2006/7 NSW Manly Junior State Championships
Manly Junior sailors and spectators enjoyed the hospitality, excellent organisation and sensational sailing conditions when Middle Harbour 16’ Skiff Club and Cunningham Properties hosted round two of the NSW Championships last weekend.
After six heats Robert and Kasha Wojcik (Rad Rat) retained their place at the top of the leader’s board despite winning only one race. Their consistency will allow them to discard a sixth place as their lowest score going into the final round, giving them a slender three-point lead.
Natalie Greentree and Matthew Dubery (Dog Eat Dog) kept their title hopes alive with a win in Heat 4, closely followed by the very consistent crew of Gemma Rasdall and Hannah Lanz (Bullet) in second place.
Not to be outdone, Angela Bates and Ashley Atkins (Two Chances) ensured that they’ll be contenders going into the final round by winning Heat 5 after holding off a determined challenge from last year’s Junior State Champion, Zac Duryea (Dynamic Lifter).
Vincent and Lucia Langen (Vincent Van Go) showed their competitive spirit to overcome the disappointment of an OCS disqualification in Heat 5 and completely dominated Heat 6 for a convincing win, followed by the top performing junior crew of Paul Darmanin and Lucy Copeland (Roaring Forties) in second.
With several crews demonstrating their ability to race at the front the series will still be very much alive at the final round at Belmont in February.
Robert and Kasha Wojcik can expect to come under extreme pressure from Natalie Greentree (Dog Eat Dog) and Angela Bates (Two Chances) who are only three and five points behind respectively.
It was a treat for everyone at Sunday’s presentation to hear Ralph Tobias explain how he came to design the Manly Junior, forty-seven years ago. There was no other junior trainer with main, jib and spinnaker available then, and with carefully considered upgrades over the years MJs continue to be the premier junior trainer providing young sailors with a complete sailing experience.
Ralph Tobias was justifiably proud that many thousand sailing careers began in MJs and that so many of Australia’s sailing champions have their first taste of success in the little sailing boat he designed.
2705 Rad Rat (Wojcik/Wojcik) (20) 2,2,1,5,6,4
2690 Dog Eat Dog (Greentree/Dubery) (23) 1,1,4,1,3,13
2722 Two Chances (Bates/Atkins) (25) 6,3,2,3,1,10
2755 Bullet (Rasdall/Lanz) (47) 3,14,9,2,5,14
2740 Roaring Forties (Darmanin/Copeland) (50) 8,11,15,4,10,2
2716 Dynamic Lifter (Duryea/Walters) (56) 9,27,3,10,2,5
2739 Tis Magic (Doyle/Giles) (57) 15,8,8,6,8,12
2733 Hot Briez (Whitton/Dawson) (61) 14,4,16,9,9,9
2737 Vincent Van Go (Langen/Langen) (62) 5,5,6,7,38,1
2752 Surge (Bate/Costanzo) (67) 16,9,5,8,22,7
Full results: www.manlyjunior.asn.au
