To all Victorian Sabot sailors and parents, including those new to this Sabot enews service since last weekend – welcome!
For a number of you, this will be the first time you have received a Victorian Sabot Sailing Association Inc’ (VSSA) enews email, and this is probably because you have recently joined the association, and this is probably because you have just completed the first weekend of the 2006 Irwin Sails Victorian Sabot Championships at Royal Brighton YC! Phew, that was also one of the longest sentences ever! I hope you enjoyed your experiences over last weekend, and that we will see you again this weekend for the final two days and the presentation/prize giving on Sunday afternoon/evening.
What was fantastic about last weekend was the huge turnout of competitors, 80 in total, and the large number of new faces especially in the novices. This bodes really well for our upcoming 2006/7 National Championships to be held at Sandringham YC this Christmas, and for many of this group it will be their first (and hopefully not last) experience at a Nationals. 80 kids is a great result for our States, but you can expect around 200 for the Nationals – maybe more if Victoria can deliver the same numbers at last weekend.
Back to the 2006 States – the fleet was divided into a number of divisions representing experience level, and whether sailors were sailing one-up or two-up. Divisions 1, 2 and 3 sailed out on the outer Championship Course, whilst Divisions 4 and 5 sailed on the inner Novices Course. Unfortunately foul weather conditions on Saturday saw sailing abandoned for the day, but five races were completed by the Championship Fleet and four by the Novices on Sunday - progressive results are now on the website – follow the link below (run your cursor/pointer over the event title and it will highlight – then click on it and follow the menu).
Excellent racing on the Championship course with 33 entries sees Tim Hannah take the overall lead relatively comfortably after five races with three wins. However, he hasn’t had it all his own way – Shane Voyer and Sam Ellis each took a heat off him during the day. Nick Taylor has sailed consistently for second place overall so far. Excellent results also for Stephen Collings in his second Sabot event and in a borrowed boat too, and after that it is really close – about ten points covering the next eight positions – good stuff. The Novices are sharing 47 entries over both one-up and two-up fleets – lots of emerging talent here.
For those who couldn’t make last weekend, please don’t miss this one coming – we will be offering half-price entry fees for the one weekend only, and there is still up to seven races left on the Championship course…….and you will learn lots regardless.
That’s your lot for now
See you next Saturday at Brighton
Yours in sailing
The Pres’
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