NSW One Design state titles - 39 entries, yippeee!

Despite god-awful weather (rain flooding streets for most of the time, 0-6 knots of wind, lightning, etc) we had a great roll up of 39 sailors for the Wally and Junior One states at Dobroyd (Saturday) and Narrabeen (Sunday). They ranged from ex-Olympians to 8 year olds, and about one third of them were 15 or under.

People turned up from Melbourne and Canberra and there was a good bunch from Newcastle/Lake Mac. Only Wollongong and Cronulla were missing as the Wollongong guys are understandably stuffed after travelling up and down the East Coast doing other national titles. It was a great turn out given the terrible forecast - many thanks to all the sailors who came.

Saturday afternoon we had a light NEer under sunny skies; Sunday was very calm. The racing was close, with people finishing 1st or 2nd in one race and mid fleet in the next. The Juniors (13-15) and Sub Juniors (8 to 11 years) could also have done with more wind, but the SJs had some great racing and more importantly, just kept on having fun all weekend. They sailed eagerly until we told them to stop, and then they went out and splashed around on their boards together.

Ron Schwebel from Narrabeen revelled in the conditions and sailed brilliantly all weekend, finishing top lightweight and also fastest overall from Paul Ivshenko. Karen Constable was top woman and an excellent third overall; Greg Johns took the heavies and Chris Thompson the mediums.

Matt Ivshenko won the Junior One class (the separate morning races using small sails) as well as the Silver Fleet and Youth classes when he put on the big sail and raced with the adult's fleet. In the closest finish of them all Jack Buchan won the Sub Juniors on countback from Owen Long. These kids, 8 to 11, were doing brilliantly but most importantly they were just having fun.

So far this season over 60 sailors have raced on Windsurfer One Designs and Junior Ones in NSW, and there are fleets starting at Lake Mac and hopefully in the eastern suburbs. Next year it would be good to get some more cruising/fun marathon/social stuff happening.

Many, many thanks to Pat Coleman, Chris Allen and Ron Jenkins (DAC race committee for the Saturday), Rhys and the Narrabeen Lakes Sailing Club committee for the Sunday sailing, and to the Billingtons, Steve Barton, Deb Apthorp, and Ron Schwebel for their help.