Sailing Shack Gets All Social

As we work towards our new website we will updating Facebook, Twitter and Youtube with content. Please visit us at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sailing-Shack/138159212922880 and comment. We will announce the new site sailingshack.com.au shortly.

Sailing Shack SB3

Sailing Shack Racing has launched its new Laser SB3 at Sandringham Yacht Club. Thanks to the support of Team Ronstan Racing and Rod Jones at Oceanburo. We look forward to getting many more sailors interested in the wonderful SB3 class this year. Thanks to Audi Week for the pic of the SB3 at full speed.

Optimist Green Fleet to Tornado in a Day

During the recent Victorian Youth Championships some of the sailors got to experience some faster boats. None more so than Sailing Shacks Optimist Green Fleet sailor Lachie Hartnett who at age 9 steered David Hart’s Olympic Tornado Hartatak with full kite up and fly a hull and then………roll it over see below. Lachie and David recovered and went on to sail off at speed again. See video on http://www.youtube.com/sailingshack of Lachie and Dave sailing in 6-7 knots of breeze.

David Hart and Optimist sailor Lachie Hartnett righting the Tornado

Victorian Laser Championships 2011

The Vic Laser Championships were sailed at McCrae YC in March in brilliant conditions with consistent 15-18 knot breezes. There was a great turn out of 70 boats across full rig, radial and 4.7.

In the standard, full rig Sean “Blockhead” Bly won in a close battle with Mark Tonner-Joyce in second from Stevie “Ray” Gunther in third. In the Radials Krystal Weir rocked in for day one which was great to see (as was former Olympian and world champion Sarah Blanck who came by to visit.) however Jeremy “look at my i-phone 4″ O’Connell was the man to beat in a very tough fleet winning from a fast couple of locals in Tom Vincent and Simon Merritt with Alison Dale winning the womens. In the Laser 4,7 it was great to see some Opti sailors moving up and dominating. Tom Trotman won every heat bar the one he OCS’ed in and second overall was Jack Felsthenthal with Natasha Van Rennes in third and first girl.

Sailing Shack Racing’s Rob Hartnett was fifth in the standard rig with Ben Hartnett fifth in the 4.7′s.

Victorian Optimist Championships 2011

The Victorian Optimist Championships were sailed from Mornington Yacht Club earlier this year. It was mammoth event with 105 entries across Open and Green Fleet.

Day one was no racing due to lack of breeze except for a dubious heat for the Green Fleet in which 70% of the fleet did not finish because of the tide…the abandonment flag must have got lost somehow..

Day two was much better with great winds and then a storm hit. So really all the action took place on day three with multiple races back to back. MYC did a great job in getting the regatta in and there was plenty of fun and giveaways at the presentations. Congratulations to James McLennan who won the Open division and also won the WA State titles.

Sailing Shack Racing’s Finn Hartnett was 30th in his first Open fleet regatta and Lachie Hartnett was 7th in the Green Fleet. Full results at http://ww.optivic.yachting.org.au

New Website for Sailing Shack

Apologies for our lack of blogging over the past couple of months as we have been preoccupied building a new fully functioning web site for Sailing Shack called Sailing Shack Racing. It will feature classifieds boats, gear and clothing, yachts to buy , clubs and much more. We hope to be up and running by June 2011.

We have just launched the following

http://www.facebook.com/sailingshack

http://www.youtube.com/sailingshack and we still have our Twitter site at

http://www.twitter.com/sailingshack

Please visit us at the above sites

Australian Laser Master 2011 Port Stephens

Up at beautiful Port Stephens the Australian Laser Masters have seen just under 190 boats for their first ever Nationals away from the Open fleet. It is a fantastic turn out with sailors in full , Radial and 4.7 rigs. The standard of racing is high with no one along for the ride. Plenty of new boats, new sails and new gear. Great support being provided by PSA and NB Laser. We have a good showing from Victoria with many sailing friends notably Owen McMahon, Mark Tonner-Joyce, James Mitchell and  John Jagger all having great races. After two days of breeze looks like a couple of light air days to follow.

Two Australians of the Year are Sailors!

Not widely reported in the press but two of the Australians of the Year Jessica Watson and Simon McKeown are both well respected sailors. Jessica is obviously well known for her round the world effort however it was her passion, determination and persistence that she was rewarded for. Simon McKeown was rewarded for his philanthropy work and ability to get the corporate world to fund  numerous causes and his personal commitments to the plight of Aboriginals and rehabilitation of those effected by drugs. This  is even more outstanding given his demanding role at Macquarie Bank. What most of the public don’t know is Simon’s incredible sailing career especially in world class catarmaran events including the speed records with Yellow Pages Endevour and numerous other craft. Big congratulations to Jessica and Simon!

Yacht Racing Rules

The rules of sailing and yacht racing can be complex at times and are often up to much discussion. If you want to check your knowledge have a look at this excellent site put together by  sailmaking group UKHalsey. Great idea to check out before a major regatta. Simply go to:

http://www.ukhalsey.com/RulesQuiz/quiz_list.asp

Australian Optimist Championships 2011

Christopher “C-Dog” Charlwood (WA) withstood the pressure of light shifty winds to win the Australian Open Optimist Championship by a single point from 2009 Champion Nia Jerwood (WA) with Klaus Lorenz (QLD) in third. The Optimist Championships are getting harder and harder and its no wonder when the Opti sailors step into their next class they tend to do very well. For example Klaus won 4 out of his nine race yet finished third showing how consistent top 5′s are the order of the day. Even in the Green Fleet which managed to get in 12 races the competition was very strong with only three boats stringing together multiple wins. Not surprisingly these were the three that eventually finished in the top three overall. Lockie Dare and Finn Hartnett from Victoria finished first and second with WA’s Callum Green finishing third. In the Open the first girl went to Nia Jerwood followed by Anna Philip who showed them how it was done when the breeze blew hard. Full results are at http://www.aioda.com.au and next years nationals will be in Queensland.

End of another Opti Regatta!