attend future regattas. Dannielle Parker and Jonathon Dunstan in ‘Orien’ (1794) took out first place in both scratch and handicap results in the Silver Fleet.

Other first placing’s in awarded categories for this series went to;
Classic Boat: 1852 ‘Evolution’- Ross Hansen/ Hayden Hansen
Jack and Jill and Heavyweight: 1996 ‘Tigger Too’- James Burman/ Tara McCall
Female Skipper: 1987 ‘Mojo’- Karen Branch/ Katelyn Parker
Family and Veteran: 2001 ‘Gobi’- Lee Knapton/ Tina Babbage
Youth Skipper: 1897 ‘Devil’- Ravi Raj/ Sally Raj
Husband and Wife: 1937 ‘Time Rocker’- Brian Jenkinson/ Linda Jenkinson

Port Hacking Open Sailing Club took home the ‘NS14 Champion Club’ pennant in 2013. With the other Southern Sydney clubs, Cronulla and Connell’s Point close behind in the pointscore.

A huge thank you goes out to Gosford Sailing Club for hosting the successful regatta and also a special mention to the event sponsors, Barracouta Sails, Tribeca Investment Partners, Ronstan and Croker Oars. Thanks also to Neil Tasker, the Race Secretary and the NS14 Association for all their efforts.

Scratch Results:
1. 2032 ‘X’- Peter Vaiciurgis/ Dimity Redmond
2. 1996 ‘Tigger Too’- James Burman/ Tara McCall
3. 2047 ‘Into The Mystic’- Rohan Nosworthy/ Nathan Kaul
4. 2002 ‘Rubber Chicken Rocket Car’- Craig Davidson/ Cassandra Schlimbac
5. 2009 ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’- Alex Chittenden/ Kiah Hodgkinson
6. 2001 ‘Gobi’- Lee Knapton/ Tina Babbage
7. 1998 ‘Dark Side of the Moon’- Robert Fish/ Cassie Cause
8. 2008 ‘California Times’- Chris Eddes/ Rebecca Wiley
9. 2048 ‘TR6’- Mark Thorpe/ Sophie Holt
10. 2033 ‘Tempest’- Bryce Edwards/ Amanda Stern

Handicap Results:
1. 1960 ‘Wind FX’- Scott Munro/ Ashley Atkins
2. 1963 ‘Virtual Insanity’- Ian Smythe/ Hannah Lanfranchi
3. 1911 ‘Slingshot’- Tianne Burwood/ Paul Gurr
4. 1916 ‘Poor Tacking’- Col Tasker/ Kylie Tasker
5. 1985 ‘Nemesis’- Shannon Corbett/ Annika Hansen
6. 1994 ‘Seabreeze’- Dennis Leitch/ Benjamin Matters
7. 1787 ‘Red’- Josh Linnegar/ Will Harris
8. 2028 ‘Sirocco’- Philip Treloar/ Genelle Aldred
9. 2016 ‘Shine’- Greame Lee/ Harry Lee
10. 397 ‘Aqua Pest’- Drew Van Ryn/ Cody Linnegar