Strike one to Italy at J24 Worlds

by Di Pearson on 17 Jan 2006 ‘Shifty, light and choppy,’ was how Luigi Ravioli (ITA), skipper of the leading entry Black Jack, described racing on a long first day of the J24 World Championship sailed off Sandringham Yacht Club today.

‘It was too choppy for upwind racing in the second race, but we are happy to lead,’ said Ravioli who finished the 2005 Worlds in third place. Three second places are what it took Ravioli and his Italian crew to streak to a seven point lead. Consistent sailing will win this Sail Melbourne Championship and the Italians know it.

‘I think the Brazilians and the British (Ian Southworth and crew) are the ones we have to watch – but if the winds get stronger, then there are many Australians….’

Ravioli’s sentiments were validated by others. ‘Very fickle - it was strange,’ said 12th placed Sandringham Commodore Phil Coombs, ‘choppy for the light wind strength (around 5 knots) – it didn’t add up. The breeze shifted, if was frustrating.’ Coombs was the leading Aussie until Race 3.

International entries had a field day on Port Phillip, with the much fancied Bruschetta crew, helmed by Mauricio Santa Cruz (BRA), in second place and Ian Southworth’s Inmarsat (GBR) third; Santa Cruz the only one of the three top boats to score a win.

Other wins went to the lone female skipper in the fleet, American Suzie Taylor (Five to Six) and The Pie, skippered by David Klatt of the USA.

The Australians languished today, the best placed being Sean Wallis’ Fly Emirates crew from Western Australia, fresh from their National title win last week. Placed seventh overall following mixed results, their best was a sixth in Race 2.

For NSW champion and former National title holder Sean Kirkjian (Death Star) it was a dreadful start to the regatta. The Sydneysider finished fourth at the 2005 Worlds, the best of the Aussies. Today was not his day; 17th overall following three races.

‘We looked good in the first race up the first beat, but from there we went backwards. We’ll have to work on our settings for the slop here.

‘In the second race, we started at the pin, but got squeezed out by the lady who won the race. By the time we took all the sterns, we were out to the right and the wind went left – which is where I had planned to be; from there it was out the back end,’ Kirkjian said.

Race 3 brought more disaster. ‘We started at the pin and Nev Wittey (Starpac) called us up. He went up, I put my helm hard down to oblige and crash – stern and bow collided. That incident caused us to be over the start early and he hit the mark – nobody won that one – we were 15th and he finished 31st. Not one of my better days,’ he said.

Three races were sailed today and race officials shortened Race 2, finishing the boats on the second downwind leg of the windward leeward course.

Forty boats are taking part in the 12-race series which continues from 12.00pm tomorrow on Port Phillip.

Sail Melbourne is made possible by the support of event sponsors: Sport & Recreation Victoria, Collex, Parks Victoria; associate sponsors Bayside City Council and Menere's BMW Brighton and support sponsors Ronstan International, Schenker Australia, City of Kingston and the City of Port Philip.

INTERNATIONAL J24 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
SERIES RESULTS
Series Results [One Design ET] up to Race 3 (Drops = 0)
Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Skipper From Bow No Sers Score Race 3 Race 2 Race 1
1 AUS197 BLACK JACK Luigi Ravioli Italy 64 6.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
2 1.0S BRA37 BRUSCHETTA Mauricio SantaCruz Brazil 33 13.0 5.0 7.0 1.0
3 GBR4270 INMARSAT Ian Southworth Great Britain 47 13.0 4.0 5.0 4.0
4 USA1892 THE PIE David Klatt USA 34 14.0 1.0 4.0 9.0
5 JPN5179 SIESTA Wataru Sakamoto Japan 38 21.0 3.0 8.0 10.0
6 USA1208 BRAIN CRAMP Mike Ingham USA 45 26.0 12.0 3.0 11.0
7 AUS190 FLY EMIRATES Sean Wallis Australia 54 30.0 9.0 6.0 15.0
8 AUS172 INNAMINCKA John Crawford Australia 57 37.0 6.0 14.0 17.0
9 JPN4085 SLED Kazuyuki Hyodo Japan 65 40.0 28.0 9.0 3.0
10 GBR4268 CRAZY GOALS.CO.UK Jon Powell Great Britain 27 41.0 7.0 11.0 23.0
11 JPN5289 CEREZO Yasutaka Funazawa Japan 28 46.0 20.0 12.0 14.0
12 5.0S AUS201 HYPERACTIVE Philip Coombs Australia 23 47.0 26.0 16.0 5.0
13 AUS186 CODE VIOLATION Doug McGain Australia 32 47.0 8.0 15.0 24.0
14 AUS128 JPEG Warren Sare Australia 53 48.0 10.0 26.0 12.0
15 CAN180 REX Scott Weakley Canada 55 52.0 11.0 10.0 31.0
16 AUS167 J-SPOT Michael Blackburn Australia 59 53.0 32.0 13.0 8.0
17 AUS145 DEATH STAR Sean Kirkjian Australia 43 54.0 15.0 23.0 16.0
18 JPN5260 GEKKO Satashi Kume Japan 46 56.0 23.0 27.0 6.0
19 USA2223 FIVE TO SIX Suzi Taylor USA 49 57.0 35.0 1.0 21.0
20 AUS171 PACEMAKER David Suda Australia 20 60.0 18.0 24.0 18.0
21 JPN4907 DABOHAZE Kazuki Kumagai Japan 37 61.0 14.0 28.0Y 19.0
22 AUS198 SECURITY BLANKET Hugo Ottaway Australia 22 63.0 27.0 29.0 7.0
23 CAN4013 SINGLE MALT Tadeusz Bartlewksi Canada 42 68.0 30.0 25.0 13.0
24 13.0S JPN5019 ENTERPRISE Makoto Yamada Japan 24 71.0 13.0 32.0 26.0
25 16.0S AUS195 CRACKERJACK Grant Willmott Australia 26 71.0 16.0 35.0 20.0
26 AUS193 WILDFIRE Kayne Binks Australia 72 71.0 19.0 22.0 30.0
27 AUS161 CONVICTS REVENGE Stephen Girdis Australia 25 72.0 22.0 28.0 22.0
28 AUS206 STARPAC Neville Wittey Australia 63 75.0 31.0 17.0 27.0
29 AUS66 NO EYE DEER Trevor Conyers Australia 35 76.0 21.0 21.0 34.0
30 JPN4855 STELLA Sueaki Murayama Japan 74 82.0 36.0 18.0 28.0
31 BER3158 PACATACK Peter Ramsdale Bermuda 67 83.0 17.0 33.0 33.0
32 AUS184 ACE David West Australia 69 84.0 25.0 30.0 29.0
33 AUS160 KAOTIC Ben Lamb Australia 56 85.0 41.0F 19.0 25.0
34 AUS108 FUN Alyn Stevenson Australia 44 95.0 29.0 31.0 35.0
35 AUS205 MR BRIDGER Alister Morison Australia 29 97.0 24.0 36.0 37.0
36 BER3254 FOOLISH BEHAVIOR Mike Lewis Bermuda 62 104.0 38.0 34.0 32.0
37 JPN5016 SURFMAID Etsuro Kitauchi Japan 66 110.0 33.0 39.0 38.0
38 GBR127 GOOD COMPANY Peter Woolf Great Britain 36 112.0 39.0 37.0 36.0
39 NZL6 KICKING BOTTOM Stephen Girdis New Zealand 73 114.0 37.0 38.0 39.0
40 AUS170 WHISPER Neil Begley Australia 39 115.0 34.0 41.0O 40.0

(Ties: S=Score R=Race B= Bettered. Penalties: B=BFD C=DNC D=DNE E=ESP F=DNF G=RDG L=Late Entrant M=DGM N=ENP O=OCS P=Protest Q=DSQ R=RAF S=DNS U=DUT X=EXC Z=ZFP Y=SCP #=No Data '(x.y)' Discarded)