Weekly Sailing Summary

Two sailors Australians of the Year, gold for Aussies in Paralympic class, Victoria Week, Australia Day regattas, awesome AC45 prototype

AUSTRALIA DAY HONOURS

Victorian businessman and philanthropist, Simon McKeon was named Australian of the Year. In 1993 he skippered Yellow Pages Endeavour with crew Tim Daddo to break the 500-metre sailing speed record at Sandy Point, Victoria averaging 46.52 knots. McKeon has been a long time supporter of the Australian Sailing Team.

Solo around the world sailor Jessica Watson was named Young Australian of the Year.

Two other members of the Australian sailing community, Mark Bethwaite (AM) and John Flower (OAM), were recognised in the 2011 Australia Day Honours list for their ongoing contribution to sailing. www.yachting.org.au

OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC CLASSES

Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch won Gold in the Skud 18 class at the 2011 Rolex Miami OCR, the second round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. The Australian Sailing Team's Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page won a Silver medal in the men’s 470 class. Fellow team members Brendan Casey finished fourth in the Finn fleet, Jessica Crisp ended the week fifth in the RS:X women’s class, Krystal Weir finished tenth in the Laser Radial fleet. Nicky Souter, Jessica Eastwell and Olivia Price were eighth in the Women’s Match Racing competition, ahead of fellow Australians Katie Spithill, Nina Curtis and Angela Farrell in 17. The third round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup will be held in Spain in the first week of April. www.yachting.org.au and http://rmocr.ussailing.org

Yachting Australia welcomes news of the Federal Government’s Green and Gold project, which will provide additional funding to high-performance sport in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympic Games. www.yachting.org.au

VICTORIA WEEK

Marcus Blackmore’s Hooligan, a TP52, is on top of the Class A leaderboard for the fifth running of the Audi IRC Australian Championship with Michael Hiatt’s Farr 55 Living Doll second and Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki, an RP63, third overall in the Audi Victoria Race Week. The second round of the Championship is the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta in March.

The Division 1 Performance Series was won convincingly by John Lindholm’s Dark Energy, a Thompson 980 with Tony Manning and his Ultimate Tune crew second sailing an 11 Metre One-Design. Girl power played a big role in Division 2, when Tanya Stanford raced her Scampi 30, Nounannie, to a one-point victory over Unami, a Beneteau First 31.7 owned by Geoff Adams.

The Morris Finance Sydney 38 One-Design National Championship was won by NSW yachtsman Bruce Foye (The Goat). Nathan Outteridge (NSW) had a perfect score of eight from eight races in the William Angliss SB3 keelboat. www.victoriaweek.com.au

AUSTRALIA DAY REGATTAS

More than 160 harbour racing yachts, classic yachts, ocean racers and modern and historical skills competed in the 175th Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour. The fleet included 49 mostly wooden yachts in the Classic Yachts division, many gaff-rigged and several built more than a century ago. Many crews dressed in period sailing gear.

On waterways along the New South Wales coast, Australia Day regattas were linked to the historic event on Sydney Harbour while ocean racing yachts sailed to Botany Bay and return, albeit slowly, covering the same course sailed by the First Fleet in 1788.

In Hobart, Australia’s second oldest seaport, yachts, dinghies and windsurfers competed in the Australia Day Green Island race and the Sandy Bay Regatta. The 1970 and 1977 America’s Cup Challenger Gretel II took line honours in the 40 nautical mile Green Island Race, helmed by her 1977 skipper, 85-year-old Gordon Ingate. www.rsys.com.au

KEEL BOATS

Evan Walker and his crew of Ted Hackney, Henry Kernot, Will McKenzie and Tom Scardifield from Sydney’s Cruising Yacht Club of Australia won the Colin Mullins International Youth Regatta in Perth, defeating local skipper David Gilmour 3-1 in the final. www.wayf.org.au

Warwick Sherman’s Cookson 12 Occasional Coarse Language and Michael Selby’s X-412 Cyrene 3 secured their first race wins in IRC and PHS Division 1 respectively in race eight of the Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore Series, in picture perfect sailing conditions on Sydney Harbour. www.cyca.com.au

18 FOOTERS

Although the Australian Championship was already decided in favour of the Thurlow Fisher Lawyers team, Michael Coxon, Aaron Links and Trent Barnabas had to be content with a second place in the fifth race as the defending champion Gotta Love It 7 proved too good in the 20-knot north-east wind on Sydney Harbour. www.18footers.com.au

AMERICA’S CUP

‘It was awesome, mate,’ was how ORACLE Racing skipper Jimmy Spithill described sailing the first AC45 prototype in heavy conditions during sea trials in New Zealand. The AC45 is the first of the two new multihull classes which will come to define a new era in the America's Cup. The AC45 is a production boat which will be raced as a one-design class in 2011. It is a precursor to the AC72, which each competing team will design and build to race in the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup in San Francisco in 2013. www.americascup.com

AROUND THE WORLD

The skippers in the Velux 5 Oceans race took a break from preparing their Eco 60s for the next leg by racing in landyachts known as blokarts at the official race harbour in Wellington, New Zealand. The next leg to Punta del Este, Uruguay starts 6 February. www.velux5oceans.com

Jean-Pierre Dick and Loick Peyron (FRA) on board Virbac Paprec 3 lead the double-handed fleet in the Barcelona World Race in the Southern Ocean. www.barcelonaworldrace.com

The maxi trimiran Banque Populaire V crossed the Equator, just 5 days 17 hours 44 minutes and 15 seconds after leaving Ushant in an attempt to break the around-the-world record. Three crewmen, Ronan Lucas, Xavier Revil and Pierre-Yves Moreau, were crossing it for the first time, qualifying as rookies for the traditional ‘crossing the line’ ceremony. www.voile.banquepopulaire.fr/press/Maxi-Trimaran-Banque-Populaire-V

NEWS BRIEFS

The Cruising Club of America will award its prestigious 2010 Blue Water Medal to CYCA and RANSA member Alex Whitworth for a circumnavigation of the world via the Northwest Passage West to East. www.cyca.com.au

Meridien Marinas Horizon Shores between Brisbane and the Gold Coast announced that all dry and wet berthing and shipyard hardstand fees have been reduced for new customers to the marina by 50 per cent to help boat owners recover from flood devastation. www.marineqld.com.au

The 2011 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show has already confirmed a huge range of world releases which will be unveiled at the May 19 to 22 event this year. World launches include Clipper Motor Yachts’ Cordova 45, Maritimo’s M60 Series II Motoryacht along with the M48 Series II Motoryacht, the Integrity 320 Sedan and All4Solar presents the world launch of the Aquawatt, an environmentally-friendly electric drive producing an output of 30hp. www.sanctuarycoveboatshow.com.au

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Feb 4-6 -- Melbourne International Boat & Lifestyle Festival, Docklands. Go kayaking, see the fishing competition weigh-in; view the magnificent vessels on display and check out the latest safety information. The latest boats and associated products will be on display in the marina and on the promenade. www.miblf.com.au

Feb 11-14 -- MyState Financial Australian Wooden boat Festival, Hobart, celebrates the nation's rich maritime culture and heritage and has established a reputation as one of the world's best maritime events. Held on Hobart's vibrant waterfront, the four-day festival brings together the biggest collection of wooden boats in the southern hemisphere. www.australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au

Feb 16-Mar 20 -- WMcA Building Services Van Diemens Land Circumnavigation Cruise -- 44 boats have registered to participate and the fleet size is limited to 45. However there still may be withdrawals and more Expressions of Interest may be received. www.ryct.org.au

Feb 19 -- The Wooden Boat Rally will be held on the Tamar River at the Seaport Marina in Launceston, Tasmania. www.woodenboatrally.com

Feb 22 -- Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever to visit Australia, returns to Sydney Harbour for a rendezvous with the new Queen Elizabeth. The rendezvous is scheduled for early morning but times may change. www.cunardline.com.au

Feb 24-27 -- Variety Splash. A three-day rally on Port Phillip open to all sail and power boats, commencing at Waterfront City, Docklands, with as evening ‘Welcome’ function. www.varietysplash.org.au

Feb 25-Mar 4 -- Geographe Bay Race Week held at in Busselton is the largest yachting regatta in Western Australia. www.gbyc.com.au

Feb 26 -- Inaugural Marine Rescue "Splash Out" Festival at Darling Harbour will celebrate the launch of CompassNet Boating Safety Network and the achievements of Marine Rescue NSW. There will be kids’ games and rides, free education and training seminars, stage performances, water demonstrations, flare lighting and much more! www.marinerescuensw.com.au

Feb 26-27 -- South Australian Wooden Boat Festival at the historic River Port of Goolwa. www.woodenboatfestival.com.au/

Feb 26-27 & Mar 5-6 -- 2011 Interclub Tournament, Port Stephens is where NSW Game Fishing Association clubs compete on various levels. It is expected that there will be up to 1000 anglers competing aboard as many as 200 boats.

Mar 3-13 -- JJ Giltinan International Championship, Sydney Harbour, sometimes referred to as the 18 Footer Worlds. www.18footers.com.au

Mar 5-6 -- Rosehill Trailerboat Show, Rosehill Racecourse, Sydney www.bia.org.au

Mar 5-6 -- Audi Sydney Regatta, Middle Harbour Yacht Club www.sydneyharbourregatta.com.au

Mar 6 -- Clean Up Australia Day www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au

Mar 12-13 -- Australian Offshore Superboat Championship -- Round 1, Williamstown, Melbourne. www.superboat.com.au

Mar 26-27 -- Australian Offshore Superboat Championship -- Round 2, Geelong and the Southern Water Ski Show Team will perform at the Steampacket Quay. www.superboat.com.au

Mar 26-27 -- Australian Formula Jet Sprint Championships at Melton, Vic www.v8superboats.com.au

Photograph: Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch on the water in Miami courtesy of Rolex-Daniel Forster

Weekly Sailing Summary

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