2006 International Canoe Australian Championships

by Christian Knott on 19 Apr 2006 Changes were definitely evident at the CST COMPOSITES 2006 International Canoe Australian Championships held over the Easter weekend at McCrae Yacht Club on Port Phillip Bay. And we’re not just talking the weather.

16-year-old Alex Kalin in his first IC Nationals won a heat, and the International Canoe Association of Australia (ICAA) voted to allow boats built to the proposed ‘IC BOX Rules’ to race in ICAA events. On the water strong sou’westers, light southerlies and strong northerlies challenged all competitors with Seth Dunbar sailing AUS14 Che’Pa emerging as the 2006 Australian Champion.

McCrae Yacht Club, host club for the 2008 International Canoe World Championships, greeted the small but competitive fleet with fresh to strong Southerly winds on Day 1 of the Regatta. Race 1 saw Seth Dunbar (AUS14 Che’Pa) lead Hayden Virtue (AUS10 NHP The Classic Statement) and Phil Evans (AUS1 Beyond the Fringe) off of the start line but was soon overtaken by Phil. AUS1 ‘Beyond the Fringe’ is a highly modified prototype Canoe with 13sqm of working sail and a 23sqm Spinnaker. Phil won the first heat, with Seth second and Hayden third.

Race 2 was back to back with the first race, and saw Seth open up and maintain a small lead over Hayden with Phil Evans coming in third. Phil remarked that ‘that was the fastest he had ever had his Prototype Canoe’, and he wasn’t even using the kite!

The ICAA held it’s AGM that evening and a motion was tabled, and passed unanimously that: ' The Box Rules boats are accepted to race with the IC class until 2008 as a development division for a separate trophy.'

Whilst all IC sailors acknowledge that the International Canoe is an awesome boat as it is, class numbers and the freeing up of second hand boats could be increased in Australia by encouraging the building of boats to the proposed rules. A copy of these can be found at http://www.internationalcanoe.yachting.org.au/default.asp?Page=22748&MenuID=ICAA%5FForums%2F13163%2F0%2CIC%5FDevelopments%2F13267%2F0

Day 2 was a complete opposite to the first days racing, with 5-10 knots hardly making ripples on the flat waters off of McCrae. Christian (AUS018 Magic Bus) sailing the newest boat in the fleet, won the start but was second around the top mark behind Ian (AUS4 I See Red) with 16-year-old Alex Kalin (AUS8 Kaotic) third. The light shifty conditions proved testing with the lead changing repeatedly, and small errors seeing you go from first to last in the close racing. Christian held out to win the shortened race in the IC fleet (Phil had cleared out to a 10 minute lead), but was damaged to badly to continue the series in an incident with another Canoe that saw them both disqualified. Alex Kalin, sailing his first IC Nationals, won the heat with Seth Dunbar second and Kevin Knott (AUS9 Superstition) third.

Race 4 saw the light and shifty conditions continue, and once again Phil cleared out ahead of the fleet but was reeled back in to only lead the first of the IC’s by just over a minute at the finish. Hayden Virtue won the race with Ian MacGregor second and Alex Kalin third.

Day 3 saw the start of the race in 10-15kt Northerly, which was also producing some decent sized waves. The first of 2 scheduled back-to-back races kicked off at 1030, Seth Dunbar led around the first mark closely followed by Hayden and the rest of the fleet. Kevin in AUS9 was forced to retire early with his rudder breaking during the gybe at the wing mark. 2005 National Champion Tim Wilson (AUS16 Eric) challenged for the lead, after Hayden dropped back through the fleet with a broken tiller extension. Across the line it was Seth first, then Tim, Hayden and Ian with Phil Evans in his modified canoe the last finisher in Heat 5.

Only four IC’s made it to the start line of Heat 6, Hayden had managed to return to shore and fit his spare rudder (a T foil arrangement) and make it to the start in time. Seth again stamped his dominance over the trying conditions finishing with a 2-minute lead over Hayden with the other starters Tim and Ian being forced to retire.

Final Placings for the CST Composites Regatta were:

Placing Skipper Sail Number Boat Name Mast Sails

1 Seth Dunbar AUS14 Che’Pa CST Tru-flo
2 Hayden Virtue AUS10 NHP ‘The Classic Statement’ Windrush Irwin
3 Tim Wilson AUS16 Eric CST Tru-flo

1 Phil Evans AUS1 Beyond the Fringe Goldspar Ullman

The International Canoe Association of Australia (ICAA) would like to thank the McCrae Yacht Club and it’s staff for a well run regatta, and our event sponsor CST COMPOSITES. Without your help and support events like these never run as smoothly and we look forward to having as well run event for the World Championships, part of the Sail Melbourne Regatta, in 2007/08.

If you would like to know more about the International Canoe Class please check out our website www.internationalcanoe.yachting.org.au or email us at internationalcanoe@hotmail.com.