49th Mosquito Catamaran Australian Championships at Victor Harbor Yacht Club
by Gary Maskiell 29 Jan 2022 18:16 GMT
4-8 January 2022
The 49th Mosquito Nationals started with a bang at Victor Harbor YC South Australia on Tuesday 2nd of January, no Invitation race, just straight into big seas and strong winds.
It was a wakeup call for all those who hadn't taken the chance to get some practice in the day before, getting off the beach was the first battle for many, with multiple sandbars causing breaking waves to occur close to the beach and directly onshore winds making it difficult to point into the waves.
On the course the swell was around 2m at the windward mark with breakers and then there was the chop which seemed to come from all angles making it hard to read the waves, those that had the opportunity to sail at Victor Harbor previously quickly took the lead with S.A. sailors Warwick Kemp Cat rigged division, and Justin & Kalahni Bissi Sloop rigged division dominating both races on the day.
In the Spinnaker rigged division the racing was much closer between the first three, despite this the experienced Gary Maskiell lead both races at the finish, only to find out he and Matt Stone (second in the first race) had missed the clearance mark in the first race, leaving Pete Kiely as the victor. No such mistakes were made in the second race and Gary had a clear win, throughout to the surprise of the onlookers the spinnakers continued to go up on each run, leading to some wild downwind rides as the Mosquito's leapt of waves with spinnakers flapping madly at times to avoid massive nose dives. Pete Kiely managed to show the more experienced Matt Stone the way to the finish line in the second race.
Due to forecast stronger winds and bigger swell for the next day, organisers took the opportunity to move the Reserve Day forward, so no sailing for Wednesday. On Thursday 3 races were held in 10 to 15 knots of wind and relatively flat water. Justin and Kalahni continued their domination of the Sloop rigs. In the Cat rigs some of the Lake sailors found conditions more to their liking, with Neil Joiner and Tim Shepperd joining Warwick with a win a piece. The Spinnakers mixed it up as well, with Matt, Pete and Gary winning a race each. After the racing competitors were informed that racing was to be cancelled Friday due to a Strong Wind Warning, so that left most of the fleet hoping that conditions on Saturday would be suitable for another three races.
Saturday dawned with light winds and the expectation that three races could be had. Justin and Kalahni Bissi (Adelaide SC) looked unbeatable in the Sloop division and they were. But in the Cat and Spinnaker Divisions the top three all had a shot at winning the Championship.
There was still a swell of around 1metre with some bigger sets, the wind built to a gusty 12 knots in the first race, only to die off to around 5 knots in the second race, making surfing swells very important if you wanted to stay near the front, not much fun when your spinnaker turns inside out though, thankfully in the last race the wind picked back up to around 10 knots. In the Cat division again Warwick, Tim and Neil won a race each, so thanks to his solid performance on the first day Warwick Kemp (Adelaide SC) won, with Neil Joiner (Gippsland Lakes YC) second and Tim Shepperd (Gippsland Lakes YC) third.
In the Spinnaker division racing was very close with the lead in the first 2 races of the day not being decided until the last leg of each race, but Gary managed to sneak to the lead in both races and then win clearly in the last, which allowed Gary Maskiell (Gippsland Lakes YC) to cement his first Nationals win in the last 4 attempts, with Pete Kiely (South Gippsland YC) second and Matt Stone (Somers YC) third. An honourable mention must also go to Jaime Zizman (Gippsland Lakes YC), who despite a number of gear failures, battled on in at times very difficult conditions for Spinnaker sailing, getting closer and closer to the front three as the series went on and winning the Youth Title.
Full results can be found here...
Now all Mosquito sailors are looking forward to a very special milestone for the class in January next year, when the 50th Mosquito Catamaran National Titles will be held from the 1st of January 2023, at the Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club in Eastern Victoria. Hopefully with sailors and clubs getting use to dealing with Covid, National Title boat numbers will return to pre pandemic levels and with many past class legends expected to attend, it's expected the 50th Mosquito Nationals will be the largest for many years.
All past and present Mosquito sailors are invited, more details at theracingcat.com.