• Presentation Night  -  Saturday 14th June - Black Rock YC.  Click here for details
• Legends Day   - Black Rock YC
• 2008 State titles  Weekend 12/13th April and Saturday 19th April Black Rock YC.  Results  Photos

The I14 Victorian State Titles were held on 12^th, 13^th and 19^th of March at Black Rock Yacht Club. The event attracted 25 entries including Dave Hayter and Dave Alexander from Adelaide as well as Kevin Linnett who came down from Wollongong.

The large fleet with a vast range of experience was welcomed on the Saturday with 25 degrees and a light (5-8 knot) South Easter. The conditions proved to be fairly testing but allowed some of the less experienced 14 sailors to be competitive. Touring Wombat (Dave Alexander) was all over the conditions taking out the heat with Ron Scherwinksi & James Lanati a close 2^nd. Unfortunately for the fleet from about 5^th down the wind dropped out on the down wind leg to the finish allowing snipers from the back of the pack such as Ghost (Monkey Symes & Daniel Farthing) to cruise past those who had worked hard all race. Due to the light conditions the race was also shortened after the bottom mark, with the finish being 100 metres further downwind. Unfortunately a number of boats believed it was shortened at the top mark and ignored going around the bottom mark before the finish. This lead to several boats having to re round and four disqualifications. The second race was then called off for the day due to a lack of wind.

That night a barbecue was put on by the 14’s at the club (thanks to Kirsten for organizing it). It is believed that the barbecue was the brain child of Stewart Vickery as the usual fair of snags in a bit of bread was thrown out the window for buckets of prawns and Greek salads. Stewart had the crowd in raptures after getting up on his soap box and awarding a tray of cupcakes to his brother ‘Homer’ for first on handicap for the day. I wonder if Stewart has ever actually seen an episode of the Simpsons?

Sunday morning was shaping up to be a Barry Crocker, with miserable conditions and several members of the fleet still under the weather. The race started in around 15 knots and a large swell of around 2 metres. To be perfectly honest I had no idea what happened in the first race as I missed the start by a considerable amount of time. What I do know is that after the first half of the fleet had rounded the top mark the conditions became slightly wild. It wasn’t so much the increase in the breeze that caught everyone of guard but the massive waves. The first downwind leg was carnage resulting in around 8 boats swimming and two broken masts. Ghost successfully sailed with the whole boat underwater before somehow popping up, while many other boats including Meaty  and Wam  experiencing some nosediving action. The race was taken out by Ronstan with Read Between the Lines in 2^nd. There are a couple of pictures showing Lindsay steering the boat like a Greek fisherman. 

The second race saw the breeze moderate and the much anticipated comeback of ‘The Athletes’ in Donkey on the Edge (Strongy & Klemmy). They were able to cancel out their upwind speed with a couple of very painful gybes downwind resulting in Strongy looking like a drowned rat and Klemmy feeling ill after the race. The top two were in reverse order from the last race. Well done to 13yo Brodie Coutts crewing with his dad Greg on Grunt for two good finishes in trying conditions.

The afternoon racing saw the wind shift from the West back to the South West with the breeze moderating and the swell almost disappearing. The fleet that made it to the start was severely depleted with breakages of the boat and the body from the mornings races. Most of the action was taking place on the balcony with the two pensioners (Alan Davis and Rob Vickery) arguing about which boat was which for a couple of hours. The second afternoon race resulted in an interesting tussle between Lindsay Irwin and Ron Scherwinski with Lindsay managing to roll over the top on the last gybe. Well done to Graeme Fisher and crew on Abide Design for finishing all of the days races after only being in the class for a few months.  

The second Saturday and the last day of racing saw conditions much like the first day. After being nicely pushed out at the start Two Dogs tacked off to the right of the course and pulled the proverbial ‘Mung flyer’ picking up a nice right hander with pressure to be 1^st round the top mark. This was however very short lived with the B5’s quickly rolling over the top downwind. The light conditions were handled best by Ron & James with a 1^st and a 2^nd. Dave Hayter also managed to notch up a race win.

The overall winners were Lindsay Irwin & Andrew Perry on 11 points from Ron Sherwinski & James Lanati on 15 points, with Mark Kristic and Matty Lowe in 3^rd.

Thanks to Rob & Russell Bates for taking some great photos, Black Rock Yacht Club and the boats who came from interstate.

Ben Strong