by Penny Gray, Adam H Smith, Cathy Trudinger, Xavier Vandame

At Blairgowrie, Hugo Vandame and Leigh Harvie participated in the Optimist State Championships.  In the Open Fleet, the competition was very tough as many sailors from NSW, Queensland, S.A and one Japanese had decided to join the party!  Most sailors from the Top 15 at the last Nationals were present including 3 of the 5 sailors selected to the World Championship in Europe in July.  And by the way, they did take the spots on the State podium!

The wind was not very cooperative on Saturday: not enough wind to compensate the strong tide.  After a first attempt to launch a race around midday, the RC decided to send the kids back as they could not cross the starting line.  At the end of the day, the RC tried another race in very light wind (3 to 4 knots) – the race was shortened and less than half of the fleet managed to cross the line before the time limit.  Many kids were grumpy including Hugo!

Sunday was a much better day weatherwise.  Lots of tide again (going West) but a strong 20-24 knots wind all day allowed the RC to run 4 long races.  All sailors were exhausted by the end of the day but at a good time on the water and enjoyed great surfs.  Considering the challenging conditions, Hugo had a good day with a 22^nd, 17^th, 16^th and 25^th out of 44 participants.  He felt he missed some opportunities here and there but was pleased with his races.

Sunday’s conditions were very similar except the wind was a bit less strong: ranging between 16 and 22 knots but shiftier.  Hugo did not manage the wind shifts as well as he would have wanted to in the first 3 races and, despite some good starts, ended up 30^th, 28^thand 24^th.  Hugo managed to finish the championship on a high, finishing the last race in 12^th position.  Unfortunately, he copped 5 additional points for not signing off when returning to shore!  Still learning… 

Leigh Harvie had a good weekend.  He placed 15^th out of 30 Greenfleeters. They had 9 races and Leigh’s best results were one 6^th and one 7^th – he was very happy after those races!  

Opti Open Fleet Results

Opti Green Fleet Results

At McCrae, Andrew Hill and Nicholas Jurovic took 5th position in the Taipan 4.9 Sloop class.

Taipan Results

At Port Melbourne, Vincent Cross and Will Fleming started in brilliant style winning the first race of the Hobie 16 Victorian Championships.  While struggling to hold down the boat in the stronger conditions on Sunday and Monday, the pair sailed well enough to secure a narrow win in the Youth division, the third year in a row they have taken out that honour.

Hobie Overall Results

Hobie Youth Results

At Sorrento in the 420 State Titles , Lucy Gray finshed first female with her crew Chloe Harper.

420 Results

Back at WYC, Lachie Gibson skippered his F18 into 4th place, with a spot on the podium coming down to the last race.

F18 Resuts

At Lake Boga, Mark Axton finished 17th in the Impulse State Titles over Easter

Impulse Results