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The 2008/2009 Nationals were conducted in the waters of Port Phillip Bay off the Rosebud beach in Victoria.  Rosebud Yacht Club were very hospitable and did a excellent job at running the series, despite clearly being stretched to their limit by the three seperate classes.  The job of the organisers and sailors alike was extremely difficult given the wind conditions varied from 4-5kt drifters in the morning to 20+kt screamers in the afternoon sea-breeze.  I (Mitch) have taken the liberty of writing a quick report with particular attention payed to the horror story that was Race 6.

Six Stingrays entered the series with four making the trip from South Australia, one from New South Wales and one 'local' boat from Victoria.  Justin and Bill from NSW on Wildcard were rigged up and prepared with hours to spare before the invitation race, as was Mitch from VIC and Rex from SA.  With the invitation race due to start at 2:30pm the Lienerts (Brett and Todd) entered the yachtclub having left SA at about 3am... remarkably both of them made it to the startline on time!.... David arrived from SA just in time as well.... as the bar opened that night!

It was immediately obvious that this was going to be a very relaxed and friendly series with a lot of family involvement within crews and between crews.  Whilst the racing on the water was competitive its hard to recall ANY raised voices... except from the Arrow Catamarans.... I think they were shouting "Slow Down"!

Early in the series Justin, Todd and Brett all showed that they were the boats to beat.  Rex and Julie displayed flashes of brilliance throughout the series and David appeared to be very fast in the lighter conditions.  I (Mitch) was learning rapidly throughout the series and must give a big thankyou to all the more experienced (MUCH more experienced) skippers for helping me out so much!

Despite the top 3 boats all winning races Justin and Bill on Wilcard won the series comfortably with the heavy weather sailing being the thing that stood them out from the rest,  race 6 that decimated the fleet with gusts of 35kts was a prime example.  After the first beat the wind was strong but manageable, we turned the corner in a very close pack with most boats Two-String reaching right on the limit, at the wing mark five boats turned the corner but Todd and young son Mitchell made a B-line to the beach, this turned out to be a great decision.  All five remaining boats made it to the bottom mark and then back to the top again... let the carnage begin.  Most crews were huddled at the back of the boat running dead down wind, not long after rounding the top mark my tiller cross arm detatched... miraculously this problem was rectified whilst remaining upright!  Half way down the course David performed a spectacular nosedive in which the crew met one of the harder parts of the rigging quite intimately.  Eventually David had to 'sink a hull' to right his boat and then limped to shore.  After capitalising on David's capsize I screamed past him en-route to the bottom mark, running through my head was this:

stay upright, stay upright, stay upright ...%@^#... CAPSIZE... crew is through the mainsail and a diamond spreader is broken, mast still in one piece, quick drop the sails with the boat on its side, where is the rescue boat?

The rescue boat showed up, we told them we would need a tow, they responded with 'ok, we have to go back to the course... we'll pick you up in 5 minutes".

Meanwhile back on the course Brett, Justin and Rex were still slogging it out.  Brett had almost finished the course when his son and crew Jarred was swept off the boat in the nasty chop.  On turning around to pick him up Brett capsized, luckily the well performing and busy rescue crew were quick to pick up Jarred and put a crewmember on Brett's boat for the sail in... another boat retired.

Then there were two.  Rex and wife Julie had the finish line in sights, had dialed back and just wanted to finish when disaster struck.  A known weak point in Rex's mast failed and down it came - heartbreak - another Stinger towed to shore.

Justin and Bill took out the race... This was to be the case for race 7 a few days later.  I had repaired my rigging and David had given his mast to Rex and the wind was strong... With memories of two days earlier still lurking everyone except Justin and Bill ummed and ahhed and ummed some more then decided not to race.  Wildcard was the only stingray on the course and won, it is worth mentioning that they were beaten around by a Cobra though!!!

All in all it was an excellent series and there was enough chat to suggest that Victor Harbour should see a good sized fleet with lots of talent and knowledge to share!

Thanks to the Arrow & Arafura Catamaran Association and the Cobra Catamaran Association of Austrlia for allowing us to share their venue.  In particular thanks to the Cobras for doign much of the necessary documentation and paperwork.

RESULTS