Preview Australian 505 Championships 2006

by Event media/Sail-World on 27 Dec 2005 The 2006 Australian 505 championships will be held at the Toronto Amateurs Sailing club, on Lake Macquarie on the NSW Central Coast from Monday 2nd to Sunday 8th January 2006. Some 40 boats are expected from fleets based in Queensland, NSW, Adelaide and Western Australia.

With the 2006 World's being held at the Hayling Island Sailing Club (HISC) during the summer of 2006, Pre-Worlds and Worlds 22nd July to 4th August 2006 and with Adelaide hosting the 2007 Worlds the following year, 21st Jan - 2nd Feb 2007, the 2006 Australia Nationals will be used by many teams as an important part of their overall campaign.

The 505 is a relatively old boat (designed in 1955) but is still raced competitively around the world by the world’s top Olympic sailors and keen club racers alike. In the recent world championship held in Germany there was a record 175 boats on the starting line.

Over the years Australians have put in strong performances at world level. People such as Dean Blatchford, Tom Woods, Gary Brunidges, Greg Gardner, Chris and Darren Nicholson join icons such as Terry and Geoff Kirwood and as far back as Sir James Hardy, in featuring on the long list of past World Champions.

Since the Nicholson Brothers’ win in the Fremantle Worlds in 2002 the World Champion has come form the USA or Germany. With the Worlds in Australia next year, the Aussies will be hoping to bring the Championship back home and the forerunners will be squaring up at the Toronto Nationals to assess where they stand and what work they will need to do in the next 12 months.

The Adelaide contingent has allegedly been practicing hard with Sandy Higgins in the South Australian made boat one of the early favourites for the National Title. Sandy has won the Nationals on two previous occasions and had very respectable top ten finishes in previous World Championships.

Defending National Champs, Phil Gray and Dick Machin sailing the American Water Rat are not planning to hand over the title and have gone for the Superspar rig used so successfully by the Germans in the recent World Championships.

Andy Hewson with crew Kane Sinclair has just missed out on an Australian title on a number of occasions and is working hard not to let it happen again. Andy and Kane are in a brand new pre-preg Van Munster boat (an improved version of the hull Chris and Darren Nicholson won the Fremantle worlds in). They are using the tried and tested Proctor rig set up with a few improvements to suit their lighter than average crew weight.

Michael Quirk and Geoff Lange will also be trying to lose the bridesmaid label and have opted to go with a German rigged English boat (Rondar). This set up has worked for three time World Champions Wolfgang Hunger and Holger Jess so they are hoping the rig will give them the edge they need.

Carter Jackson and Pete Holden will be keen to shake up the fleet in a new American Water Rat. Carter has also ended up runner up in a Nationals and will be hoping to improve on that.

Three time world champion Darren Nicholson will be on board a brand new Van Munster boat, with helm Warwick Rooklyn, who is joining the class for the up-coming worlds in Adelaide. The boat may well be launched 'out-of-the-box' for the event but with this level of experience and talent on-board a 'state-of-the-art' Van Munster carbon hull, they will be no easy-beats.

Also participating and well capable of winning heats are stalwart 'rock stars' of yesteryear like Richie Gallimore, Jacko, Neill Long and Les Evans. These guys know what they are doing and will be racing on their home water.

All these veterans of the class are joined by a new batch of young talent keen to make their mark in these Nationals and the up-coming worlds.

All in all it promises to be a competitive and interesting National Championship that will be enjoyed equally by those of us trying to win and those of us there for the beer. Whatever happens, it will be worth following the mixture of experienced 505 teams, new young talented sailors, the best hulls and rig set ups from Australia, Europe and the USA all campaigning on a great sailing track that has produced some of the best dinghy and skiff sailors in the world.