PHAEDRUS B14 VICTORIAN STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GARMSTON AND CHAPMAN DOMINATE!

     The Phaedrus B14 Victorian Championship was held on the long weekend of March 7th to 9th at Sandringham Yacht Club. 

The regatta would end up being the penultimate event for the season, with public events prohibited within 2 weeks due to the COVID 19 outbreak. All sailing was banned at all levels due to the virus outbreak. It would be 5 days later the Australian Grand  Prix was cancelled by the government.

    Hosted by Sandringham Yacht Club the event was run surperbly by the race committee and in conjunction with I14 and Musto skiffs. The sailing conditions for the weekend were the best for the season offering something for everyone. Saturday provided a 15-20 knot wind from the south west with a large swell generated from the south end of Port Philip Bay.

These conditions made everyone work hard to maintain their boats upright. Garmston and Chapman won both races, with Bancroft and Grace claiming 2nd twice. On arrival on the Sunday the fleet were greeted by 25+ knot southerly and were held on shore. A lot of bodies were already aching form the Saturday, however after a half hour delay the race committee decided to start. With the wind constantly around the 24knot wind range the committee wisely only ran 2 of the 3 races which were planned for the Sunday. As they could see the fleet getting tired with plenty of capsizes through the fleet. The 2 races were split between Garmston/Chapman and Bancroft/Grace, Loutit and Briggs managed a 2nd were a clear 3rd overall.

On the Monday surely we were going to get a light day. Monday arrived and it was already white capping, it was looking like another hard day at the office. Pleasantly the breeze abated slightly to be a consistent 12-15knot southerly which the whole fleet enjoyed. This would be the final sailing day for the B14 fleet in Victoria and they had 3 races to finish off the 7 race series. It was good to see Freya Vickery back steering as well as Grace Lazaar who was excellent in steering in her 1st regatta at the helm of a B14.

FINAL RESULTS    at  syc.com.au

1/ Craig Garmston and Louis Chapmam  6 points

2/ Guy Bancroft and Dave Grace     11 points

3/ Dave Loutit and Hugo Briggs        22 points

4/ Ewan Campbell and Tori Campbell   28 points

5/ Glenn Lazzar and Grace Lazzar    31 points

6/ Ron Kane and Jason Dunsmore/ J. Randall    32 points

7/ Freya Vickery and Linden Kruss      45 points

B14 contestants and supporters a waiting on shore day 2 at SYC