The J70 Victorian State Championships and J70 Australian National Championships were held over consecutive weeks in January at Sandringham Yacht Club.
Participating from BYS were two youth boats, BYS club boat Spike, skippered by Daisy Laing and Skyhook, skippered by Ethan O’Brien (thanks for Tony Landgren for the boat loan!) as well the more senior boats Jumpin’ Jack Flash, skippered by Martin Kudnig and Sequel, with owner Tony Landgren on board.
Eleven races were held over 3 days for the Victorian States which, after a well-earned 2 day break, was followed by the Nationals with 16 races over 4 days. So that was 27 races over 7 days of sailing! Although JJF missed a few races in the States due to a torn kite and Sequel also missed a few races due to crew injury.
Read a more detailed write up from Martin Kudnig on the BYS website
Festival of Sails
Element 22 all smiles on Corio Bay | Nine Lives during the Passage Race
Cobra 24 leading in heat 8.
Over the 26th & 27th of January, a team of 4 BYS youth sailors travelled to Geelong to compete in the Sailing Champions League Qualifier event. Our team consisted of Sally Danks, Sam Backwell, Samantha Batty and myself. The event is a round-robin club versus club regatta held in supplied boats, focussing on short-course, umpired fleet racing.
Following three sessions of round-robin racing we were happy to finish the qualifying series as the second-ranked team! Meaning we were a part of the top 4 teams that progressed to the finals series, where unfortunately we finished up 4th overall but were very happy to finish as the second U22 team! As a result of our strong results in Geelong, we have qualified for the Sailing Champions League Asia Pacific Final to be held in NSW in May!
Huge thanks must go to BYS for helping make attending this event possible!