Despite nasty conditions - flooded roads, lightning, pouring rain and
winds of about 6 knots maximum, the NSW titles attracted a great fleet
of 38 competitors.

Sailors came from Newcastle/Lake Macquarie, Melbourne, Sydney, and
Canberra - a superb turnup considering that many keen sailors couldn't
make it because of other events. Saturday's racing took place at
Dobroyd while Sunday's moved to Narrabeen.

The fastest sailor overall and in the biggest division, the lights,
was Ron Schwebel of Narrabeen fleet. He took four wins and two seconds
in division to win from Paul Ivshenko. Third in Lights and overall and
top Women was Karen Constable in another outstanding performance.

The Mediumweights went to Chris Thompson from Andy Bursill, with Mark
Simpson from Canberra in third. Mick Griffith missed Saturday but had
two wins on Sunday.

The Heavies were taken by Greg Johns, who also won a heat overall,
from Steve Barton. Ray Pearson (Lake Macquarie) in third. Andrew
McLean celebrated his return to windsurfing with a pair of wins in
class and a very impressive first overall in one heat.

Karen took the women from Deb Apthorp and Kerry Bergman. In the light
conditions, Silver Fleet normally finished with the Open fleet. Matt
Ivshenko took the Silver Fleet and the Youth division easily after
close rival Brendan Jenkins didn't race on Sunday. Greg Harris from
NLSC joined in with a TC Runner (similar to a Wally) and was third
fastest in Silver Fleet. Most of the older Juniors also raced with big
rigs in the Open fleet and Brendan scored an excellent fifth in one heat.

The Junior Ones saw a fleet of 12 sailors, despite missing some keen
sailors from Wollongong and Newcastle. Matt was unbeatable in the
Junior Ones overall, winning easily from new sailor Jack Garner who
sailed a great series. Brendan was third.

The sub-juniors had a good fleet of five sailors, and some great
racing; they often crossed the line with just two boardlengths between
the first three. Jack Buchan from Belmont, Lake Macquarie, won
narrowly from clubmate Owen Long and Bart Antonelli (DAC).

The Juniors had a great time despite the weather; even when we dragged
them off the water because of lightning they got out and splashed
around again as soon as they could.

The Lake Macquarie sailors, lead by Mark Long, have been getting
plenty of dinghy sailors onto boards and should start a more formal
fleet within a couple of weeks. We also had three enthusiastic
entrants who are trying to form an Eastern Suburbs fleet.

This was the biggest NSW titles for years. About a third of the fleet
were Juniors and there were several adults who were either new sailors
or sailors returning from many years out of the class. The signs are
great for the future!

Many thanks to Pat Coleman, Ron Jenkins and Chris Allen from DAC's
start team; the Narrabeen start team; and Steve Barton, Deb Apthorp
and Ron Schwebel for their invaluable help.

For results, see

http://cthom249.googlepages.com/states