Sail Melbourne International – 17 – 21 January 2020 – Olympic and Invited Classes at Royal Brighton YC
Sail Melbourne is Australia’s premier Olympic and Invited Classes Regatta, held annually in the waters of Port Phillip, Victoria. Established in 1992, the Sail Melbourne Regatta, now known as ‘Sail Melbourne International’ (SMI), has become the largest annual ‘Off the Beach’ regatta in the southern hemisphere and is the inaugural leg of the new Asia Pacific Circuit – World Sailing 100 point event.
We had sailors from WA in the Open and Para categories of the Hansa Liberty Class. The weather was wild for the duration with one day cancelled and alot of ‘catch up’ sailing done to ensure the requisite number of races were completed. Rob Crofts is a Committee Member of Sailability WA and sailed exceptionlly well on all days taking out Gold in the Para Division and coming second in the Open division against able bodied sailors, one of whom was the reining 2019 National Champion. Tracy Odiam also did well collecting Silver and Bronze respectively. In a fleet of nine boats, over nine races the top four were :
Bob Schahinger SA 9 points
Rob Crofts WA 17 points
Tracy Odiam WA 29 points
Russell Phillips VIC 34 points
Final Results being :
LIBERTY PARA MEDALS
Gold – Rob Crofts
Silver – Tracy Odiam
Bronze – Russell Phillips
LIBERTY OPEN MEDALS
Gold – Bob Schahinger
Silver – Rob Crofts
Bronze – Tracy Odiam
Congratulations to all the winners especially from WA and all who competed in such exhilerating conditions !
Well done !
