Four bullets for George 1st

Archie Massey and Dan Wilsdon secure International 14 Australian National title

Defending champions and current world champions in the International 14 class Archie Massey and Dan Wilsdon today won the final race of the series to secure the 2010/11 Australian championship sailed in Gulf St Vincent, South Australia.

Massey, who hails from England but has resided in Sydney for several years, has formed an impressive team with Sydney for’ard hand Wilsdon and defended the Australian title they first won in Sydney last summer.

Massey sailed his modified Bieker 5 hull George 1st with Wilsdon in a near faultless display all series to finish with four firsts and two second placings over a generally light series. So with a second place being their ‘drop’, the George 1st crew simply tightened their stranglehold on the series with a clear win in the final race today.

The easy-going Massey said their domination was partly attributable to clean starts.

“Our starts have been good all week,” he said. “We also put in so much work before the world championship in Sydney (last summer) and that helps (with crew work and tuning).”

Massey said George 1st was basically the same boat and set up as used on Sydney Harbour for the worlds but with a slightly stiffer mast. He said they were using a CST Composites HM2 carbon spar and had stiffened it up a bit which appeared to have paid off for what was a generally light series in Adelaide.

“I think one of our key differences is the ability to change gears well,” he said.

George 1st certainly seemed to be in a slightly different class to the rest of the fleet in terms of performance across the wind ranges. The closest challenger and one of the slickest combinations in the fleet was Ronstan/Irwin Sails (Lindsay Irwin/ Andrew Perry) of Victoria.

Ronstan/Irwin Sails finished with one first placing and several minor placings. Irwin said it was the same boat and set up as last season but he had made a number of changes that had resulted in better performance all round.

Adelaide sailor and sail maker Dave Alexander teamed up with Sydney sailor Cam McDonald in Touring Wombat to finish third overall. Although they live in different State capitals and sail only occasionally together, these two sailors obviously make a good team and proved the best of the local boats and challenged the front runners all series.

The I14 fleet seemed to consolidate this year in terms of design innovations. The fleet of 32 boats was mainly made up of Bieker 5 designs, all sported hydrofoiling rudders of various shapes and the sails were predominately a mix of Irwin and Alexander. The States represented included South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

Adelaide Sailing Club was an excellent venue with its expanse of rigging lawns, facilities, small boat harbour and a band of willing and friendly volunteers.

The series was held in light airs and often high temperatures under blazing sunshine which tested the sailors and the race management but overall the vibe was one full of camaraderie and good spirit, even though the West Australians were perhaps wishing for much fresher winds to show off their renown heavy-air boat handling skills.

The next major event on the I14 horizon will be the world championship later this year in Weymouth, UK, and then the 2011/12 Australian championship to be hosted by Perth Dinghy Sailing Club, Perth.

Results