Ronstan Tasar Victorian Championship at Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club

(l-r) Alistair Murray (Ronstan Representative), Jeremy Elmslie, Chris Dance and Dave Taylor (TAV President) © Sarah McCully

With Tropical Cyclone Blanche dissipating over northern Western Australia, Sorrento on Port Phillip was blessed with beautiful sailing weather for the whole weekend. The fleet included the current Tasar State Champion/National Champion/World Champion (all different boats) plus dual Olympian, Krystal Weir and previous Tasar World Champions Rob & Nicole Douglass and Rick Longbottom along with other World Champions such as Glenn Collings and a host of National and State Champions from Tasars and other classes.

Day 1 set the scene with the temperature in the high 20's and a 10 to 16 knot steady Southerly to South Easterly blowing across the course. Both Chris Dance/Jeremy Elmslie and Rob & Nicole showed why they were current champions and shared the wins between them and ended up with Rob/Nicole 1 point ahead of Chris/Jeremy.

Day 2 started very differently with a 30 knot Easterly blowing across the course, but by the time the fleet launched it was 15 knots and dropping. The first two races were sailed in light conditions and saw a mix up of the points, except for Chris/Jeremy who ended with two second places. Daryl and Michelle Stone from Albury sailing in the newest Tasar in Australia, showed their talent to win the difficult 2nd race. The fleet broke for lunch as the wind stopped, and again a lovely southerly came in for the afternoon race. Current State Champions Heather Macfarlane/ Chris Payne won this race to put some pressure on the leaders, but Chris/Jeremy went into the last day with a 6 point buffer over Rob & Nicole.

Day 3 looked like a day on the beach due to no wind, but by the time the fleet had to launch, a nice SE was filling in. Two races were held in a breeze building from 10 knots to 15 by the end. In the first race Heather/Chris won, Glenn & Vanessa Collings were 2nd and Rob/Nic were 3rd. Chris/Jeremy had their worst race for the series with a hard fought 5th. This set the scene for the final race with Heather/Chris needing to win with Chris/Jeremy 5th or worse, and Rob/Nic only 1 point behind.

Final race was in perfect conditions and class stalwarts Mike Paynter/ Kim Paynter (Super Grand Masters) won followed closely by the other class stalwarts Alistair Murray/ Tracey Murray. Alistair and Mike have done numerous Tasar state titles together and won a Tasar Nationals 25 years ago and showed they have not lost any of their skills. Chris/ Jeremy kept a close watch on Chris/ Heather which sealed the overall win for them, and Rob/ Nicole finished a strong second overall.

Overall Results: