On the weekend of the 20-21 May, the five of us (Ed Warner, Pip Danks, Sally Danks, Hamish Bolton and Sam Batty) headed up to Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Newport NSW to compete in the Sailing Champions League Asia-Pacific Final.
Without a reliable wind forecast available, we didn’t really know what to expect coming into Day 1, except for plenty of wind gusts and shifts in the small inland sailing area of the Pittwater. One small wind shift could easily change the course of the entire race, so eyes had to always be outside the boat. Against an experienced fleet of sailors, including many from Sydney who train year-round in the Elliot 7’s, the main competition came around to which boat could set and drop their spinnakers most efficiently and without issues. Both upwind and downwind starts also presented a fun challenge for skippers and crew! We finally got the hang of it all half way through the second day of racing, giving us a few decent scores to finish the regatta. 30 knot bullets coming down the race course made for an entertaining finals round.
All in all, we had a great weekend and learnt lots! We would like to thank BYS greatly for supporting us, because without them, we wouldn’t have had this opportunity to race competitively against high-level interstate sailors in fast-paced, high-action sports boats. We look forward to getting back into more J70 sailing at BYS next season, and encourage any youth sailors to join our youth group for the opportunity to compete in more of these fun regattas!
Pip Danks
Images courtesy of the Sailing Championships League, Asia-Pacific website, and Mark Turnbull and Down Under Sail
