Duncan Dey

Duncan Dey from Ballina reports:

Twenty two NS14s competed on the Ocean at Mooloolaba for the QLD State Titles 2008. There were five races over the 3 days of the Anzac Day long weekend: 2 on Friday, 2 on Saturday, and 1 on Sunday, followed by the traditional traffic jam back to Brisbane. The current National and NSW Champions Hugh Tait & Tara McCall sailing #1996 "Tigger Too" of Northbridge Sailing Club won four races and hence the series, to add yet another Championship feather to the collection in their caps. Peter & James Warner in “Samba Pa Ti” #1984 (also of Northbridge) finished second with a first and three second places. Third was David Alyward & Charlotte Holliday in #1985 "Beach 25" (Northbridge yet again).

The 2007 Qld State Champion Chris Gardner couldn’t get there from Lake Macquarie in #1944 "Wild Fire" nor could recently ex-NSW Champion Steve Jones in #1945 “Pawnstar”.

Four Ballina boats swooped on the gorgeous ocean venue. Duncan & Georgie finished 4th in #1783 " whatever... "; Bob & Matty Engwirda 9th in #1875 “ Cosmic ”; Mark & Jodie 13th in #1857 “ Aphrodite ”; and Chris & Darcy 17th in #1997 “ Don’t Panic ”. Bob sailed to his usual high standard even with new sails that weekend and came in 4 th , 3 rd , 6 th in the last 3 races. Unfortunately, he had found a weak-point in his Force V and dropped the mast during Race 1. As the races were back-to-back, this meant he’d lost Race 2 as well.

Heats 1 and 2 were sailed in about 10 knots from the West. Heats 3 and 4 in about 5 knots from the Nor’east. Duncan & Georgie struggled to get pace on the first 2 days but cracked it for the last race in about 8 knots of Northerly, gaining 3 rd place behind the 1 st and 2 nd place getters (who were never challenged in that race or the series). It’s amazing what a little mast rake can do! If we’d tried that earlier, we could have gone into the Hall of Fame with a bronze.

Eight boats came up from Northbridge, including the NSW Junior Champion Henry Kernot in #1849 “Captain Planet”. Two new Moondancer design boats came up from Sydney’s Connells Point club, including Colin Wiley (our Mike’s brother).

There were 7 Queenslanders, best of whom were Juniors Angus Galloway & Andrew Gough. They borrowed #1739 “Summertime Blues” for the event, having never sailed in NS14s before, then stunned us all by coming in 5 th overall.

Happy Sailing, Duncan