Tweed Valley Sailing Club held their annual Tumbulgum to Fingal passage race on Sunday, the 13th of August, timed to coincide with an outgoing ebb tide to make the passage slightly easier considering the traditional lack of wind in the early morning and upper reaches of the Tweed River.
The early morning held the promise of a glorious day in the northern rivers as sailors arrived early at the Tumbulgum launching place, rigging and then gently placing their boats on the grass or launching and tying up to a pontoon before driving their empty trailers to Fingal. The sailors were then dropped back at Tumbulgum for a welcome bacon and egg burger and hot beverage before the race briefing commenced.
The start was a short upwind leg before rounding a marker buoy and heading off down the river in a light and fluky breeze.
As the fleet sailed past the sleepy village of Tumbulgum and then under the road bridge, colourful spinnakers and gennakers made an appearance, and the faster RS100s and Lasers started to break from the rest of the field of corsairs, sabres and modified Hartley.
The fleet leaders were going through the narrows of Stotts Island when a sudden strong wind change came in, causing the highly strung RS100s carrying gennakers to capsize and the lasers to hold on for dear life. The step up in wind speed and direction eventually filtered through to the whole fleet, making for many arduous tacks in the restricted channel as they made their way past Chinderah and under the M1 bridge before finishing in front of Fingal Boat Harbour.
The RS100s were first across the line, but it had been noted that a few (5) of the leading boats had missed a small part of the navigation channel in the confusion of the wind change and could not be deemed to have done the proper course. Of those that sailed the proper course, first on handicap was visitor Hariet Woodrow in a Sabre, followed by local John Hayward and crew Ari and Finn in a Corsair, then Michael Grace and crew in another Corsair. The handicap results for those that sailed the improper course was Lex Branch first in a laser radial, followed by Wayne Culph and Guy Forester in laser full rigs, their handicap trumping the speedy RS100s.
Full results can be found here https://halsail-1e484.kxcdn.com/Result/Public/75022.
All enjoyed a great day after missing the last few years due to Covid restrictions, and we hope to make it a regular race in our calendar again.
Many thanks to all our volunteers and helpers who made the complicated logistics work and kept the competitors safe on the water.
Words by Peter Fell