With the national titles done and dusted over in Victoria the WA fleet were left to reflect on what has been a busy 12months since hosting the nationals at MBSC in 2013.
With the 2nd half of the local summer sailing season, winter series and then kicking off later in the year with the 2014/15 Summer sailing season there is still plenty of time for improvement on the water. Writing this report now shows that the last of the 2013/14 summer season is long gone and we are into the Winter season with the warmer thicker wetsuits already having been worn a number of times. Local Ex-Pat, James Lewis will no doubt remind us all of what it is like to sail a Musto with a Dry Suit – something which is not readily available here in Australia. ‘Special Order’ I think the term is!
The 2013/14 State Championships were held of Fremantle with the host club FSC (Fremantle Sailing Club) once again supporting the enthusiastic Musto sailors. This year saw the Saturdays racing held straight out the front of the club in conjunction with the normal Saturday dinghy racing program. Sundays program was to be something new to the local guys with the race course moved to the North of the local waters giving the Mustos a chance to sail on some open water with some swell. 8 sailors turned out for the weekends activities and importantly all 8 returned home – relatively safety. Warm weather and 12-18knots of wind over the weekend saw Denis Jones take the title this year with last year’s winner Thor Schoenhoff in 2nd followed closely by Arthur Brett.
Mandurah Easter Regatta is considered the ‘Grand Finale’ of the summer season and the Musto fleet ventured south to once again partake. Saturdays racing saw 15-18knots of breeze with gusts at times a little higher with a rolling swell wrapping around the headland. Short course racing with drifting top marks proved challenging for not only the sailors but the race officials too. With the days racing done, Denis Jones was once again high and dry at the top of leader board (0 swims) with the remainder of the sailors looking like drowned rats after several ‘dunking’s’. Interestingly enough Denis was also in the lead after the first days racing. Some sailors are drawing conclusions between Denis winning races and his ability to keep the mast vertical in near on all conditions – but that is just speculation. Sundays racing was much the same as Saturday’s albeit with a number of hours of drifting around waiting for the wind to fill in. Denis was once again crowned champion of champions, Thor 2nd, and Chris Sutherland 3rd.
Moving into the winter series sees the local fleet moving between FSC & MBSC for periodical weekends racing. Typically it’s the quieter time of the year but so far we have seen 1 of the 2 scheduled racing days ‘blown out’ with frontal pressure system keeping Perth damp for a number of weeks. Finally some rain after 5 months of clear skies and warm weather.… such a shame.
