1316 JYNX at CHS 2008 |
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CHS 2008
David Price, Belmont, Tuesday, 22 April 2008The CHS never has any wind - right?  Of course, the CHS Regatta hosted by Belmont 16ft Sailing Club is traditionally where everyone meets up for the last time in the sailing season for a hoot, most of the sailors bringing along an unfamiliar boat, more often than not one that is a step up in class and perhaps a little oversized. This is because there is NEVER ANY WIND – RIGHT? 
2008 will be remembered as the one that was the exception to the rule.
The forecast for the week showed a slow moving high down in the bight which brought southerly winds up the east coast for the entire week, including rain! The range forecast was between 20-30kts each and every day over the duration of the regatta. Interesting stuff for the organisers, Belmont 16’s and the CHS Committee, but like every regatta, it was up to the crews themselves to determine whether they should sail or not. As you see is what you get.
With southerly winds around 18kts on Monday before the Invitation Race, only a couple of boats were to be seen trailing their new boats for this regatta, it being also fairly cold and wet to ad to the scene. One boat was our F11 sailors Mat Stenta and Olivia Price on the 13 footer TYRES AND MORE who spent an exciting 40 minutes of “accustomising” to the boat and conditions to come.
Invitation Day was as expected with all boats going out tentatively to see what they could do in preparation for the following 4 days of racing ahead. There were many F11s in attendance, with a number of F11 crew now skippering a F11 together with some current Flyer skippers and crew going for the trophy as well. Tom Koerner, Keats Thompson, Sam Ellis, Angela Bates, Nina Long, Aimee Moretti and Amy Gojnich skippered their own F11s, Thompson out with the just built 1359 FRANTIC showing great speed and height around the track. The normally positioned crews such as Paul Darmanin, Harry Price, Emma Knighton, Nicola Forbes-Smith, James Lawira-Fernandez – the list goes on – stepped up to the plate and skippered a F11, some for the first time as skipper in the relatively rough and gusty conditions. As you would expect, there were many boats in the water, but all crews handled the conditions very well, many surprising themselves with their level of competency and skill in such conditions.
All up, there was a record 32 Flying Elevens at the regatta, by far the most number of boats in any class demonstrating how popular the class is for those coming up through the ranks.
Many of our F11 skippers and crew came up to Belmont this year to sail 13s, 29ers and cherubs, including Josh McKnight with his brothers’ moth.
In the 13s, there were F11ers Mat Stenta and Olivia Price in Tyres And More, Kaiser Doyle on the wire with World Youth Champ Jason Waterhouse in Typhoon, Natalie Greentree and Jono Roel in Dimention Polyant, and Sammy Nugent and Lisa Darmanin in Switched On Innovations.
A number of regular F11ers sailed a 29er such as Scott Cotton, Toby Dind, Tim Forbes-Smith. In the cherubs, Claire Lundsmann and Alex Paton had a go at the challenging conditions.
After 4 days of relatively strong breezes and some pretty heavy cold downpours, including the last day’s winds around 20-25kts, our F11 sailors had 1st to 4th in the F11s with Keats Thomson taking out the top position in the class and 5ths in the Aus and NSW Championships.
As far as overall results, our F11ers Olivia and Mat took 1st in the 13s, our best in the 29ers was Scott Cotton’s 7th place, and Alex Paton grabbed 6th place in the cherubs ahead of Claire in 7th spot. Amy Gojnich was awarded 3rd place in the Aus Girls Division.
Full credit to Belmont 16ft Sailing Club in hosting the event once again and to the CHS Regatta Committee for trawling through all the different classes of craft results to determine the ultimate prize winners.
We are all looking forward to next year.
Pricey
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