23 boats competed in the VX One Winter Nationals 2025 at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron (RQYS) from 7-9 June. Over the 13 races it was Chris Anderson, Mitchell Miller and Darren Hutchison on Rope Solutions Rigging Services AUS351 who came out on top over Baahouse + Baastudio Architecture, AUS371 Luke Rogers, Kris Bilston and Claus Ejlertsen and Mack One AUS376 helmed by Ben Franklin with Alan Moffat and Danny Fuller.

“It’s good to see so many boats, especially the southerners coming up,” Anderson said of the nine boats who travelled from NSW and VIC to compete to make up the 23 boat fleet. “And on the back of Airlie Beach Race Week happening for our class, we are all going to that one, that will be good!”

“We got there,” he said of the win, “in a lot of wind, especially today. A few hairy moments, a few gybes that didn’t go as planned, but we managed to get around, JUST. Almost tipped it in twice at one finish”.

“There are a lot of mixed crews, two-ups, three-ups, young girls, young guys, and all just loving sailing the VX One. That is why we got into it, it’s a growing class”, he finished.

Fourth overall were newcomers to the class, dual Gold Medallist Malcolm Page (2008/2012), with Beijing Gold Medallist counterpart Nathan Wilmot on the helm, with Olympic coach and Paralympic Gold & Silver Medallist coach and RQYS Head Coach, Adrian Finglas in the middle. On chartered boat Wissel AUS242, they finished four points in front of fifth, Dollop AUS319 skippered by the first Senior Helm, Rob Douglass, with the first female Nic Douglass and Garth Bickford.

“It was FUN!” exclaimed Nathan Wilmot of the weekend still with the smile he had all weekend still plastered to his face.

“The VX1 sailors are a great group of people, friendly, helpful and very skilled racers. The podium finishers were a cut above and deserved their results,” he said.

“The boats are great, responsive with sail development, tuning and the physicality… some classes have gone away from this and it’s great to develop or show these skills. The socials ashore and sailing unity was clear and a great part of the weekend,” he finished.

His bow and long-term sailing partner, Malcolm Page, most recently winning the 16ft Skiff National Championship in 2023 together said, “the Brisbane mid-winter winds and the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron hospitality was first class as always”.

“Nathan, Adrian and I are totally destroyed from the weekend… the last two days’ of wind and that hiking was extremely painful… but rewarding from a speed perspective,” he continued.

In short, “love the boats, I will be back”, he finished.

You can view all the live action video footage on RQTV and Youtube.

Source https://www.sail-world.com/news/286937/VX-One-Winter-Nationals-2025

Images by Mike Middleton & Andrew Snell – Sunset Media – @sailorgirlhq-0216