We had an inner city beach background for this year's Victorian State Championships. They were held over 2 days in conjunction with the historic "Jolly Boat Ashes" series at PMYC.
41 Sabots were registered for this typical Melbourne weekend with heavy winds on saturday followed by light winds on sunday. There was a strong fleet of 17 in the Novice section with representatives from Port, Sandy, Black Rock, Brighton, and Sorrento.
New Victorian State Champion: James Oliver
Our new Senior State Champion is James Oliver from Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club. James won the hotly contested series from fellow Sorrento sailor Kate Hannah. In third place was James Morrison from SYC.
James Oliver was sailing in his new Van Munster "Whisper" with Hooper sails, and I am sure that we will be seeing lots more of James on the podium in the near future.
The Junior Division was won by Lucy Davies also from Sorrento, sailing another Van Munster: the well known "Synergy" (Previously sailed by Tim Hannah then George Davies). Second place went to James McLennan from BRYC ("Way To Go"), and third spot went to Jack Felsenthal from SYC ("Kaos").
The Novice Division was won by Tom Green from Port Melbourne Yacht Club ("Fang") with second place going to Kira Freeman ("Around The Buoys") and third spot went to Max Nichols ("Cobb N Co").
We congratulate these sailors and indeed all the Sabot sailors who took part in the 2008 Victorian Sabot State Championships. Clearly the Sabot remains the largest junior sailing class in Australia, and the large number of Novice sailors indicates there is a strong base for future growth in the class. The VSSA also thanks Port Melbourne Yacht Club and Commodore Walter Edgar for hosting this regatta, the race committee and the PRO Michael Broise for a well run series, and a special thanks to the VSSA committee members and other parents who put in such a big effort over the 2 day regatta, in particular Wendy Wintersgill, Gary McLennan, Ross Fisher, Sue Dale and Karen Kalpokas.
Full results for this regatta will shortly be available on the VSSA website.
Mario Kalpokas
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