DRAGONS ARE ALL FIRED UP

top: a close start for the WA International Dragon Association State Championship bottom and facing page: part of the fleet of 15 Dragons competing

Jennie Fitzhardinge

DRAGONS ARE ALL FIRED UP STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2021

THE DRAGON FLEET PRIDES ITSELF on being the loudest and proudest fleet at Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. From our occupation of the Dragon Bar (the outside bar to those yet to join our merry band) to the close competition and continuous improvement

that one design racing offers, to the tightly contested State Championships, the fleet is difficult to miss on the water and back at the Club.

The fleet continues to go from strength to strength at RFBYC with 20 boats registered for the Saturday races this season. The pinnacle of the season is the WA International Dragon Association State Championship (12-14 March).

This year, 15 boats competed in the States, which were convincingly won by Willy Packer, his son Jock and stalwart mainsheet hand Julian Harding sailing Scoundrel (AUS 214) with five wins from eight races.

Tatsu (AUS 203) sailed by Andrew Foulkes, Ed Bennett and Matt Stafford kept the pressure on the Scoundrels with two wins and four seconds.

Our favourite Brit, Rob Campbell and his crew of Penny Anderson, John Low and Brad Stout on Penny Farthing (GBR 600) were no slouches either, taking one win, two seconds and three thirds.

The fleet’s youngest gun, Ethan Low, handed the helm of his boat Hotspur (AUS 144) to Etchell sailor Grantham Kitto whose last outing on a Dragon was in the 1995 Worlds with Willy Packer! With Ethan’s induction into the ‘way of the Dragon’, Grantham and his regular Etchell crew of Brad Moore did well to secure fourth place and a few jellyfish after a spinnaker trawl in race 7.

The conditions were perfect for Dragons with a steady, if oscillating easterly for all eight races of the 3-day regatta. The wind never dropped below 10 knots and

above: Scoundrel takes an early lead this image: the whole fleet makes an impressive display on the water

DRAGONS

CONTINUED

sometimes gusted over 20 with occasional 20-degree shifts making opportunities to jump a few places for the savvy. It is remarkable that even though four of the races were in the afternoon, it was easterlies all the way.

The Dragon fleet was especially appreciative of Race Officer Geoff Brown and his team’s successful efforts to set perfect courses and run a timely regatta. Thanks also to protest committee chairman Kim Laurence and the hardworking shore team at RFBYC.

The full results are on the Club website.

It’s worth remarking that 12 women competed in this year’s States, two as skippers (stalwarts Sandy Anderson and Trish Ford) with the rest scattered throughout the fleet.

The significant increase in women sailing Dragons can be traced back to Trish and Sandy’s collaboration with the Club to offer free sailing lessons to women and then inviting the graduates of those programs into the Dragon fleet. You may also recall from the December edition of Tidings that Sandy Anderson and Ray Chatfield spearheaded an initiative to hold an invitational women skippers’ event at the start of the season. The event relied on the enthusiasm and generosity of Dragon owners making their yachts available to be helmed by women.

Another crew-boosting initiative that WAIDA has introduced is training on a Saturday morning for people who are new to sailing (but have the basic skills) or new to Dragons. It has proven to be popular with several boats scoring regular crews as a result.

If you would like to try sailing a Dragon, email WAIDA secretary David Meager on meagerdr@gmail. com, the Dragon fleet always has room for more Dragon sailors!

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GOOLUGATUP SAILING CARNIVAL

THE GOOLUGATUP SAILING CARNIVAL hosted by South of Perth Yacht Club, consisted of ten days and two regattas with very tight and high-quality racing amongst the 29er fleet.

This year’s talent amongst the 29er fleet peaked higher than ever before, with Tokyo 2020NE sailors giving the 29er a go for the first time.

Matt Wearn, the leading Australian men’s laser sailor, sailed with his partner Emma Plasschaert on the first day but was unable to race the rest of the regatta due to Olympic commitments. Whereas the women’s 470 team from Perth, Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries finished tenth overall as they progressed rapidly throughout the four days.

Day one brought perfect racing conditions with boats exchanging the lead multiple times. In the end AUS 21 Axel Fleet and Kieran Bucktin finished the day on top with two firsts on the scoreboard.

Day two saw sailors face a big easterly gradient which resulted in very tricky racing conditions, with twenty-six knot gusts, ten knot lulls and forty-degree wind shifts. Axel and Kieran stayed ahead of the fleet and earned themselves another pair of wins.

After a well-deserved rest day, the sailors came back ready for a tricky day three. The light and fickle winds turned the racecourse into a game of snakes and ladders, Race 1 saw Axel and Kieran continuing their streak which was broken in Race 2 by AUS 1954 Zachary Sprunt and Vassilis Katsaitis who took the race win after a neck and neck fight downwind.

On the final day a light, thermally enhanced gradient made for more close racing, this led to Axel and Kieran sealing their regatta win in the first race with one to spare. Overall results were Axel Fleet and Kieran Bucktin in first, Zachary Sprunt and Vassilis Katsaitis in second and Sam Rose and Jono Everett in third.

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