Adelaide Sailing Club, together with assistance from Australian Sailing (SA) recently hosted the Sailing event within the 17th Australian Masters Games. 

This was the 4th time Adelaide Sailing Club has hosted the Masters. Whilst previous events were successful, feedback was that for the event to maximise interest it needed a point of difference from a normal class event and from the normal all takers regatta with a few boats of wide range of classes. The event needed to be short, mesh in with a wide ranging social program run by the Masters Games group, give credit to different age groups and to require fewer resources to manage as it was before the season proper. It also needed to have high level championship style racing to attract interstate competitors.

With 8000 competitors across over 50 sports it was important to have our sport included in this major event.

The format decided upon was a yardstick event for all single handed dinghies. It ran over 3 days with 3 races per day with races targeting 30 – 40 minutes. Classes were divided into 3 starts with all sailing the same course. Scoring was done on both Class and within Age Levels based on the Australian Sailing (VYC) yardsticks across the whole fleet.

The format proved popular with 54 entries across Finns, OKs, Lasers, Hansa Liberties, Impulses and Spirals. Entries were received from all Adelaide metropolitan clubs and many SA country centres. 20 entries were from interstate.

The Spiral class had never previously raced in SA and the group who travelled from NSW made quite an impact.

3 races were completed each day with many tired bodies before the last day. Day 1 was very cold with high seas which saw a number of retirements but this was followed up by 2 days of champagne conditions making this the most significant single handed yardstick regatta we have seen for many years. 

Results were calculated within age groups as well as within classes. Prizes went to age groups, classes with at least 10 entries and women. Racing was tight with very small margins on corrected times across classes in all races. Clearly the yardsticks are well founded and changes in weather produced slight variations in yardstick results. The Sailwave scoring system enabled us to score the series in these different ways instead of having to keep duplicate results.

Another feature of the event was the inclusion of the Hansa Liberties. Each sailor, whilst an experienced sailor within the Hansa has a significant disability and competed within and against the other competitors, benefitting all involved.

Many thanks to our dedicated volunteer group. 25 people involved on water, on land, in the canteen tower and scoring. The success of the regatta is not possible without the high quality efforts of this group.

The top performance of the regatta was from ASC’s Brent Williams with 3 medals - a win overall, in the 45-59 age group and the OK Dinghy class.

Results:

Overall:              1st       OK Dinghy       Grumpy                       Brent William

                           2nd      Sabre               I’m Busy                      Grant Evans

                           3rd      OK Dinghy       Max Power                 Michael Horvath

Women:             1^st              Sabre               Basic Nightmare         Jacqueline Cole

                           2^nd            Spiral               Just Cruising               Christine Carew

                           3^rd             Sabre               Bullett                         Karen Butcher

Age Divisions:

30 – 44               1st       Sabre               Basic Nightmare         Jacquelene Cole

                           2nd      Sabre               Train                           Justin Stanbridge

                           3rd      Hansa Liberty Shamrock Too             Robert Eadie

45 – 59               1st       OK Dinghy       Grumpy                       Brent Williams

                           2nd      OK Dinghy       Max Power                 Micheal Horvarth

                           3rd      Finn                 Moves Like Jagger      Craig Ginnivan

60 – 69               1st       Sabre               I’m Busy                      Grant Evans

                           2nd      Laser (Std)       Y Knot                         Peter Elvard

                           3rd      Finn                 Longshot                     Max Fry

70+                     1st       Sabre               Buttons                       Peter Leader

                           2nd      Sabre               Cavalier                       Robert Gale

                           3rd      Spiral               Top Gear                     David Bennett

Class

OK Dinghy          1^st              Grumpy                       Brent William

                           2^nd            Max Power                 Michael Horvath

                           3^rd             Green Magic               Glenn Williams

Sabre                  1^st              I’m Busy          Grant Evans

                           2^nd            Simba              Mark Stockhausen

                           3^rd             Simplicity        Rick Stockley

Hansa Liberty    1^st              Deirdre                                    Andrew Short

                           2^nd            Johnathan Livingston Seagull            Chris Riordan

                           3^rd             Pierre Rosenberg                    Robert Parker

Full results overall (yardstick), Age division (yardstick) and classes (outright) and race by race results are available at: https://www.adelaidesailingclub.com.au/majorevents/amg-results/