State Championship Belmont 16′s Sailing Club
Ashley Stoddart leads the Radial fleet – photo Greg Cooke
There were 96 entries for the NSW/ACT States held over the weekend 22/23 November at Belmont 16′s. There were entries from all over the state with a number of interstate and international competitors (New Zealand, Italy and Singapore).
The Belmont 16′s Sailing Club is arguably the best set up on the best stretch of water for dingy sailing in the state. The weather and breezes were excellent relatively steady with just an element of switch to keep competitors on their toes.
The Belmont 16′s team of volunteers and our Race Officer Andrew McLachlan did a great job all weekend. The breezes were between 10 to 16 knots dominantly easterly. Courses were set well away from land eliminating any local knowledge advantage. . The race organisation and management could not be faulted.
There were 32 Standards entered and Colin Cheng from Singapore Sailing was the convincing winner with four firsts and two second places. Another international Italian Marco Gallo was second with Scott Sydney third. The youth winner (U21) was Thomas Vincent from McCrae YC in Melbourne. Thomas, who is a frequent participant in NSW/ACT events, was a creditable 8th overall in the hot Standard fleet.
Scott Sydney leads Colin Cheng – photo Greg Cooke
Ashley Stoddart from Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Australia’s number one ranked Laser sailor convincingly won in the 49 boat Radial fleet from last years champion Finn Alexander from Double Bay SC. Finn was the first youth (U19) as well. Daniel Self another up and comming young sailor from RQYS was third. Ashley Stoddart also took the cube for first woman with Vanessa Dudley taking the women’s runner up cube. Vanessa was 8th overall in the Radials.
The 4.7′s saw a trifector for Royal Prince Alfred Sailing Club with the Anthony Hawke taking the winners cube on a countback. Nathan Bryant and Anthony had exactly the same results to count 3 firsts and 2 seconds however Anthony won the last race which made him the winner. Charley Wells was third and was the first female in the 4.7′s. There were 14 entries in the 4.7′s.
Thanks to the volunteers officials and helpers for making this event the great success that it was.
The full results are here
There are some great photos by Chris Munro of Redhotshotz on Facebook – Saturday here Sunday here. You can buy the photos from Chris by emailing him at redhotshotz@bigpond.com quoting the photo number which you can see when you click on the thumbnail. Individual images are $20 or $80 for all the images Chris has of your boat.
Greg Cooke took many photos of the event as well and you can see his work on the follwing links
