Results: Musto Skiff Victorian Championships – 19/20 Oct

Ahead of the 2025 Worlds the Vic state titles were moved forward to the start of the season, which resulted in mixed weather and fleet size.

Saturday, we got offered the Sandringham Spring special with big, short seas from the Southwest and plenty of breeze. The seas state was lingering from a good 25-30knts front from the night before. By the time we went on the water the wind had settle down to solid cold 16-20 knots, but the sea state was up and short. Half the fleet decided to preserve some of their assets and used pinhead mainsail and the other half decided to use their square top mainsail.

First race, first upwind, was close and at the top mark Matthias was just in front, with Jon Newman and Jono Neat following closely. With no offset mark, Matthias managed to go down the mine in the short steep waves before even getting his kite up. Jon sailed smoothly and took the win. Jono Neate played conservative and took the second place, with Matthias third even with two swims. Jono Neate is a past Musto Skiff Australia Champion who is getting back into it and has been a great addition to the fleet.

Second race, the sea state was improving, and everyone was able to push a lot more. Jon and Matthias raced around the course very close to each other and Matthias managed to take the win by a boat length.

Third race, Jon managed a perfect pin end start and led all the way and won with a comfortable 100m lead. Matthias took second and Casey third.

Sunday, the wind and sea state had dropped, and we went out with 8-10knts of wind, everyone was on their square top mains and in full race mode rather than survival mode.

Fourth race, the wind had few holes with a persistent slow right shift with lots of shorter right and left shifts. Fairly even line Casey, Jon, Paul and Matthias all had a good lane. Paul had a good low groove off the line, unfortunately, the first shift came from the right and Matthias, who started at the committee boat, took the lead and conserved it all the way.

Fifth race, first lap everyone was close and competitive with the new breeze building from the right, Jon led at the top mark with Matthias and Paul in the hunt, all choosing to gybe set. Matthias managed to grab the lead at the gate with an extra wave, controlling the rest of the race to take the win in front of Jon and Paul.

By the sixth race, the wind had increased to 10-13knts, everyone was pushing the start so much so that the individual recall flag went up with Paul, Jono, and Matthias came back to the line. Jon and Casey had a great battle at the front and managing all the different fleets (J24-J70-29er-contenders-vx/one-B14…) on the race course. Jon took the win, Casey second, and Matthias third.

Seventh and final race, points where very close with Jon having the slight advantage but Matthias could still win on count back if he won the last race. A little bit of match race was played out in the beginning of the start sequences between Jon and Matthias and no doubt the Americas Cup fever could be to blame for that. It was a clean start in the end, and Matthias took the early advantage midline. Jon got stuck into a high grove with Casey holding a great lane. Everyone pushed to the left side of the course with Jon managing to be one of the further lefts finding some extra speed to get to the top mark first, with Matthias and Casey closely following.
Matthias tried to get some separation with Jon, both up and down wind, but Jon managed to control the situation and take the win and the Victoria State Championship back from his brother Paul Newman.

To summarise, Jon Newman is still the man to beat down under, however Matthias Houvenagel is challenging him more and more, while the new generations led by Casey Bates is showing moments of glory with only consistency letting them down.