Over the Australia Day Long Weekend, the RGYC Festival of Sails hosted the 2019 J/111 Australian Nationals, with the 5 boat fleet sailing 8 W/L races on the gorgeous Corio Bay.
A great time was had by all as the sailing conditions were near perfect on the flat waters of Corio Bay, with winds ranging from 8-22knots and clear blue skies. All the crews commented on the fantastic close racing, with one crew commenting they were so close at times that you could throw a tennis ball to the each other.
From the very beginning, Rod Warren’s very talented team aboard JOUST threw down the gauntlet by winning the first race. They never looked back, winning four more races over the three days and having to toss a 2nd place to win with a perfect score of 5 pts in 5 races!
Meanwhile, there was a real battle for the balance of the podium with everything going down to the wire on the last day for the two contenders- Phil Simpfendorfer’s VELOCE and Rob Date’s SCARLET RUNNER. After the dust cleared from the battlefield, it was evident Team VELOCE’s crew were up to the task, posting a 3-2-4-2-1-4 for 12 pts net to take the silver. Rounding out the podium to take the bronze was SCARLET RUNNER with a 2-3-2-5-5-3 tally for 15 pts net, followed by PLAYLIST and JAKE.
Click the image for some great footage from Festival of Sails of the J/111 fleet racing at Geelong.
