Five to compete in Australian VX One Mid Winter Championships

by Andrew York on 29 May 2013
A fleet of five VX Ones will contest their first one design regatta in Australia over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, June 8, 9 and 10. All five boats on the eastern seaboard will sail in the regatta. Malcolm Thompson who owns a VX One in WA is also flying over for the event.

The Royal Motor Yacht Club in Toronto on Lake Macquarie is running the regatta. There will be eight races held over three days with time allocated on the Saturday and Sunday afternoon for anyone interested to come out for a test sail. This is a great opportunity for anyone in Newcastle to check out this exciting new one design, especially as the class plans to hold their National Championships on the Australia Day Weekend in January on Lake Macquarie as well.

Designed by Brian Bennett, the VX One is a reasonably priced one design sports boat able to be sailed by two or three crew. Fleets are established in USA, with boats in Australian and New Zealand.

Michael James in Brisbane, Fred Kasparek in Canberra and Phil Tomkins and Andrew York from Sydney have been sailing their VX Ones in mixed fleets for a while but what they really want to do is have one design fleets to sail against.

Everyone who has sailed on a VX One has been impressed by the performance and simplicity of the boat. The self-tacking and furling jib and the single line kite launch and retrieve mean that it is easy to sail them with a crew of two of three. At 5.8metres in length and only 270kg the VX One performs more like a dinghy than a yacht.

Top speeds of 24 knots have been recorded in Australia and the US. The optimum crew weight for the Australian summer is somewhere between 200 to 230kg.

This season interest is growing. Two more boats are coming in from the USA in July and with more on the cards before Christmas it looks like a fleet of ten for the nationals is quite likely.

If you think that the VX One could be the boat for you or you are one of the number of people who want to get a VX One when there is a fleet to sail against contact Andrew York on www.vxoneaustralia.com or click the VX One ad on Sail-World when it comes up.

It looks like there could now be the numbers to form a fleet in Australia.

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