Aussie title for Wallace

Fly Emirates takes Australian J/24 Nationals

Sean Wallace has won the Australian J?24 Championship at Sandringham Yacht Club after finishing the Sail Melbourne event as the highest-placed Australian boat with Fly Emirates.

Wallace, the current Western Australian champion, was third overall in a strong international fleet of 31 boats – all preparing for next week’s World Championship.

The Championship finished today at Sandringham Yacht Club with eight knot breeze and minimal waves for the first race, followed by slightly breezier 10 knots and slight waves for the final race of the event.

Brazilian boat Bruschetta finished the Championship first overall. As an international entry, Mauricio SantaCruz and his crew were unable to win National Championship trophy, but still managed to impress everyone with their boat speed, including Wallace.

“The Brazilian boat is really quick. The Japanese boat is quick too. The Australian guys were fortunate that conditions were right for us and if they are right next week you can’t discount us,” Wallace said. Of his own chances next week, he said consistency was the key: “We had ordinary races and we had good races. We just need to be consistent next week and we will be up there with a chance.”

Australian champion crew member Simon Cunningham said the team was happy with their result despite an up and down regatta. “We had good boat speed,” he said. “You can’t put the boat in the right position if you don’t have good boat speed.”

More than 40 J/24 crews will be closely watching Bruschetta when the Sail Melbourne J/24 World Championship begins on January 16 at Sandringham Yacht Club.

Bruschetta crew member, Alex Suldanha, was pleased with the result and hoped they could replicate the performance in the Worlds. “It will be a lot tougher now,” he said. “Everyone will be pushing harder now - and it’s a difficult course because of the many wind shifts.

“We’ve got good speed and good boat trimming for sure. We constantly change the trimming of the boat and we have a good skipper and a fantastic crew. Mauricio is a great skipper - and he is a light guy, which is good, because that means you don’t hold much weight at the back of the boat.”

Mike Ingham’s Brain Cramp (USA) finished the Championship second overall with Sean Wallace third overall.

Japanese boat Siesta did just that. Opting not to race in today’s final races, preferring to rest the crew and boat, Wataru Sakamoto’s crew still managed to finish fourth overall and is expected to be among the favourites for the World Championship.

The fleet will also include former three-time Olympian and bronze medallist in the Laser class, Michael Blackburn (AUS) aboard J-Spot and two-time Australian National Champion and current NSW champ, Sean Kirkjian, who finished fourth at last year’s World Championship – the top placed Australian. America’s Suzi Taylor will be the only female skipper aboard Five to Six.

	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Pts	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Race 8	Race 9	Race 10
1	BRA37	BRUSCHETTA	Mauricio SantaCruz	30	4	13	2	1	1	[32.0O]	1	1	4	3
2	USA1208	BRAIN CRAMP	Mike Ingham	58	1	10	3	5	18	1	[24.0]	2	11	7
3	AUS190	FLY EMIRATES	Sean Willis	70	12	1	9	13	2	[32.0O]	20	3	2	8
4	JPN5261	SIESTA	Wataru Sakamoto	71	2	2	5	2	4	11	7	6	[32.0C]	32.0C
5	AUS186	CODE VIOLATION	Doug McGain	71	8	5	4	6	6	[26.0]	17	16	7	2
6	AUS145	DEATH STAR	Sean Kirkjian	72	5	6	1	8	14	2	12	15	[22.0]	9
7	AUS198	SECURITY BLANKET	Hugo Ottaway	78	7	11	13	12	8	4	4	10	9	[17.0]
8	AUS167	J-SPOT	Michael Blackburn	79	10	[32.0F]	6	11	13	7	15	5	6	6
9	GBR4270	INMARSAT	Ian Southworth	86	[32.0C]	32.0C	16	4	15	3	10	4	1	1
10	JPN5260	GEKKO	Satashi Kume	86	[21.0]	8	10	10	15.0Y	15	13	7	3	5
11	JPN5289	CEREZO	Yasutaka Funazawa	88	16	4	7	7	3	8	2	9	[32.0C]	32.0C
12	AUS161	CONVICTS REVENGE	Stephen Girdis	89	11	[19.0]	8	14	10	6	5	13	18	4
13	AUS171	PACEMAKER	David Suda	100	9	9	[17.0]	16	5	10	11	12	15	13
14	AUS160	KAOTIC	Ben Lamb	105	13	7	[32.0B]	3	11	20	8	14	17	12
15	AUS128	JPEG	Warren Sare	122	20	3	15	[25.0]	16	19	9	11	5	24
16	CAN4013	SINGLE MALT	Tadeusz Bartlewksi	132	15	15	14	[26.0]	7	5	24.0Y	19	19	14
17	GBR4268	CRAZY GOALS.CO.UK	Jon Powell	141	17	[32.0F]	32.0B	9	21	13	23	8	8	10
18	USA2223	FIVE TO SIX	Suzi Taylor	142	14	[32.0C]	21	20	19	18	3	20	16	11
19	AUS201	HYPERACTIVE	Philip Coombs	142	19	12	12	17	17	12	14	[25.0]	21	18
20	CAN4865	NOKOMIS	Scott Weakley	155	6	[32.0C]	11	15	25	9	21	22	14	32.0F
21	AUS185	THE PIE	Tim Lewis	157	3	18	[32.0B]	22	12	25	27	21	10	19
22	AUS195	CRACKERJACK	Grant Willmott	174	23	[32.0F]	18	19	22	17	19	18	23	15
23	AUS66	NO EYE DEER	Trevor Conyers	177	25	16	19	21	[27.0]	16	25	27	12	16
24	AUS172	INNAMINCKA	John Crawford	182	22	20	22	18	[23.0]	21	22	17	20	20
25	AUS108	FUN	Alyn Stevenson	202	24	[32.0F]	32.0B	32.0F	24	14	16	24	13	23
26	AUS170	WHISPER	Neil Begley	210	27	[32.0C]	24	27	26	22	6	31	25	22
27	AUS205	MR BRIDGER	Alister Morison	212	18	21	25	[28.0]	20	27	28	28	24	21
28	AUS127	GOOD COMPANY	Robin Townsend	213	[28.0]	17	20	23	28	24	26	23	27	25
29	AUS111	SUCH IS LIFE	Roger Nicolson	221	26	14	23	24	[30.0]	23	30	29	26	26
30	AUS144	STOCKCAR	David Hughes	257	30	[32.0C]	26	29	31	29	31	26	28	27
31	AUS149	TWO DOGS	Peter Moulang	266	29	[32.0C]	32.0B	32.0F	29	28	29	30	29	28