Rob Andrews

By Monday morning 4 January, the top athletes at the Australian Hobie Class National Championships 2009/2010 were pretty happy with their performance. It was the midpoint for the windy and exciting four day regatta.

Taylor Booth and Emma Sturgeon, the 2008 Australian National Champions were still in the running for another national title with only a few points between their team and the first place team of Gavin Colby and Sasha Marks. In the top five, Cam Owen was a true warrior, battling the flu and still consistently racing. Despite being weary Cam and crew Susan Ferris consistently showed up in the top ten. Darren Smith and Josie Marks quietly kept their place in the top ten, though Darren didn't want to say much before the regatta was finished.

While many of the best teams have won State, National and World titles and raced with each other for years. Yet there was one surprise, Chris Hancock and James Wierzbowski, who demonstrated great boat handling ability in the very physical conditions. Chris was in the top ten finishers in nearly all of the races and a new threat to the seasoned top competitors.

The first three days of racing turned out to be heavy to moderate wind. With the heavier air churning up a challenging wind-swell. For the large number of the local Western Australia teams, the swell was significantly harder to sail than the flatter and more serene Swan River. There were some spectacular crashes in the back of the fleet.

In the bumpy water and heavy breeze, there were stories of hulls through main sails, bent masts, tangled boats and capsizes. Despite the chaotic racing and collisions, there were no major injuries to the sailors.

The front of the fleet was loving the challenge. This had been an endurance test for many of the elite sailors who participated in both the three days of Series 1, the Tigers / Youth / Women / Masters and the Series 2 Open.

Taylor and Emma were very tired after sailing for nearly nine days, including arriving early to warm up and keeping up with practice on the lay-day between series. Taylor held up his chafed and worn hands and said, "I've hardly ever taped my hands in any competition, but after this many days of sailing, I had to." In Europe this year, Taylor and Emma raced National competitions in France and Germany.

Emma commented, "We were doing three days of racing at the European events, instead of four and there was more time between events."

The event wrapped up on Tuesday 5 January, with light wind and a hot summer morning. The fleet spread out across the course with boats falling from first to last or climbing to a finish on a lucky puff of wind. Many of the sailors enjoyed the change and found the light air to be more relaxing than frustrating.

The top three champions for the The Hog's Breath Cafe & Hobie Cat Australasia - Australian Hobie Class National Championships 2009/2010 were (1) Gavin Colby/Sasha Marks, (2) Darren Smith/Josie Mark, (3) Taylor Booth/Emma Sturgeon.

Other Links
	Results