4:56 AM Wed 3 Mar 2010 GMT
Wangi Wangi on lovely Lake Macquarie NSW saw the running of the 38th annual Careel National Championships in February this year. And for the first time in many years, both the Careel 18 and 22 championships were held jointly in a move which was welcomed by all comers and eagerly anticipated by some. The format for the series was four races held over two days and the Lake turned out a fantastic mix of weather from light to heavy to glorious.
This year, both fleets drew competitors from NSW, Queensland and Victoria with some of the Queenslanders arriving days beforehand for final practice. The Careel 18 fleet was especially strong with twenty boats overall of which three represented Queensland and one from Victoria. Mark I, II and III boats were all well represented. There was even the fixed keeler 'Syntax' skippered by olympic windsurfer Michael Lancey who was taking the opportunity to sail with his dad as crew. At only four boats, the Careel 22 fleet was not as strong but again, drew competitors from Queensland and Victoria.
For the past six years the Careel 18 nationals had been taken out by James Wearing but the competition in the past couple of years had been steadily ramping up. Before the event, Wearing had predicted that this year would be hard fought. Don Ray had last year proved to be close competition and was expected to perform well again this year, as were Barry Hall and well known VS skiffie Michael Turton, sailing with wife Janine as crew. And the predictions came true.
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Wearing sailed well but was unable to produce consistent winning form in the C18s - 2010 Careel National Championships - Max Marcatili
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Race one started in light NE conditions which built soon after the start and swung more to the east. It also saw Wearing get an atrocious start which in the conditions proved to be unrecoverable to give the win to Ray by three minutes. For the start of the second race the wind had built even further to try the fleet with strong conditions that had many of them reefing and swapping down to smaller headsails. Wearing started much better but was to have no better luck when a rudder gudgeon pin sheared just a few hundred metres before the finish line to allow Ray an uncontested second win in the series. Queenslander Dave Dowling in 'Therapy' had put in some heavy weather homework on his native Moreton Bay coming in at second, his best for the series and one minute ahead of the Lancey's fixed keeler 'Syntax' which revelled in the heavy conditions. By the end of the race Wearing wasn't alone with fully a quarter of the fleet turning in a DNF through breakages or retirements in the strong conditions.
Day two promised glorious conditions and delivered them. The day gave a consistent moderate easterly breeze throughout the day for the fleet to enjoy. A couple of boats had been through hasty repairs including Malgo's boat 'Marama II' which turned out to race with a borrowed tiller after their original had snapped in three pieces in the second race. However four boats remained out of the series with damage including Caldwell's 'Matilda' with a snapped gooseneck and boom damage.
Enjoy it they did. Race three saw a very tight start and a return to winning form for Wearing after overnight repairs. Hall turned in his best performance for the series to take second with Ray losing the plot to take third place and thereby potentially leave the championship open to the winner of the last race. And so race four was hard fought between Ray and Wearing with neither giving quarter. The last leg to the windward mark in particular saw a fierce tacking duel and the final work to the finish line had Ray working hard trying to cover Wearing who tried everything to break away and gain an edge. But in the end it was Ray who crossed the line first to take out the series and the championship.
Meanwhile the Careel 22 races saw ex-skiffie Peter Craig put his stamp on the championship for the second year in a row. Craig's start to the first race was botched as he allowed himself to be sandwiched where he shouldn't have been and thereby cost him heavily in penalty turns and lost time. But hard work had him recover to take out first spot by the finish. Never again in the series did Craig or his crew put a foot wrong and it was a marvel to watch faultless spinnaker sets, gybes and drops one after the other when others struggled. By the end Craig had taken four straight wins. Kim Russell and Ian Blencowe slugged it out for second place but Victorian Blencowe proved too strong to take a well deserved second spot in the series.
In all it was a great weekend of sailing with great company and friendly competition all through the fleets. For more discussion and for photos of the racing please visit the Careel website at
www.careel.com/forum
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Paul Trotter and his Queensland crew in C18 'Wyuna' celebrate a good finish - 2010 Careel National Championships - Max Marcatili
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Mick and Janine Turton caught the bug and look forward to coming back next year - 2010 Careel National Championships - Max Marcatili
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by Max Marcatili
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