Brazil leads J24 Worlds but Aussies win the races

by Di Pearson on 17 Jan 2006 The much fancied crew on Bruschetta, helmed by Mauricio Santa Cruz (BRA) has taken the J24 World Championship lead on countback but all the wins went to Australia today at the Sail Melbourne event.

New Australian champions and current West Australian champions Sean Wallis (Fly Emirates) and crew notched up two wins – in Races 4 and 6, with a 14th in Race 5. ‘The breezier conditions (15 knots) in the first race were around right for us. The chop just killed us yesterday,’ Wallis said, ‘We don’t mind the stronger winds, but we have a very good Italian boat and a very good Brazilian boat that are going to be very hard to beat.’ Referring to Bruschetta and second placed Black Jack (Luigi Ravioli).

Wallis, from Royal Perth Yacht Club, said Bruschetta had come through the fleet very quickly in Race 4 and then he had the Italians to contend with in Races 5 and 6.

‘In the races we won, we covered them – and we are very happy with our results today – but we are only half way through the regatta,’ he cautioned, adding, ‘we put in a good performance at the last Worlds (they were second best Aussies) and have travelled Australia a lot to regattas, spending a lot of time and money – I guess we are starting to see the rewards.’

Three further races were sailed of Sandringham Yacht Club in winds that built all day and reached the 20-25 knot range by Race 6, and although the Brazilian crew took the lead on countback from the Italian team, neither scored a win today.

Both boats scored second places; the Bruschetta crew in Race 4, Black Jack (ITA) in Race 6, but both had disasters (for them), with 13th and 15th places respectively, giving Wallis and his crew the opportunity to leap up the board into fifth place overall. Wallis is understandably pleased that good winds are forecast for tomorrow.

Although they did not win a race today, Bruschetta’s Santa Cruz is happy with their performance and to be leading. ‘I have a very good crew; that is why we do well. The first race was light and shifty –very difficult, but after that, it got windy and we are sailing well downwind. This is a very nice place for sailing; we are all enjoying it. We had a very nice start in the third race, but we had up our genoa and everyone else had a jib. It was a big mistake for us,’ he said.

Doug McGain (AUS) was the other winner today, taking out Race 5, which has lifted his Code Violation crew from NSW up the board and into ninth place overall.

Sean Kirkjian and his crew on Death Star (AUS) had a better day today, with an eighth and sixth placing, only a 22nd in Race 5 spoiling his day, in what has been a disappointing Championship so far. Kirkjian was the best placed Australian at the 2005 Worlds, finishing fourth.

In what is shaping up to be a close series, Bruschetta leads from Black Jack on equal points, with Ian Southworth’s crew on Inmarsat (GBR) in third, but Santa Cruz is protesting the Brits, whose best place today was a third and that may change the points.

The 12 race series continues from the host venue, Sandringham Yacht Club tomorrow, when officials plan holding two further heats starting from 12.00pm.









Series Results -

(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)


Series Results [One Design ET] up to Race 6 (Drops = 1)

Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Skipper From Bow No Sers Score Race 6 Race 5 Race 4 Race 3 Race 2 Race 1
1 1.0S BRA37 BRUSCHETTA Mauricio SantaCruz Brazil 33 20.0 [13.0] 5.0 2.0 5.0 7.0 1.0

2 ITA233 BLACK JACK Luigi Ravioli Italy 64 20.0 2.0 12.0 [18.0] 2.0 2.0 2.0

3 GBR4270 INMARSAT Ian Southworth Great Britain 47 25.0 [15.0] 3.0 9.0 4.0 5.0 4.0

4 JPN5179 SIESTA Wataru Sakamoto Japan 38 29.0 5.0 7.0 6.0 3.0 8.0 [10.0]

5 AUS190 FLY EMIRATES Sean Wallis Australia 54 31.0 1.0 14.0 1.0 9.0 6.0 [15.0]

6 USA1208 BRAIN CRAMP Mike Ingham USA 45 40.0 10.0 4.0 [16.0] 12.0 3.0 11.0

7 JPN5289 CEREZO Yasutaka Funazawa Japan 28 43.0 3.0 2.0 12.0 [20.0] 12.0 14.0

8 USA1892 THE PIE David Klatt USA 34 44.0 19.0 11.0 [35.0] 1.0 4.0 9.0

9 AUS186 CODE VIOLATION Doug McGain Australia 32 46.0 8.0 1.0 5.0 8.0 [41.0Q] 24.0

10 GBR4268 CRAZY GOALS.CO.UK Jon Powell Great Britain 27 48.0 12.0 15.0 3.0 7.0 11.0 [23.0]

11 3.0S JPN4085 SLED Kazuyuki Hyodo Japan 65 65.0 22.0 20.0 11.0 [28.0] 9.0 3.0

12 AUS172 INNAMINCKA John Crawford Australia 57 65.0 21.0 [25.0] 7.0 6.0 14.0 17.0

13 8.0S AUS145 DEATH STAR Sean Kirkjian Australia 43 67.0 6.0 22.0 8.0 15.0 [22.0] 16.0

14 JPN5260 GEKKO Satashi Kume Japan 46 67.0 11.0 17.0 10.0 23.0 [26.0] 6.0

15 AUS206 STARPAC Neville Wittey Australia 63 71.0 7.0 8.0 13.0 [31.0] 16.0 27.0

16 AUS161 CONVICTS REVENGE Stephen Girdis Australia 25 72.0 4.0 9.0 15.0 22.0 [27.0] 22.0

17 AUS167 J-SPOT Michael Blackburn Australia 59 73.0 16.0 13.0 23.0 [32.0] 13.0 8.0

18 4.0S AUS198 SECURITY BLANKET Hugo Ottaway Australia 22 76.0 17.0 21.0 4.0 27.0 [28.0] 7.0

19 AUS171 PACEMAKER David Suda Australia 20 76.0 14.0 6.0 20.0 18.0 [23.0] 18.0

20 AUS201 HYPERACTIVE Philip Coombs Australia 23 78.0 [41.0F] 18.0 14.0 26.0 15.0 5.0

21 10.0S CAN180 REX Scott Weakley Canada 55 90.0 27.0 23.0 19.0 11.0 10.0 [31.0]

22 AUS195 CRACKERJACK Grant Willmott Australia 26 90.0 18.0 19.0 17.0 16.0 [34.0] 20.0

23 AUS128 JPEG Warren Sare Australia 53 93.0 23.0 24.0 24.0 10.0 [25.0] 12.0

24 AUS160 KAOTIC Ben Lamb Australia 56 99.0 9.0 16.0 31.0 [41.0G] 18.0 25.0

25 USA2223 FIVE TO SIX Suzi Taylor USA 49 107.0 [36.0] 29.0 21.0 35.0 1.0 21.0

26 CAN4013 SINGLE MALT Tadeusz Bartlewksi Canada 42 111.0 [41.0F] 10.0 34.0 30.0 24.0 13.0

27 JPN4907 DABOHAZE Kazuki Kumagai Japan 37 113.0 25.0 [33.0] 28.0 14.0 27.0Y 19.0

28 AUS66 NO EYE DEER Trevor Conyers Australia 35 121.0 24.0 [37.0] 22.0 21.0 20.0 34.0

29 JPN4855 STELLA Sueaki Murayama Japan 74 129.0 26.0 32.0 26.0 [36.0] 17.0 28.0

30 AUS108 FUN Alyn Stevenson Australia 44 130.0 20.0 26.0 25.0 29.0 30.0 [35.0]

31 AUS193 WILDFIRE Kayne Binks Australia 72 132.0 30.0 30.0 32.0 19.0 21.0 [38.0Y]

32 JPN5019 ENTERPRISE Makoto Yamada Japan 24 134.0 35.0 [40.0] 29.0 13.0 31.0 26.0

33 AUS184 ACE David West Australia 69 139.0 29.0 [31.0] 27.0 25.0 29.0 29.0

34 BER3158 PACATACK Peter Ramsdale Bermuda 67 145.0 28.0 35.0 [38.0] 17.0 32.0 33.0

35 AUS205 MR BRIDGER Alister Morison Australia 29 157.0 33.0 28.0 37.0 24.0 35.0 [37.0]

36 BER3254 FOOLISH BEHAVIOR Mike Lewis Bermuda 62 165.0 31.0 36.0 33.0 [37.0] 33.0 32.0

37 GBR127 GOOD COMPANY Peter Woolf Great Britain 36 168.0 32.0 34.0 30.0 [38.0] 36.0 36.0

38 AUS170 WHISPER Neil Begley Australia 39 171.0 34.0 27.0 36.0 34.0 [41.0O] 40.0

39 JPN5016 SURFMAID Etsuro Kitauchi Japan 66 185.0 38.0 38.0 [39.0] 33.0 38.0 38.0

40 NZL6 KICKING BOTTOM Simon Grain New Zealand 73 192.0 37.0 39.0 40.0 [41.0Q] 37.0 39.0



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.