By PAUL MILLAR
JAKE NEWMAN will spend more time on the water than on dry land these holidays but the sailing tactician would have it no other way.
The Belmont-based builder will be as race-fit as anybody on Corio Bay when he joins crew members on Double Black as part of the Festival of Sails later this month.
His marathon lead up to the festival started with one of the toughest races in the world – the Sydney Hobart – with a young, all-Geelong crew on Ecstasy.
Newman, who was competing in his tenth Sydney-Hobart, said the conditions did not suit Ecstasy and the crew was fully tested on the final day.
“We got hit pretty hard, it was like the perfect storm, we got smashed, but Sydney-Hobart is always a highlight,” Newman said.
He made it home for New Year’s Eve and spent it on Corio Bay – where else? – watching the fireworks with friends and family.
The break was short as he then helped Shogun to a second-place in the Pittwater to Coffs Harbour race.
He then made a flying visit back home and leaves for Adelaide today to compete in five races in eight days in the National Etchells Championship on board Triad, skippered by sailing legend John Bertrand.
“I guess I’ll need a couple of days off after that,” Newman said.
However, the draw of taking on the best in your own back yard is incentive enough to team up with another crew on Corio Bay.
From January 17 to 26, boats of all ages and sizes from multiple Port Phillip and other Victorian yacht clubs will join those trailered and delivered by ocean from Queensland and New South Wales in Geelong. Tasmanian starters and those in Hobart after the Sydney-Hobart have Bass Strait between them and Geelong.
Rob Hanna’s Shogun will return from the Pittwater to Coffs race to his hometown for the Geelong regatta.
The seven-race Multihull Australian Championships start on Saturday, January 17, ending January 23, with the traditional Festival of Sails’ launch, the mass start of the 34-nautical mile Melbourne to Geelong passage race for all divisions other than sports boats. They start their series on Corio Bay on Thursday 22 January.
