J24 - Jeanette Syme skippers Scott Salisbury into third in Vic States

8:58 PM Tue 20 Apr 2010 GMT

'Scott Salisbury helmed by Jeanette Syme takes 3rd place in Vic J24 States 2010 - J24 2010 Victorian State Championships' Robyn Coombs Click Here to view large photo

Good things come in small packages, just ask Jeanette Syme. She helmed Scott Salisbury into third place at this weekend's J24 Victorian State Champs at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne.

Jeanette couldn't have seen much of the race out in front as she is only half the height of Pete Stevens who spent the weekend right in front of her doing the trimming, but she is beaming. Big brother Ron, sailing Kicking Bottom and sailed very well and although the green machine was up near the pointy end of the fleet a lot of the time, he could only manage fifth.

We suggested she should rename her boat "Kicking Ron."

In fact the whole Kicking Bottom/Scott Salisbury relationship is an interesting tale. The Melbourne J24 fleet is undergoing something of an explosion of interest and in the last few months we have seen two new boats join the fleet and we have another three to four people genuinely interested in buying J24's.

Warren Campbell who has been sailing on Kicking Bottom for the last two owners, jumped out and bought Scott Salisbury from Adelaide a couple of days before the regatta.

Peter Stevens very kindly brought the boat over and sailed on it with Arthur Crothers and Jeanette Syme and crew who came down from Sydney. So Warren, still sailing on Kicking Bottom watched his new boat sailed by his skipper's sister fly by to finish ahead.

Got all that! Need more?

Simon Grain was the bridesmaid again and Dave Suda, who didn't even make double digits in his series score was very clearly the winner and deservedly so.

He had an almost clean sweep with five wins and a second - guess to who - Yep "Kicking Ron." Good things do come in small packages, although she did say the crew were brilliant too.

Of course the "Kicking Ron" crew stayed at Warrens!

What it does very clearly show is that you can take an older J24, set it up in half a day and be very competitive in the fleet.

A very noticeable change this year was the calibre of the J24 fleet, with close racing, and boats that have been out the back, now right up in the pack. Boat speed was generally up on last year and so Ron Thomson's "Kicking Bottom", Mike Lewenhagen's "Excite Your Senses" and Doug MacGregor's "Crackerjack" all lifted themselves into fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. The Hyperactive Babes had an up and down regatta and finished fourth.

The weather co-operated with 5-15 knot northerlies, a little shifty and patchy at times but great sailing and with this sort of weather for many of the last years comps; the Vic States really is the "Balmy Regatta".

Although we had expected four interstate boats, it turned out to be two and the other boat was Terry Wise from Sydney who brought down Starpac with a very keen sailing school crew who really enjoyed the glamour Melbourne weather experience, flat water and warm sunny skies.

The tail end of the J24 fleet was rounded out with new owners Andrew and Chris Hely on Vertigo, Jack Crawford's Sanguine and another new owner Rowan Pollard on Two Dogs.

Glam weather also allowed the social side of things to go very well indeed, with a huge BBQ at Lisa Simonov's house (thank you Lisa) and virtually the whole regatta crowd were able to have a great night outside in the warm weather. Terry Wise gave a presentation on the upcoming Gosford "Legends Regatta" that is shaping up to be a very big event.

You've probably picked the name missing from the results. Hugo Ottaway was unable to make it this year due to his son doing the big 21 party and the bleary eyed master did struggle down on the Sunday to say hi - "lights on, but no one home" look!

The J24 class is on fire and next year at the rate we are going we could very well have 20 boats on the start line, so book early if you want a bed in Melbourne!

Place


Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 6	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		4792	PACEMAKER	DSuda HLandes	SYC	7.0	1.0	2.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
2		4787	MAKE MY J	Simon Grain	SYC	19.0	2.0	4.0	2.0	5.0	3.0	3.0
3		2632	SSS	Jeanette Syme	MHYC	24.0	6.0	1.0	4.0	3.0	2.0	8.0
4		5246	HYPERACTIVE	Kirsty Harris	SYC	28.0	8.0	8.0	3.0	2.0	5.0	2.0
5		1324	KICKING BOTTOM	Ron Thomson	SYC	29.0	3.0	3.0	6.0	6.0	7.0	4.0
6		1636	EXCITE YOUR SENSES	Michael Lewenhagen	SYC	37.0	4.0	6.0	5.0	7.0	6.0	9.0
7		5086	CRACKERJACK	Doug Macgregor	SYC	39.0	10.0	7.0	7.0	4.0	4.0	7.0
8		5247	STARPAC	Terry Wise	CYCA	45.0	5.0	5.0	8.0	8.0	13.0O	6.0
9	5.0S	4436	VERTIGO	Andrew Hely	SYC	54.0	9.0	11.0	11.0	9.0	9.0	5.0
10		4470	SANGUINE	Peter Moulang	SYC	54.0	7.0	9.0	9.0	11.0	8.0	10.0
11		4464	TWO DOGS	Rowan Pollard	SYC	64.0	13.0F	10.0	10.0	10.0	10.0	11.0