Winter Sailing at its Best

A sunny but cool day greeted the keen sailors for the third day of the winter sailing series on the tweed river at Fingal on Sunday the 16th. A shifty and gusty southerly of 8 to 15 knots promised some exciting competition for those who ventured out onto the river.
The first race of two supposedly “short” sprint races took over 80 minutes for the first boats to finish, but there was plenty of competition throughout the fleet between the nine single-handed lasers, four 3 handed Corsairs, a smattering of NS14 two-handed skiffs with a Taser as well, a Hobie 14 catamaran, a wooden classic Goat Is Skiff, and enthusiastic junior sailor Ari on an X3 3.1mtr dinghy.

Ari sailed in the morning with the Juniors and again in the afternoon for the racing.

The start of the race saw a number of Lasers side by side as they fought to get an advantage up the long first work, playing the shifts and asserting their right of way on starboard. Back in the fleet the Corsairs were pushing up the course as well and contributing to an unscheduled swim by Mauri in his Laser when he was looking well placed after a finely crafted start from the port end of the line.

Igor on his Hobbi 14 and Andy in his Laser

The rounding of the windward mark didn’t all go according to plan with Peter having to perform a 360 degree turn after causing another Laser to have to avoid him, and Andy hitting the mark due to the tide and having to do a turn as well.

Geoffrey and Nina heading out on one of the safety boats. Nina took some great photos of the Corsairs with their spinnakers.

Close racing throughout the fleet followed on through the next eight legs of the course with one of the NS14s seen to have their work cut out with main, jib and spinnaker proving a handful in the gusty conditions.

Some of the fleet heading out from the Harbour.

The NSW Maritime launch was there keeping an eye on proceedings at the ocean end of the course while the fleet spread out over the race course.

The beach can get a little busy…

Over the length of the race, the lead changed several times, but first over the line at the end was Peter in a Laser, followed by Kate in a smaller Laser rig, then Wayne (visiting from Harwood), Craig and Mauri. Further results of the race can be seen here.

Moosis getting his heel on.

Due to the extended length of the first race, a quick start for those who finished early was implemented for the second promised race, with a shortened one lapper on offer. The best start appeared to be had by Andy in a Laser who sailed straight from the finish of the first with perfect timing to blitz the field from the pin end and take the lead, closely followed by Kate and Wayne in Lasers. The changing nature of the river asserted its dominance on the way upwind with most boats hitting the sandy bottom with their centreboards as the tide fell and sailors tried to get out of the tide in the shallows on the western side of the Tweed.
The end of the second race ended in a little confusion about the number of laps required, but Kate in an under-canvased Laser showed the boys how to sail and took the finisher’s gun, followed by Andy and Wayne.

Amber in her first race single handing a Laser and Simon and Lucy on NS14, Blutak.

A special shout-out to Amber sailing her first race flying solo in a Laser, and Wayne making the trip from Harwood to see how we sail in the “little” river. We should all be out there again in two weeks on the 30th.

Words by Peter Fell.

Racing is on this Sunday Afternoon and Juniors in the Morning.

Day Three of our Winter Season is this coming Sunday and Juniors is on in the morning.

Race Briefing at Midday

Skippers, please register your boat entry here.

Those going to Juniors in the morning, please register here.  (Juniors are very welcome to race in the afternoon too.)

If you’d like to crew and do not have a spot, then please put your name onto our available crew list.  If you come down on the day, you might be able to get a last minute ride too.

Skippers, you can look at the list of available crew here to make arrangements.

We have two Pacers available to be booked for the day.  You must be a member to book and the cost is $15 per booking.  Please book here.  (Please note that approval must be given by our Commodore too.)

Our membership fees are now half price for the rest of this season.

See you Sunday!

No Juniors This Morning

With no current breeze, nothing forecast and it being Mothers Day, John has cancelled this morning’s Juniors session. He’ll still be there doing some boat work, if anyone’s interested in helping out.

See you next Sunday!

From Rain to Blue Skies

Sunday morning began with solid rain and breeze, causing some newer sailors to question if sailing would still be on.  They will learn.  However, by the time our Juniors had their morning session, the rain had cleared, leaving a complete glass off on the river – no wind!

Juniors trying to find some breeze.

As such, the first race in the afternoon was scheduled for one lap, in case the breeze never filled in.  By race start though, a steady 10- 12 knot ESE breeze was flowing over the river, giving us the opportunity for two races.

Peter on his Laser, before the start.

Sixteen boats competed, with five Corsairs and seven Lasers. (Results are here)  The fleet included several new sailing crew and new skippers.  Two of which have written about their experiences below:

First time skipper, Jason with Justin as crew on Epic. (Epic was previously owned by another club member.)

First up is Adam who raced his NS14 with his son, Zach.  Adam has some sailing experience but has never raced before.  They scored first in the second race on Handicap!

NS14 1682, Adam & Zack Andrewartha

Sunday morning started out with quite strong winds, but by mid-morning the breeze seemed to have dropped right out. By the time we got down to the river and rigged up, the breeze had kicked in again, it stayed pretty consistent for the duration of racing which was great. At the briefing it was explained that the first race was one lap of the course and it would be decided if the second race would be one or two laps depending on how fast the fleet could get around.

Adam and Zack on their NS14

The first race kept the fleet fairly close together. Seemed a little too close together heading toward the first wing mark, as our NS felt a little helmed in by a group of Corsairs, (mainly due to us being new to racing and not used to sailing in such close quarters) but all rounded the buoy in an organised fashion. We then looked for some less congested water so we could just concentrate on our sailing and getting the most out of our boat. (I was given some great advice by the driver of the safety boat two weeks prior, thank you). We cut a course through the moored yachts, and managed to keep the next buoy in our sights the whole time. I think this worked well as we made some ground on a couple of boats on this leg, another small run out to a second wing mark and a dash for the finish line. A quick fun race, that allowed for two laps on the second race. Great course that kept it interesting with plenty of marks to round and a few jibes to keep us honest.

The second race seemed to split the fleet into two distinct groups, due to the longer format. The breeze maintained a fairly constant strength although slightly more tidal run in the main channel had us trying to avoid that area. I was really pleased with how Zack and I worked together as a team. (This being our first race together, he is certainly building his confidence and showing how comfortable he is in the NS. Even when the boat heeled right over with little warning it doesn’t seem to faze him, he just kept doing his thing managing the jib.) We had a reasonable run on this race keeping up with the front pack and finishing in a respectable position, this is great from our perspective as we can learn by watching the faster boats/skippers in front of us. We learnt a lot and now have new things we can work on for next time to try and improve our placing. 

Our second contribution is from Monique, who crewed in her first ever race with John and Rudi on Capers.

Our First Sailing Race!

Rudi and I arrived in anticipation on Sunday morning and, after saying hello to a few friendly faces, we attempted to rig up Capers – our Corsair for the day. This took a fair bit of concentration and input from the rest of the club, but eventually we were ready to set sail in our first ever race.

John with Monique and Rudi

Wow, it was fantastic to see everyone’s competitive spirit come out as the boats paced back and fourth counting down to the starting hooter. Thank goodness John was skippering, because I couldn’t remember a word of the course that Craig had mapped out for us in the Briefing. Alas, we were off around the Green channel marker then down to the red buoy. The excitement had really start to set in! 

Watching Kate and Mon hanging out of their Lasers parallel to the water was so inspiring – I’ll definitely be joining the next “She Sails” Course. John was brilliant – using his knowledge of the river tides and current to maximise our speed, which ultimately lead us to be the first Corsair to cross the finish line in the first race. 

It was amazing to see so many boats participating. Chirps of encouragement from the other boats, great displays of sportsmanship in giving buoy room and navigating around near collisions. All in all, an awesome introduction to Dinghy Sailing!

Here we see Craig waiting in between the races…not realising that he’ll spend the day without a bung…

So many thanks to Suzanne, Doug, Paul and Kate for handling the time keeping, safety boat and results.

Juniors is on again this coming Sunday morning. (It is also Mothers Day!) See you all in two weeks for the next race day.

Racing is on This Sunday

Day Two of our Winter Season is this coming Sunday.

Briefing at Midday

Skippers, please register here.

If you’d like to crew and do not have a spot, then please put your name onto our available crew list.  If you come down on the day, you might be able to get a last minute ride too.

Skippers, you can look at the list of available crew here to make arrangements.

We have two Pacers available to be booked for the day.  You must be a member to book and the cost is $15 per booking.  Please book here.  (Please note that approval must be given by our Commodore too.)

Our membership fees are now half price for the rest of this season.

See you Sunday!

Juniors this coming Sunday.

John would like to run a Juniors morning session most Sunday mornings through until June, to continue what Bill was running.

While this Sunday is ANZAC day, we thought we’d start small and see if a few juniors would be interested in sailing.  We’re limiting this first day to six attendees.

If you’re interested in helping out for some of these days, then please contact John on 0431 025 497.

Start Time: 9am
Finish Time: Before Midday.

Juniors are expected to setup and pack away all items, including boats.

Registration for the day is here.

If your child is not a member, then they must also buy a sail pass for the day here (or they can buy their membership – half price for the rest of the winter season.)

(There’s no racing Sunday afternoon.)

It’s Good to be Back

Well, another great day on the water at the TVSC.  It was good to see the water getting back to some sort of clarity after the recent rains.  Hopefully we will see the bottom in a few weeks.

First up a big and continued thanks to Brian, Reg, Bill and all the others who do an amazing job of keeping the rescue boats and other club facilities up to scratch, so that others can get out and sail.  It is great to know that a rescue boat is available and will work when we break a mast or need other support.

The weather and day was perfect for most sailors with a 10 to 15kt breeze, typical warm weather and some 15 boats on the water including Juniors.  Some good tussles were seen between the Lasers and also the Corsairs.  Well done all in the shifty conditions. The handicap results are here.

Lessons were learned on raising and lowering spinnakers on at least one of the Corsairs.  A lesson to all for being prepared and then rounding marks cleanly.

A fairly uneventful day for most with some good competition at the start line.  It was then a two field race with many working hard against the current to the top mark, and others leaving the rest of the sailors in their wake.  Unfortunately, a broken mast on one of the “new” club pacers saw Rachel practice the new skill of making a boat tidy ready for towing.

A well done shoutout to the juniors who all seemed to have a great time and handled themselves spectacularly well both on and off the water. What wonderful additions to the membership of the club.

See you in two weeks!

Doug Haig

Winter Day One

Day One of our Winter Season is this coming Sunday.

Briefing at Midday

Skippers, please register here.

If you’d like to crew and do not have a spot, then please put your name onto our available crew list.  If you come down on the day, you might be able to get a last minute ride too.

Skippers, you can look at the list of available crew here to make arrangements.

We have two Pacers available to be booked for the day.  You must be a member to book and the cost is $15 per booking.  Please book here.  (Please note that approval must be given by our Commodore too.)

Our membership fees are now half price for the rest of this season.

One of our club NS14’s is available for the winter season.  Please call Bill on 0411 123 405 if you’d like to use it.

See you Sunday!

All times are NSW time, which are now the same as Qld time…again.

Winter Season Begins

Hi Everyone,

Our Winter Season begins on the 18th of April.

Based on the survey results, we’re going to race every second Sunday, until September.  (There are a few events that will interrupt this schedule.)  The website has a provisional list of race days.  At the moment, that will give us nine days of racing for the season.

Some of those days will be special events, yet to be determined, otherwise we’ll be racing two short races most days.  (With no class champ specific days.)

Our membership fees are now half price, too.  We’ll be offering our Pacer dinghy’s for single race day hire, to members only, during winter.  (You must be a member to book.  A booking link will be available soon.)

A notice of race for the first race day will be sent out next week.

(Possible dates for the Tumbulgum Passage annual river race are yet to be determined too.)

See you soon!