Australian University Fleet Racing Championship
by Ajay Rau 27 Apr 2012 07:42 BST
13-15 April 2012
The National University Championships that were hosted from the 13th to the 15th of April and attracted 50 sailors from all over the country. University of New South Wales were crowned the overall champions, winning both division one and two as well as the prestigious perpetual trophy for
top performing university.
Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, located on Pittwater, hosted the event following the guidelines of Yachting Australia and Australian University Sport. Despite very difficult racing conditions, the race committee did an extremely fantastic job, hosting six races before racing was cancelled on the third and final day. The UTS sailing Club also contributed significantly to the successful hosting of the regatta.
Two divisions were sailed to separate the dinghies and sailboards from the catamarans and skiffs. The VYC yardstick system was applied in all races to determine the final overall standings.
Division 1
Division one had 27 entries and was the non-spinnaker boats with classes
including Finn, NS14, Laser, Radial, Tasar and Windsurfer1 Design.
Ajay Rau racing a Finn (UNSW) dominated the division and won overall with
relative ease, with five heats from six and discarding a 15th. Chris Eddes
along with Tara Foster on a NS14 (UNSW) beat Italian laser entry Matteo
Bononni in four races out of six to finish second and third respectively.
Sailing a NS14, Ted Stephens and Kyle Upton (UNSW) just managed to race
ahead of radial entry Cameron Edwards to finish fourth and fifth overall.
Radial entry, Caitlin Davies (Monash) finished first among the women and
sixth overall.
Division 2
Division two had 7 entries and comprised of mainly skiffs including:
49er,B14, 13ft Skiff, Cherub and 2 multihulls: a Viper, and F18
Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin (UNSW) won an exciting and extremely
close regatta racing a Viper against the 49er pair of Phil Kurts (UNSW) and
Adam Watterson (UTS). After six races, their final scores were tied but
Jason Waterhouse emerged victorious over Phil Kurts by the virtue of
collecting more race wins than the 49er pair.
Only one point behind first and second overall was the B14 with Daniel
Watson (UTS) and Josie Roper (USYD).
The Universities present at the regatta include Australian College of
Physical Education, Australian National University, Macquarie University,
Monash University, The University Of Sydney, The University Of Western
Australia, Queensland University of Technology, University Of New South
Wales, and University of Technology Sydney.
The event also attracted international students from Austria, Czech
Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Spain, and United States
of America.
The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club has already confirmed that they will host
next year's University Fleet racing championships during the same time of
year. In a period of four years, the Club has truly become the home of
university racing in Sydney after already hosting three national grade
university championships.
Overall Results: (6 races)
Division One
1st Ajay Rau (UNSW) Finn, 1,1,1,[15],1,1, 5pts
2nd Chris Eddes/ Tara Foster (UNSW) NS14, 2,[4],2,2,4,3, 13pts
3rd Matteo Bononi (Italy) Laser, [4],2,3,3,3,4, 15pts
Division Two
1st Jason Waterhouse/ Lisa Darmanin (UNSW) Viper, [5],1,1,5,1,2, 10pts
2nd Phil Kurts (UNSW)/Adam Watterson (UTS) 49er, [4],2,2,1,2,3, 10pts
3rd Daniel Watson (UTS)/ Josie Roper (USYD) B14, 1,3,[6],2,4,1, 11pts
A fully copy of the results can be found here.