Team Sumner wins Wangi’s Summer Cat Regatta

by Kevin Winchester on 11 Dec 2003 Wangi RSL Amateur Sailing Club hosted the annual Summer Cat regatta over the weekend of 6th & 7th December 2003.

Despite the blustery and rainy conditions, 45 entries turned out and were battered by a 20-25 knot South East gradient breeze throughout the weekend.

In the ever growing Formula 18 fleet which boasted the largest numbers for the weekend Brad Sumner and Kevin Winchester sailed a near faultless regatta to win three of the five heats and take overall victory from Darren Bundock and Andrew Williams.

Both Sumner and Bundock were sailing Hobie Cat Tigers and fought off the challenge from the Capricorn F18's sailed by Mark Laruffa and Greg Goodall finishing 3rd and 4th respectively.

Bundock said ‘It was fantastic to have this level of racing in Australia within the Formula 18 division, and to get beaten by Sumner and Winchester was inspirational. I'd previously had to go searching in Europe for this level of competition. Now its a great challenge’

The Hobie 16's saw the rise of the youth team of Jonathon English and Andrew Beazley, finishing 3rd overall in the open division, in preparation for the selections for the Youth Multihull World Championships after Christmas.

English and Beazley were beaten by the more experienced and older skippers of Tim Shuwalow and Michael Butler, who finished 1st and 2nd respectively.