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Jan 9, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | John Roberson |Lisa Darmanin |Mark Rothfield |Jordan Spencer
Richard Lynn and his team sailing Gordon are clinging to a one point lead at the end of the penultimate day of the Dragons’ Prince Philip Cup, the class’s Australian Championships. Chalking up two second places today Lynn, crewed by Ethan Prieto-Low and Adam Brenz-Verca, faces a fascinating tactical conundrum on the final day tomorrow. The first race of the day went to Willy Packer’s Scoundrel crew, while Grant Alderson and his team on French Connection took the second race.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | Lisa Darmanin |John Roberson |Mark Rothfield |Jordan Spencer
After 12 races showcasing a vast range of conditions on the waters off Manly in Brisbane, Zac Littlewood and Mara Stransky have emerged victorious at the 2025 ILCA Oceania and Australian Championship in the ILCA7 and ILCA6 classes, respectively. The competition began with strong south-easterly winds, testing the sailors’ limits. As the week progressed, the winds eased, transitioning to a lighter and more tactical easterly breeze, challenging the fleet’s strategic skills.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | Mark Rothfield |John Roberson |Lisa Darmanin |Jordan Spencer
Queensland’s Hervey Bay is renowned as the whale-watching capital of Australia but yesterday it was the giants of sailing who entertained spectators aboard a tour boat as Race 4 of the 2025 Hervey Bay Boat Club 13ft and 16ft skiff national championships was fought and won. The breeze was in two minds for much of the day, dithering between south-east and north-east before deciding to fade completely, which meant that the second scheduled race had to be abandoned and deferred until Thursday.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | Jordan Spencer |John Roberson |Mark Rothfield
The final day of the Wireless Communications International 505 World Championships was crazy. Racing started early at 11am. Two races were planned. The weather was beautiful, the breeze in the morning was easterly, straight offshore. The forecast was for 15-20kn from the South East but fading. At the top of the leaderboard Peter Nicholas and Luke Payne led by 6 points from Sandy Higgins and Paul Marsh, with a further 5 points to Howie Hamlin and Andy Zinn.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | Mark Rothfield |John Roberson |Jordan Spencer
With opening day nerves set aside, back-to-back races on the calendar, and a perfect 15-knot tradewind fanning the azure waters off Maryborough Sailing Club, the 2025 Hervey Bay Boat Club 13ft and 16ft Skiff Australian Championships went up another gear yesterday. There were movers and shakers, groovers and breakers, at the pointy end of the 52-strong 16s fleet as it’s a case of go hard or go home.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | Jordan Spencer |John Roberson |Mark Rothfield
Conditions for day 4 of the Wireless Communications International 505 World Championships were windy. The forecast was for 20-25kn South East -South Freshening to 30 knots late in the day. We expected the strongest part of the breeze to be further offshore. And for the most part, that was the case, however, the strong wind pushing against an outgoing tide, led to very lumpy and challenging conditions on the water. Race 6 started with the wind at 175, the course length was 1.4nm.
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Jan 5, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | Mark Rothfield |John Roberson |Jordan Spencer
It’s well known that you can’t win a nine-race series on Day 1 but the Imagine Signage crew of Nathan Wilmot, Ricky Bridge and Simon Hoffman made a commanding statement yesterday as the 2025 Hervey Bay Boat Club 13ft and 16ft Skiff Australian Championships got underway. The Manly team’s winning margin of 1m25s, against a highly competitive fleet, was impressive enough. The fact they suffered three separate breakages and had to recover from an average start made it even more meritorious.
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Jan 5, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | Mark Rothfield |John Roberson |Jordan Spencer
The 1200km drive north is done and dusted, so too registration and boat weighing. Now, all that remains to awaken Queensland tourist town Hervey Bay from its summer slumber is for racing to commence tomorrow in The Boat Club Australian 13ft & 16ft Skiff national titles. As if on cue, the tropical tradewinds have arrived with gusto, and crews who braved the conditions today were rewarded with downwind speeds of over 20 knots.
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Jan 4, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | John Roberson |Jordan Spencer |Mark Rothfield
Willy Packer sailing Scoundrel sailed to a comfortable win in the opening race of the Ted Albert Memorial Series, the warm up regatta for the Dragons’ Prince Philip Cup, their national championship. Crewed by Randall Harding and Jock Packer, Willy was ahead at the first mark and did not relinquish his advantage through the race. Commenting on the race Packer said, “We started at the committee boat end of the line, it was not the favoured end, but it was where we wanted to be.
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Jan 2, 2025 | 
livesaildie.com | Jordan Spencer |John Roberson |Mark Rothfield
Day 1 of the Wireless Communications 505 World Championships, from a weather perspective, was crazy. Everything looked normal at the start of the day. Beautiful blue skies, a gentle breeze from the South, with everyone expecting a seabreeze to start filling in from the South West. An hour or so before racing, a Nor’ Wester came in and locals were saying, “I have never seen that before”.
