Tasmania's world champion sailor Nick Rogers and his Karabos crew of Cole Dabner and Simon Burrows blitzed the fleet to win the 2024 Australian Championship on home waters.
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Rogers dominated the regatta at Beauty Point winning seven of the 10-race series to secure his first SB20 Australian title. The trophy caps off a great year for Rogers who was crowned the SB20 Tasmanian Champion, with Dabner and Burrows, in February.
Rogers, one of the key drivers of the SB20 class and the local dealer in Australia, has been after this title for over a decade and was thrilled with the win.
"I feel absolutely fantastic," he said. "The first one I have won in the SB20s, and I'm pretty excited about it. We loved the conditions out there. We tried to just stay away from the other two boats, [Nutcracker and Ares], but we ended up getting involved with them anyway, and winning those two last races, I couldn't believe it."
Rogers paid credit to his crew, especially the local knowledge of Dabner who grew up sailing on the River Tamar from the Port Dalrymple Yacht Club, and stressed the importance of preparation for events like this.
"We spent months going through it all - deciding what sails we would use, and everything we chose worked well," Rogers added.
Despite the intense forecast, race officer Peter Sluce sent the fleet off for their last two races in 14-18+ knots of WNW breeze and on an incoming tide. The breeze was gusting over 20 knots which saw a few more thrills and spills on the race course.
Early leader Nutcracker, skippered by Rob Davis from Victoria, with David Chapman and Jock Calvert onboard, finished in second place while Ares, skippered by Paul McCartney, with Will Sargent and Sam Tiedemann, finished third.
Rogers also took out the masters' division and Wicked, skippered by Paige Caldecoat from New South Wales, sailing with Nick Jones, Eirini Marios and Stephen Henley, of Hobart, took out the women's division, despite a late charge from the Cook Your Own Dinner SB20 team.
