Thanks to Simon Grain for this report: Congratulations to Hugo Ottaway and his crew Pauliina Mattila, Gareth Evans, James Tarode and Megan Aulich sailing Bruschetta VI, the new National J2/4 Class Champions in Australia for 2018 by 3 points from Simon Grain in Jet and Steve Wright in Tinto in third. Day four was a battle for first between Hugo and Simon right to the very end, with both finishing the last race in the same order as they finished the regatta. Hyperactive and Vice Versa both finished on 58 points for fourth and fifth respectively, an indication of the close racing throughout the regatta. The last day started slowly with a 12-15 knot southerly, cloudy skies and much cooler temperatures (to everyone’s relief after the very draining 42 degree Saturday). With a shifty wind, a couple of generals and an exemplary attitude from the race committee, after one and a half hours and seven start sequences, we finally got away. Jordan skippering the Sandy Youth boat Sidetracked had an absolute blinder of a race, finishing out front only to suffer the pain of finding he was OCS on a black flag race. Steve Wright in Tinto took the gun, with Jet just pipping Bruschetta VI right on the line. Race 12 had Bruschetta VI taking out the race from Jet and Kirsty Harris in Hyperactive. Luis Ferreiro was on the race track, and you can see fantastic pictures at www.sportsnap.com.au. The full results for One Design are at https://www.syc.com.au/raceresults/2017/klbt/j24nat/SGrp27.htm. The Performance Handicap was won by Robin Townsend in Witches Thimble from Jack Fullerton in Two Dogs and Ron Thomson in Kicking. Results are at https://www.syc.com.au/raceresults/2017/klbt/j24nat/SGrp28.htm. In the very popular Thommo Cup, once again Ron took the honours from Jeanette 7–5. Although he tells me he got a real scare in the middle of the regatta when it was 4 all! The standard of racing is awesome. It doesn’t matter where in the fleet, from front to back the competition is full on. And everyone is loving it. The Sandy Race Management team did a fantastic job in sometimes trying conditions. I heard no grumbles, only praise for their very professional work. The presentation was held in the Sandy Harbourview restaurant, another very successful evening with El Presidente, master MC and funnyman John Neville, lamenting that the regatta had not ended when he was winning but doing a sterling job presenting trophies, cracking jokes and keeping us all in laughter. For more Australian J/24 information, visit http://www.j24.com.au/.
International Class Association
