The forecast wind conditions leading up to the 2018 IOM NSW State Championship looked fantastic and nothing other than quality racing was expected with Jonesy (Paul Jones), Flemo (Scott Fleming) and The Prez (Sean Wallis) expected to battle it out.
Why wouldn’t that be the case? With various state titles currently held by the trio and Jonesy defending his NSW title, there was little doubt we were going to see a terrific shootout that would probably result in determining the favourite for the upcoming nationals on the Gold Coast.
As forecast, the wind was in for the scheduled start time and the fleet hit the water in anticipation of some real exciting racing and certainly B rigs for the latter part of the day.
Owen Jarvis (NSW) kicked off with a great win in the B fleet seeding race with Flemo locking in 2nd place. In the A fleet race, Jonesy launched his boat and it wasn’t long before he was back on the beach with a broken jib sheet while Russell Gray (QLD) matched Jarvis with the A fleet win and thoughts were definitely around the performance of the Britpop’s in the lumpy conditions and those without one asking if they were going to be a chance.
It wasn’t long into the day that the weed and jellyfish started to impact the results with a number of guys making it to the front of the fleet only to pick up weed or get smacked around by the jellies throwing the scoreboard into disarray.
The breeze increased sufficiently to see the fleet change down to B rigs and saw some great surfing on the runs with the larger waves testing the skill of the skippers before the rain finally came with a massive wind shift that saw racing delayed for approximately an hour before clearing (taking the breeze with it).
The instant drop in the wind caught some B fleet skippers on the hop as racing resumed, with a small number picking it well with the A rig and the remainder fighting for a single promotion spot.
At the end of the day Jonesy had made his way on top of the leaderboard, six points ahead of Flemo with Laurie Hinchcliffe, who had a magnificent day in third. Aaron Farrar & Phil Page rounded out the top five.
No doubt most left the venue for a few cleansing ales, a good feed and the normal banter of “what could have been if”….
Day two was a cracker, the sun shining and the breeze again in for the start of racing and with a shift further east in the breeze, racing moved to the SW side of the club. A fleet opened the day with A rigs and Jonesy more or less carried on where he left off with a bullet in the first race.
The weed and jellyfish were prevalent but seemed to have lesser impact than the previous day but still played havoc with the results which saw many weeded at the leeward mark early in the day.
Flemo, Laurie and Pagey started their slippery slide out of the top five opening the gate for Torps (Greg Torpy) and The Prez with V10’s and Owen Jarvis to start their move for a podium spot.
By afternoon the breeze had freshened and saw the fleet change to B rigs and by this time The Prez had banged in a couple of bullets and some other top results to move into second place behind Jonesy with Torps finishing fast with 2, 2, 1 to finish the day in third.
What was expected to be a Britpop dominance after the early races dissipated with the K2 of Jones coming out on top, the V10’s of The Prez & Torps in 2nd & 3rd and the Britpop’s of Aaron Farrar and OJ 4th and 5th respectively.
Jon (Pinko) Pinkerton and his team at Koonawarra Sailing Club did a fantastic job under challenging conditions along with Anne Walker & Jayne Fleming managing the scoring. It was recognised by all the effort made by this team giving up their time to support the sailing.
As for the weed and jellies – til another time!
Pictured: Paul Jones (right) accepting the winners trophy from RO Jon Pinkerton