Victorian Tasar State Championship 2020 at Cairn Curran Sailing Club

Despite an 11th hour change of venue, Cairn Curran came to the rescue and hosted a fantastic regatta for the 2020 Victorian Tasar State Titles.

The weekend commenced with the arrival of Tasar sailors and families pitching up their tents within metres of the lake and clubhouse. All were looking forward to a weekend of close racing amongst the 22 entries, and were certainly not disappointed.

Saturday provided champagne sailing conditions for the first 3 races. Heather Macfarlane and Chris Payne quickly made their mark taking two of these races, with Mark and Oliver Bulka taking the top spot in the 3rd race of the day to lie 2nd overall. A consistent day from Ross and Natasha Martin secured 3rd overall position after day 1. That evening sailors were treated to an excellent welcome dinner prepared by Lorraine Thompson and the kitchen volunteers.

Victorian Tasar State Championship 2020 - photo © Andrew Kean

Sunday gave way to more varied conditions, with the morning session cut short after one race with more wind expected in the afternoon. And what a call that turned out to be! The afternoon provided the windiest conditions of the regatta, getting up to 20 knots (and a bit more in the gusts) providing plenty of excitement with capsizes, close calls and at least one man-overboard. The results showed another dominant display from Heather and Chris with three bullets, with the rest of the top three unchanged from day 1. After a tough day, the cheese and bubbles went down a storm!

The final day of racing brought lighter winds, with continued excellent race management to get two races away in the trickier conditions. Heather and Chris once again showed a clean pair of heels to finish the regatta with another 2 wins, with Mark and Oliver finishing the regatta second, and Ross and Natasha rounding out the top three.

Heather Macfarlane and Chris Payne wins the Victorian Tasar State Championship 2020 - photo © Craig Ginnivan

Congratulations to Heather and Chris as the newly crowned State Champions, after an incredibly consistent performance across the regatta. But the fiercest fought trophy was for the newly introduced 20/20 category (one sailor under 20 and one over 20), which saw 8 boats competing. Congratulations to Mark and Oliver for being the inaugural winners, with Andrew and Imogen/Aurelia Martin second and Ian and William Taylor third. It was brilliant to see so many young sailors participating in the event. Following the windy conditions of the Sunday afternoon, Chris Payne commented, "I was in awe of the other crews, I was struggling with the mast sometimes and even missed it on a couple of tacks and some of these crews hardly come up to my chest."

TAV also introduced a new trophy for the top Under 30 helm. Whilst we did not get any entrants this year, it would be great to see more younger sailors competing in this category in future events.

Runners-up Mark and Oliver Bulka in the Victorian Tasar State Championship 2020 - photo © Craig Ginnivan

TAV is hugely grateful to Cairn Curran for their welcoming hospitality across the event at such short notice. Andrew Kean and his fellow club members worked tirelessly to make the weekend fun and relaxed throughout, and it is safe to say an excellent regatta was had by all.

Additional thanks go to Yarrawonga, the original venue for the State Titles and Mordialloc Sailing Club, for also offering the to run the regatta. We were fortunate to have the support of 3 fantastic clubs and we look forward to sailing with you all again in the future.

With the Australian Championships in Mandurah unfortunately having to be cancelled, the State Titles were likely the largest Tasar regatta before the next Australian Championships in Paynesville (Victoria) 2nd-9th January 2021 - and we hope to see you there!

Overall Results: