RBYC Racing News 15 01 2008

29er Worlds - Australia has won the 29er Worlds with thanks to WA pair Steven Thomas and Jasper Warren. Our team of Alexander McGuigan and James Tammersild came 13th overall in Emerald Division out of 25. Click here for results.

Dragon Nationals- Sydneysider Ian McCrossin won the Prince Phillip Cup down in Hobart. Click here to view overall results

Etchells Nationals - 2 races so far, so keep your eye on this link

S80 States - Sadly only entry this year was Graham Noel's 'Hot Shot'. This series was run by RYCV in some pretty windy conditions which may have put some off. Anyhow, the new State Champion is Gary Mackinven in 'Up 'N Go' from Blairgowrie. "Hot Shot came 10th on handicap. Click here for the S80 website

Wednesday Afternoon racing -

Eight boats took advantage of this non-aggregate Pursuit Start race to get in some training prior to the start of our next series on Jan 23rd.  A benign 10 knot S-SW breeze at the start escalated fairly rapidly after into 20 knots and made for lively sailing conditions around Home Course #2: an additional triangle on top of our usual #1 course which ensured all crews worked pretty hard in the conditions!
It was fantastic to see two new boats joining our fleet and this combined with some different crew combinations, made for exciting racing.
Welcome to "Thunder", a Noelex 30 skippered by new owner Tony, which "thundered" around the course in hot pursuit of Sunkiss all day.  With the Clipper 111 crew split between Gary aboard Thunder and Ross Wareing and Graham Noel joining forces aboard Sunkiss, the competition was on fire. 
Also joining us was Ted Masur and his crew aboard "Y Knot", a Beneteau first having their shake down race.  Ted has been sailing on OTB catamarans and Andalucia prior to the purchase of his boat, so watch out for some competitive racing.

At the end of the day, Sunkiss blistered away to take out the honours for the day, followed by Conrad, Adams Rib, Redline, Avanti and Vintage Burgundy with Thunder and Y Knot retiring early to prepare for the next race.

This week's race, Wed Jan 16, will again be a non-aggregate race but with a FLEET START.  Current forecast is for -
"Southwest to southerly wind of around 10 knots freshening to 15 to 20 knots during the morning, then possibly reaching 25 knots during the afternoon. Waves of half a metre, rising to around 1 metre during the day".
Come out and join us and get some starting practice in before the start of the next series on Wed Jan 23.

Good sailing,

Rosie Colahan

**News Flash** - to avoid running down 100 Lasers at the southern end of our race area, tomorrow's start will be a committee boat start still using Home Courses. 

There is now a dedicated webpage for all the latest information concerning the Wednesday Afternoon racing. Click here for a look.

Skandia Geelong Week  - RBYC will be entering teams for Skandia. This will be submitted with RGYC before end of the day tomorrow.

New Boats - Rory Thomas has his nice Bavaria Match 35 now in his pen. No prizes to guess the 'new' name.

                        Island Trader is trading up to a very nice Beneteau First 34.7 and calling it 'Rogue Trader' and rumour has it that a certain Beneteau 40.7 owner is upsizing too.

Twilight - Race 1 of the Summer Series is once again being sponsored by Geoff Adams from Briggs Marine, offering a solid brass bell and bracket to the winner like that below

After combining the results from the Spring Series with the Summer Series, the lowest point winner will walk away with the latest offshore jacket and pants courtesy of Line 7 Marine. Stuart Lyon's Spindrift is sitting pretty at the moment with Crackerjack not too closely behind.

Crew Matching - I have 4 non members anxious to try it out tomorrow. I hope there are a couple of kind skippers out there that could take 2 each. If that is you, could you let me know by email sailing@rbyc.org.au. Thank you.

Crewing Noticeboard - Speaking of crew, I hope you are all aware of the new Crew Noticeboard (click here) with people listed as wanting to crew. If you are stuck for crew for Geelong, perhaps give them a call.

Wednesday's Weather - looking pretty good with a possible a light shower in the morning. Click here for forecast.

Club racing is back to normal starting this Saturday. For Div boats there is the Mystery Race - so can't tell you much about it.