After a three year gap since the previous IOM Australian Championship was held on the Gold Coast, finally (after a number of false starts), the 2022 IOM Australian was successfully completed at Harts Mill, Adelaide over four days from 30 March to 02 April.
The long range prediction for SE winds was right and with this came very fluky wind conditions making it challenging for race organisors and competitors alike. Andrew Reid & Scott Condie volunteered for the task and excelled in setting sailable courses in these difficult conditions and while frustrating for all, some excellent quality racing was seen with the finishing order in races changing frequently.
Day one saw some gusty shifty conditions with the fleet starting racing with A rigs until later in the day when there was a mix of A & B until the final A race of the day saw most with B rigs. Doug Allen (QLD) made a quick start with a win in his seeding race followed up by a win in race one but was under pressure from Brad Quiggin (NSW), Paul Jones (NSW) and Brett Osborn (SA), but with some mid A fleet scores later in the day for Allen he stepped onto the slippery slide and was going to need to work harder on the race course to hold a position in the top bunch.
Day two and the B rigs were out again although the conditions remained gusty, there were certainly moments where the A rig would have been handy. Defending champion Sean Wallis (WA) was the mover of the day with 5,4,4,1,5 seeing him climb out of a surprising overnight position of 12th overall moving up to 4th overall signaling he was still very much in the fight for the title. Paul Jones had a troublesome day with visits to B fleet while Scott Mitchell (SA) showed great consistency again with 3,3,1,4,7 for the day, and with having no worse than and 8th place on his card took the overnight lead ahead of Quiggin who had also sailed another very consistent day.
Day three saw the wind shift further in the East creating some real challenges for the race officers who after a delayed start to racing, setup the course in an unsailed West/East finger of the Port River which ended up providing some excellent racing. The penultimate day is the day for the big moves but with Mitchell holding a commanding lead these were definately going to need to be big. Quiggin found the conditions difficult and with some disappointing results slipped back to fourth overall after the first race, while Jones picked up the win to reduce Mitchell's ten point advantage only to see Mitchell return fire and pick up the win in the second race. Wallis sailed consistently with 3,2,4,4,1 and with the Race 16 drop the overnight lead of Mitchell was now reduced to just two points with Jones still in the hunt and the final day was setup as a three horse race.
Back on the West/East finger for the final day and it was light shifty winds with big holes that saw positions change regularly in each of the races sailed. After being left in a hole at the start of race 17, it would have seemed that the Wallis challenge had come to an end but with a shift and pressure from the right side of the course, Wallis was back in the top of the pack at the top mark and the race for the championship title was still on with Wallis working his way through the fleet to secure the win with Jones second and Mitchell sixth.
Racing conditions remaining tough with the wind shifting regularly and very patchy. Race 18 saw the trio all fighting it out at the front with Wallis again showing his ascendancy claiming his second win for the day with Mitchell third and Jones fourth. Race 19 saw Wallis place 2nd while Mitchell added a 7th and Jones a 9th to see the overall Wallis lead stretch out to 9 points as the breeze softened and change direction to the SE before dropping out altogether.
With puffs of breeze coming from all directions the race officers made every attempt to set a course, then shift the marks to a new wind direction only to see the breeze shift again as the wind indicator rotated 360 degrees and after about 90 minutes, racing was abandoned with Sean Wallis successfully defending his Australian Championship title ahead of Scott Mitchell and Paul Jones. Championship titles were also awarded to the Masters & Grand Masters categories which saw the Masters won by Greg Torpy (QLD) and Grand Masters won by Derick Warne (QLD). Some additional awards were also handed out, C Fleet Champion went to Ben Taylor (NSW) while B Fleet Champion went to Dougy! Congratulations to all.
It is without doubt that the hardest job over the four days was the task carried out by Race Officers Andrew Reid and Scott Condie, they were faced with the most difficult conditions that Harts Mill could throw at them and saw 38 heats successfully completed and we thank them for their support giving up their time and traveling to Adelaide to support the event. In addition, thanks to the organising committee lead by Simon How who created a magnificent event which was well coordinated.