Blue Sky to have First Stab at Joico Regatta Sydney 38 Championship

by Di Pearson on 27 Feb 2003 Michael Hill and his crew on Blue Sky will contest their first State Championship in the Sydney 38 One-Design class at the Joico Regatta on Pittwater this weekend.

Approximately 20 entries are expected in the Sydney 38 class for the first round of the NSW Championships, which is being held in conjunction with the major Joico regatta hosted by the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club at Bayview on Pittwater.

A number of owners fairly new to yacht racing will contest the championships, Hill amongst them, having purchased his boat in October.

Sailing twilight races on Pittwater, Hill’s first major outing was the JP Morgan Regatta, in which he won the first race, but finished the series 8th overall – not a bad effort for a near-novice.

South African born, Hill spent 15 years in England, arriving in Australia 2½ years ago, having never put a foot on a sailing boat.

‘I bought a Beneteau first, but I got sick of looking at the back end of the 38’s, so I bought one!’ Hill said.

‘The Sydney 38’s are a fantastic boat, great one-design fleet, affordable, a fantastically responsive fast yacht – I love them. They are not too big, so are easy to find crew for, and the beauty is that I can go sail in the twilight races on Pittwater and have good racing against at least seven other 38’s, what other boat can you do that with?

We have great camaraderie, it’s just awesome, we leave our problems on the water, and are great friends ashore, and the support we get from Sydney Yachts is just first class, they are extremely helpful’ he enthused.

Now totally committed to sailing, Hill and his crew, who include well-known multitalented sailor, Julian Plante calling tactics, Mike McHugh on main, Ken Sky, Bruce McCrae (‘he’s just an excellent bowman’), on bow, with a bunch of ‘youngsters’ to do the hard yards, will contest the Broken Bay Series, this first round of the NSW Championships and work their way into the one-design circuit.

Asked if he knew anything at all of his adversaries this weekend, Hill said he knew Cameron Miles with Rush and had seen Ron Jacobs out practising on Shining Sea, but did not know any of the entrants from other clubs.

‘This will be a good opportunity to get to know some of the other others and to hone my sailing skills – I am really looking forward to the weekend’, Hill said today.

While he is aware of the talent of Miles and Jacobs, Hill does not seem one bit phased by the competition that he would come up against this weekend, which will be tough.

Other entries include the Andrew Short skippered Andrew Short Marine, Peter McNamara’s Jade, Nigel Holman’s Cuckoos Nest and David Fuller/Hugo Van Kretschmar with Bashful.

Interestingly, the NSW Championships will boast former and current World, National and State champions in various classes, alongside near and total novices, making this an exceedingly versatile boat.

Race Officials at RPAYC plan to send the Sydney 38’s on windward/leeward offshore courses over the weekend, and at the time of writing had 18 entries, but were hoping to reach 20 by close of entries tonight, the largest fleet of one-design racers in Australia to grace one regatta.