Thanks for this story from Nic Douglas:
Tim Ryan and his crew Rob Greenhalgh, Jess Grimes and Charlie Gundy on VAMOS AUS1567 successfully defended their J/70 Australian Championship over the Easter weekend. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) RC/ PRO team managed to run 14 races over the long weekend. Representing the CYCA, VAMOS secured their back-to-back national titles with a race to spare for the second time, winning six races and finishing on the podium in all but three on their home race track on Sydney Harbour. “It was a wonderful weekend,” said Ryan after racing on Easter Monday. “It was really good to actually get it done. We won one race by quite a bit, but everything else was so close. You think you are doing well, and you look around and there are five boats right behind you. It’s really competitive racing, and the Class is going well,” the double Champion commented on the progress of the J/70 Class in Australia. “There are miracles at Easter, and there was one this weekend,” said Ryan of the weather and the 14. “We thought we would put 16 races on the program, because we thought we might get 10 or 12 because of no breeze… but it was good! We did a lot of training. We did some two-up stuff over COVID…we put in a lot of hours on the water, and I think that probably shows, that is probably the difference,” he commented when asked about the secret to the VAMOS team’s now dual successes. “There are a lot of good sailors [in the fleet], we have just had a lot of time out there.” VAMOS AUS1567 finished seven points clear of SWISH AUS7082 skippered by Steven Proud with Sean O’Rourke, Billy Sykes and Harry Smith representing the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS). 17 points back was Reg Lord’s JUNO AUS7071 sailing with Richie Allanson, Ben Lamb and Murray Jones also representing the CYCA. The Corinthian champion was THE JACKAL AUS1130 skippered by Kevin Nixon from RSYS, over Karyn Gojnich’s JABIRU AUS1625 also representing the RSYS, and Brendan Lee’s MADNESS AUS1305 sailing from the Sandringham Yacht Club rounded out the podium. The J/70 Australian Championship 2022 was made possible thanks to the sponsorship of North Sails and Sail Racing. For more information on the Australian J/70 Class, visit https://www.j70australia.org/home/.