J/70's, J/99's and J/24's to compete in Sydney Harbour Regatta
by J/Boats Australia 28 Feb 2023 09:07 UTC
4-5 March 2023
Sydney Harbour Regatta © Andrea Francolini
J/Boats and their classes to compete in three of the thirteen divisions in Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta, hosted by Middle Harbour Yacht Club to be held this weekend 4-5th March 2023.
This is a true testament to J/Boats DNA of designing and building boats which bring sailors of all ages and skills to compete together for fun performance sailing with friends and family.
First up, we have the inaugural J/99 National Championships. With a strong and growing fleet the Australian J/99s are the very first in the World to hold a National Championships. The owners have all agreed to a simple box rule on sail, equipment and crew numbers to make the event fair, simple and economical, where good sailing and not dollars will determine place getters.
Six W/L races will decide the winner. 2021 Sydney Hobart winner Jules Hall on Disko Trooper and strongly campaigned Shane Connelly's Rum Rebellion are favourites but will be hotly chased by recent additions to the fleet including the consistently improving Ian Smiths Jupiter (who has been pivotal in co-ordinating the J/99 event), also Chris O'Neill's Blue Planet, Gerry Morecombe's Echo and the Sienna Syndicate. Three more local J/99's just miss out as they arrive just after the event, so watch this space for a larger fleet next year. J/99 global sales now exceed 140 boats in 3 years on this proven and versatile 32ftr.
Fresh from competing in the J/70 States and Nationals in Sandringham Victoria, the Sydney based J/70 fleet are getting together again for more exciting one-design racing.
Sam Haynes Celestial tipped as a favourite after his incredible results campaigning J/70's in Europe and Australia last year. Also watch out for Karyn Gojnich Jabiru and class president Andrew Thompsons Jabberwocky, Marco Poli's Nuvola, Stephen Brady's Y-Knot and Michael Nash' Maybe-J.
The evergreen and somewhat indestructible J/24's will also be sailing one-design with 6 boats already entered at the time of writing. The J/24 class is now 43+ years old and still going strong with fun and competitive racing.
Our J/Boat family of sailors thank the team at Middle Harbour Yacht Club for putting together one of the largest competitive keelboat regattas in Australia, now its 18th anniversary. Also to Nautilus Marine Insurance for their sponsorship of the event.