News
Australia: 2010 Taipan National Titles The 2010 Taipan and Capricorn National Titles were held from December 27 to January 3 at Paynesville, Victoria. Great Lakes Yacht Club ran a flawless series and much of the Credit must go to Commodore, James Frenchville and race officer, Stuart (Lofty) Loft along with a host of volunteers. No one could have asked for a more obliging and cooperative club to host a regatta. Special thanks to James who on New Year’s Day (lay day) went to work at his shed to repair "Splinter" so that Taison and Jayden who had travelled from Rivoli bay SA, could continue the series. The racing was kept tight and interesting because although the wind direction was quite stable each day, gusts of wind flowed consistently through the course and there was a range of wind directions on different days throughout the regatta.
The excitement builds when everyone starts arriving to unload boats at the clubhouse. People are making last minute repairs and alterations to their boats and competitors are match racing to test their boat speed before registration. There’s a slight anxiety about the week ahead including how the results will turn out and speculation over the weather conditions Mother Nature is going to provide for the series. Of course the nerves and anxiety are controlled by the rum, beer and socialising as old mates catch up and new mates introduce themselves. In the 4.9 sloop class, the Homan brothers Matt and Chris from QLD were outstanding and they comfortably won the series overall, despite having some very close races. The boys showed their class by consistently finishing ahead of the pack. Matt is also the current Australian F18 champion so he’s certainly establishing a good trophy collection. Chris (Slater) and Troy Munro placed second overall and possibly even surprised themselves slightly with their consistency having not sailed together since the 2009 Belmont Nationals. It was great to see such lively characters of the class perform so well. Dan and Annaliese Van Kerckhof placed third despite missing the second last day of sailing to attend a wedding. This again shows the class and consistency of Dan and Annaliese because they effectively sailed the series without a drop race.
The closeness of competition in the cat class was highlighted by the fact that the major places in the series were not determined until the final race. Building on some solid early results, Andrew Vize put together 3 wins in a row mid regatta to solidify his place ahead of the fleet by the start of heat 8. Going into the last race, places through one to five had not been finalised. Fortunately the racing on the last day was held in near perfect conditions of 12 - 15 knots of breeze out of the southwest. Les Porter won this race a took 1st place by only 2 points. Andrew Vise was second followed by Chris Boag in third. Taipan 5.7 stalwart, Collin Andrews took the 5.7 national titles. Young gun Lee Thorne won his first Capricorn national titles. “Every year I leave the Nationals hungry for more after learning so much and improving my boat handling throughout the regatta. You’ll learn more from one National title than you will from 6 months of club sailing, which is why I encourage any Taipan owner to attend the event and combine it with your summer holidays. I have found myself motivated and craving more sailing after a great week at the Taipan National Titles, looking forward to Hervey Bay in 2011 and any other sailing regattas throughout 2010.” Kingsley Pursch AUS 334
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Australian High Performance Catamarans
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