Monjon J24 Nationals at Sandringham Yacht Club Day 1
by Simon Grain 5 Jan 2018 01:53 PST
4-7 January 2018
Racing gets underway in great conditions at the start of Day 1 - Monjon J24 Nationals © Luis Ferreiro
Racing today got underway in glamorous conditions, sunshine and light southerlies, race's one and two were light and then in a building but shifty breeze the fleet sailed another two for four races today with the last race sailed in a perfect 15-16 knot breeze.
Dave West sailing Arthur Crothers' 'Kaotic' jumped out of the box in race one for a win from local sailor Simon Grain in 'Jet', with Jeanette Syme in 'Wildfire' from the South Sydney Fleet taking out third.
Race two saw Sandingham's 'Mr J24' Hugo Ottaway in 'Bruschetta VI' take the gun from Jet again, with Ron Thomson in 'Kicking' third.
As the breeze built in the race the placings started to change around, local President, owner of the Richmond kite and general stirrer John Neville put in a solid performance to take the gun from Jordan Sunkel-Lozell in the Sandy Fleet Youth boat 'Sidetracked', who was sailing like a champ and Kirsty Harris in 'Hyperactive'.
Race four, the race management team sensibly got ahead of the program with a questionable weather forecast for Saturday, saw local worlds aspirant Brendan Lee sailing 'By the Lee' take the gun from Hugo and Steve Wright sailng 'Tinto' the lastest addition to the Australian fleet from Germany.
That's what the results say, so what really happened?
Jet looked great after the first two races, then faded, but in a gentlemans agreement with John Neville is one jug up!
Hugo started badly with a 10th but won the day, on a count back from Steve Wright – not exactly creaming the day but one point ahead of Jet and Hyperactive. And Kaotic with mixed performances is a further point back.
Looks like Simon likes the light but Hugo likes the mid breezes.
Back in the fleet, Chris Ravesi in 'Sanguine' had an altercation with newcomer Patricio Sepulveda in 'Baile de Luna'. Jordan in Sidetracked busted a lower shroud when doing rather well near the top mark.
'There be more stories' – I just don't know them. However Craig Wiley one of the race management team doing a great job on the start boat has posted videos of the starts on the J24 FB page. Click on the video below to see them.
Full results are here.