Calvert ?? Jones Takes Tough Title

John CALVERT-JONES and his crew on Southern Star II have taken out the 2004 Rosemount Farr 40 Australian National title after a hard fought regatta.

Richard PERINI and the crew of Corinthian Doors placed second in the National Championship and also won the Australian Circuit Point score from Marcus BLACKMORE, who has held it for the last four years. Third in the National Championship went to Neville CRICHTON and Team Shockwave. Blackmore came second in the Circuit Point score with Rob Skinner finishing third.

Day three of racing had an easterly breeze of 10 knots and was a great one for Lang WALKER on Kokomo with two bullets on the last day. Race eight had Walker having to restart after being over early on the start line. Walker made up for his premature start by working his way back to the front of the fleet and he lead them around the course to cross ahead of Steve O’ROURKE on Panther and Steve ELLIS on Buon Giorno.

Race nine of the regatta had Dick VOORDERHAKE recalled at the start with eight of the ten boats taking the left side of the course for the first upwind leg. Calvert-Jones took the top mark in first with Walker slotting into second and after threading the needle on a port tack Dennis MCDONALD’S MMA One Step Ahead rounded in third. Calvert-Jones had opened up a good lead over Walker on the first leg but on the downwind run Walker closed the gap to run the bottom mark right behind him.

The race committee had to alter the course at the bottom mark due to a wind shift and the positions for the first two boats remained the same as they rounded the top mark for the last time for the regatta. Both One Step Ahead and Marcus Blackmore on Emotional Hooligan had issues with spinnaker hoists at the final top mark while Calvert-Jones and Walker had a fight to the finish with Walker managing to get the shift and pressure that put him over the line in first for the second time.

As winner of the Rosemount National Championship John CALVERT -JONES took home his weight in one of Australia’s finest wines from Rosemount. This regatta finished the 2003/04 season for the Australian Farr 40 fleet with the up coming season culminating in March with the 2005 World Championships.

Final results:

1st Southern Star II (J.Calvert-Jones – RPAYC) 1,1,3,1,2,4,5,5,2 – 24
2nd Corinthian Doors (R.Perini -RSYS) 3,5,1, 4,6,1,1,7,3 – 31
3rd Team Shockwave (N.Crichton -CYCA) 10,3,2,8,1,3,6,4,5 – 42
4th Weapon (R.Skinner – CYCA) 2,7,6,2,5,2,7,8,4 – 43
5th Kokomo (L.Walker – CYCA) 9,9,5,5,9,5,4,1,1 – 48
6th MMA One Step Ahead (D. McDonald – CYCA) 7,4,7,6,4,8,2,9,6 – 53
7th Emotional Hooligan (M.Blackmore – RPAYC) 4,6,4,3,3,6,10,10,7 – 53
8th Buon Giorno (S.Ellis -RPAYC) 8,2,10,9,7,7,3,3,8 – 57
9th Panther (S.O’Rourke – CYCA) 5,8,9,10,10,10,8,6,9 – 72
10th Rapscallion (D.Voorderhake – CYCA) 6,10,8,7,8,9,9,2,10 – 72