The Northern Territory Championships were held in beautiful Fannie Bay, Darwin over the weekend of 27^th & 28^th of July 2019.

Darwin Sailing Club hosted the 26 OTB entrants, including Tasars, Lasers, Minnows, A-class and a solitary 29er. Usually run over 3 days of the Show Day long weekend, we had a change of format this year to two days only and the addition of a Saturday night ‘Luau party’ to increase the social aspect of the event. Both changes were very well received.

Light, shifty offshore winds in the mornings created havoc for the race committee and a few delays for the starts however we managed to get the maximum 6 races in. Dealing with 4 to 15 knots, our Darwin tidal pull and an eclectic mix of boats on the course kept the sailors on their toes and made for lots of exciting mark rounding’s, and photo opportunities! DSC does volunteering well, which meant that everything ran smoothly including getting the novice Minnows back to shore in time for lunch before the afternoon sea breeze session.

A couple of notables from the event: our 2019 Jnr Minnows National Champ, Will McGrath, managed a ‘picket fence’ result card and still stayed at finish to herd his novice co sailors back to shore ( that’s how we roll in the NT), oh he picked up the Overall award as well. And we had a one point difference only in the Tasar podium finish, with it all coming down to the last race and a countback, the three female skippers kept a very tight ship. Exciting sailing and excellent sportsmanship from all our entrants made this event a resounding success, come join us for the next one. Full results can be found via this link. 

Written by Kelly Wilson