Title win a Bendigo family affair

Bendigo father and son sailing team Greg and Brett Goodall took out the 2011 Australian F18 Catamaran National Championships in Gosford last weekend.The pair outsailed 37 boats, including Australian champions Steve Brewen and Jack Benson in the annual race, which was held at Brisbane Waters.Greg, who has competed in the race since 2004, said he and Brett did not get off to an ideal start.“Conditions were variable across the whole weekend,” he said.“We started the series with a not so good score. The first day we went everywhere we shouldn’t have, it was just so difficult.“We ended up finishing in 13th place, which was a bit disappointing, so we made the decision that we knew what we needed to go for in the other races on the day and we just needed to get in the zone.”The pair persevered and turned around their horror start with a win in the second race of the day.The Bendigo crew powered to the lead on day two following a series of wins, to hold a 10-point lead on the Brewen and Benson crew.The father and son combination faced tougher conditions on the final two days of competition, but they were able to hold their own on the final day to win comfortably.“The last day we came in fifth in the first race, but the second race was a bit of a disaster with a whole group of boats crossing the line at basically the same time,” he said.“We ended up being named in 11th place, which wasn’t a great result, but we still headed into the last race nine or 10 points clear of the next competitor.“At the end of competition we had a five-point lead and we did it reasonably comfortably.”The Goodalls are not only having success on the water, but with their well-renowned boat building business High Performance Catamarans.The business, which builds one brand of F18 class catamaran, will be supplying boats for the upcoming Hobie Class Championship in Los Angeles.High Performance Catamarans are also in the market to become the equipment choice for the 2016 Olympics, with their Viper catamaran looking a strong chance to be chosen should the sport re-enter the Games.“If the decision is made for catamarans to stay in, then the International Yachting Foundation makes the decision on exactly what equipment will be used,” Greg said.“Between now and that time there will be several different boats built to mirror our boat, because at this stage our boat is the standout.“For us in Bendigo it would mean going from building 100 boats per year to 400-500 boats per year.”Greg and Brett will compete in the F18 World Championship in Hungary in July this year.