NEWS
Four Teams and 25 sailors from Albert Park, Ballarat, Cronulla and Sorrento yacht clubs completed for the 2023 Rudder Shield held at Ballarat on 28 May.
Six Rounds were sailed with Teams swapping boats across the series to ensure an equitable distribution. The weather was a cool 12 degrees temperature with North Westerly winds of about 10 knots which remained consistent for most of the day but on occasions was accompanied by a little rain.
Competition was close and in a couple of heats, first place was decided by only 200 mm and on other occasions all four boats were only seconds apart. The Ballarat and Cronulla Teams gained early leads which they sustained throughout the day.
After the six Rounds it was the team from Ballarat Yacht Club on 12 points narrowly defeating Cronulla on 13 points. Sorrento came third on 16 points and Albert Park on 19 points.
The comradery was joyful and in the true spirit of the Rudder Shield convention.
A sincere thank you to Leonie Crosbie, Lesley Davies, Russell Hawkes and Michael Morrow for making their Jubilee available. They rigged their Jubilees then handed them over to the competing teams. This series can only occur with such generosity and support to the Jubilee Association. Hopefully next year we may be able to field six boats so that there will be three boats per team which should make an even more exciting spectacle.
A special thanks also to Stuart Riddell for operating the Course boat, to Karen Riddell and Russell Hawkes for your support to managing the shoreside aspects. Thanks also to Ben and Cooper Brown who launched and retrieved the RIB.
So that’s it for this season. Your Committee is currently investigating options for next season JA Linacre Memorial Trophy and Huntingfield Cup with the intent to most probably hold these events on Port Phillip Bay.
Attached is the detailed Scoresheet.
CLUBS
2023 Huntingfield Winners
Our Cronulla team have sailed with and against each other for over 40 years. We’ve competed at local clubs, some beautiful locations in Australia and all the way to a world championship in Italy. But we love any opportunity to sail at Ballarat.
With the Huntingfield Cup date set, we were prompted to pull the covers off TAJ in order to finish her for the 22nd of April (thanks to Ian for his many weekends given up to help with boat work!).
We arrived late Thursday night on Leone and Paul’s doorstep with a still-unfinished TAJ in tow. Graciously welcomed, we settled in by the fire for a luscious gourmet dinner and a glass of wine. Or 2… or…
Friday morning came before long, and we headed down to the yacht club. There was still work to do on TAJ and in true Ballarat style, volunteer boat builders came from out of the woodworks to help us. We had enough done that by 6 pm to say, let’s go sailing.
And wow, what an amazing day it was with the TAJ in the water. Great wind, great views, great folks: this is what sailing Jubilees at Ballarat Yacht Club is all about.
The weekend hit, and Saturday racing started without a hitch. Wind speed was nearly five knots, and from boat to boat, great tactical battles were raged. Needless to say, the results were tight!
Sunday came in strong with a complete weather change. Wind speed shot up to over fifteen knots from the southeast, allowing a good, long course to be set for some more exciting competition.
By the end of the weekend, we’d fought fierce tactical battles and earned our fair share of bruises. But we’d also shared plenty of encouragement, laughs, and (of course) drinks with mates, accompanied by hours of sailing stories.
For the weekend, we were part of a family. A Jubilee family.
It was a fantastic event, thank you for having us.
From Steve, Ian, Undine, and myself, I can say: we’ll be back!
Karen Grover
This website is undergoing an update and I am learning as I am going.
The intention is to make the site more easy to navigate while also containing both current and historical information for competitors as well as for those who are interested in the class.
So I apologize for a few non working links as the redevelopment takes place. I have also incorporated some spelling and grammatical errors to see who is paying attention.
All contributions to design and content are welcome
Paul Crosbie Secretary.