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.)
Racing was cancelled yesterday for Class Champs Day 5 and Handicap/NS14 races due to bad weather and dangerous river conditions. The rescheduled race day for the 28th of March (this coming Sunday) was also cancelled due to the presumed persistent river conditions that will remain for the rest of this week.
Final results for the season will be confirmed soon.
We have moved the NS14 Day 5 date to this date too, which previously was scheduled for the Easter long weekend. There will be no race days over the Easter long weekend, as we imagine that the boat ramp might be a little busy.
Lasers, Corsairs and Juniors will be racing one long race. (Juniors might have a change on the course on the day) NS14‘s will be racing two short races.
Skipper registration, interest in crewing etc are on the event pages. (It’s the one skipper registration link for all skippers, no matter the entry class.) If you haven’t registered, then your result will not be recorded. Everyone must check in on the day for covid registration.
Juniors are welcome and encouraged to race. Please call Bill on 0411 123 405 to discuss.
Please note that the Racing Page on our website now describes our four main race courses. As skippers, please get familiar with these, as we’d like to work on keeping our briefings…briefer.
Another record fleet sailed on the Tweed river last Sunday, contesting race 9 of the summer point score & Race 8 of the NS14 Class Championship.
20 boats sailed on the Fingal reach, while storms threatened, on an overcast afternoon. Although it turned out to be delightful sailing conditions.
Joining the fleet was an intrepid group of 8 junior sailors, experiencing their first start in a full fleet.
The breeze was in the south and very gusty and shifty, normal on the Tweed but challenged the junior sailors who had many capsizes.
Matt and Melissa on Impulsive Matt.
The big race today was the NS14 class championship, contested by 3 boats. Arch rivals “Flight 24” (Adam Hurt & Kate Yeomans) and “Impulsive Matt” (Matt Andrews & Melissa Le Roux) were both keen to get points on the board and got away early on a longer course. Two races were held and either boat scored a 1st and a 2nd while 3rd was “On & Off (Dave Robinson & Kynan Luescher).
The 2 top boats have raced closely all season but todays results place “Flight 24” in front overall. With two races remaining, “Impulsive Matt” will need to win both to win the championship and hope “Flight 24” gets a 3rd.
In the Pointscore series, two races were held, and 1st was International 420 “Lets Disco” (Steve Grimes & Kai De Sousa), 2nd was Laser “Vickie 2” (Maurie Meyer) and 3rd, Corsair “Gidget” (Craig Foley, Deb Beard & Kate Stock)
In race 2, 1st was Laser “Betty” (Moosis Rieder), 2nd was Laser “Glider” (Andy Lamont) and 3rd was Corsair “Its Academic” (Dr Peter Ross, Ben Jarvis & Kelvin Daly)
Winner in the juniors Yoshua Mahony in Sabot “02”
Junior sailors were in the mix, although results were difficult to determine. “Ant Eater” (Ari Manu Gorman & Edward Miles) sailed all over the river. Chasing the NS14’s at one stage. Multiple capsizes didn’t dampen their enthusiasm, and they were last boat off the River. Following the course, Yoshua Mahony in Sabot “02”, demonstrated determination, and finished 1st in the juniors. It was a case of the Turtle and the Hare, as Ant Eater zoomed around all over the river, Sabot “02” got the bullet.
TVSC’s next event at Fingal Head will be Sunday the 7th of March at 12:00
With news that Ballina had already cancelled, due to the high winds, it was with trepidation that our briefing went ahead. The wind was averaging 15 knots, but the gusts were climbing to above 22.
In the next hour before race start, the gusts steadily built, so Peter headed out to check the conditions and after two capsizes, came back in.
Peter testing out the sporting conditions.
The breeze picked up to an average of 30 knots with gusts to 46 recorded at the airport, by 1pm…Race postponed to another day.
Sailors getting a birds eye view of the brave few testing out the sporty conditions.
That didn’t stop a few sailors testing out the new Pacers though!
One of the club Pacer’s gets a go in the breeze.
This coming weekend we have SheSails on Saturday and a Race Day on Sunday. See you there!
Tweed Valley Sailing Club conducted Race 7 of its 10th Summer Pointscore series and Race 4 of the Corsair Class championship. Single handed boats competed in race 4 of their yardstick championship. (Race 3 is on this coming weekend, due to it being postponed last year.)
A beautiful Northern Rivers day greeted sailors as they arrived in record numbers, and the weather remained pleasant all day, with sailors remarking later, “it was a great day on the river”.
Sailing in a consistent 10 knot North Easterly breeze with very little tidal flow, twenty four boats lined up for the starters gun, making this the largest fleet in regular competition since the club was founded 10 years ago.
Lex, Mark and Andy round the bottom mark
Joining the race for the first time this year, a group of junior’s sailors raced in 4 Sabots and a Flying Ant.
The starters gun fired shortly after 1pm and boats got away in a tightly bunched group, but jumping away to an immediate lead, ‘super sailor’ Kate Yeomans establish her dominance and was never to be passed. The majority arrived at the top mark at the same time, challenging skippers to get around cleanly, then immediately spinnakers were set on the Corsairs, and the re-organized course allow boats to carry their kites through the triangle, and all the way to the bottom mark, requiring two spinnaker gybes, and making for a very colourful spectacle along the Fingal reach.
There was very close racing for everybody in the settled conditions and nobody got far behind the front boats.
Justin and Craig round the bottom mark.
First to finish was Kate Yeomans in Laser “Bluey”, 4 minutes ahead of 2nd placed NS14 “On & Off” (Dave Robinson & Kynan Luescher) while 3 minutes back in 3rd, family team, Corsair “None the Wiser” (Justin Johnson, Emily Johnson & Eden Johnson). 4th was Corsair “Monopoly” (Andrew Lamont, Maddie Lyons & Amber Benoit de Coignac) edging out 5th place by only 6 seconds, Corsair “Gidget” (Craig Foley, Melissa Le Roux & Calvin Pickers)
In the Summer Pointscore series, (Handicapped) 1st was Corsair “Keenas” (Mark Reynolds, Dasha Zaitseva & Harriet Raleigh) 2nd was NS14 Zazen (Tom Busbridge & Adam hurt) and 3rd was Corsair “Gidget”.
The big race today was the Corsair Class Championship.
This is a scratch race for “One Design” 3 handed Corsair class skiffs, with a record fleet of 9 boats with 27 crew competing.
None the Wiser and Gidget drop their spinnakers.
Top points today went to ‘None the wiser’, 2nd was Monopoly, 3rd was Gidget.
A mixed fleet of Lasers and Impulse dinghies raced in the Single Handers Yardstick championship. 1st in this division was Laser Bluey, 2nd was Impulse “Splitter” (Lex Branch), and 3rd was Laser, “Lizard Drinking” (Doug Haig)
Junior sailing has restarted and a fleet of 5 juniors hit the starting line. Fastest today was Flying Ant “Ant Eater” sailed by Ari Manu Gorman and Yoshua Mahoney , while fastest Sabot was Feb Miles. It was great seeing the juniors competing on the river and it is hoped junior sailing will become a regular feature of the sailing club.
Racing is on (again) this coming Sunday, the 14th of February Briefing at midday, race start at 1pm (NSW Time).
Class Championship Race 4 for all classes except NS14s
One Long Race.
This is race 3, the postponed race from last year.
For our Sunday Event: All skippers, please register and pay online before the day On the day, everyone must checkin at the container for COVID registration. For skippers looking for crew, the event page has a section for you to leave your contact details. There’s also a new page for people who would like to sail, to leave their contact details for potential skippers to contact them.
Again, all of the forms/registrations mentioned are linked from the event page.
People looking to crew: If you do not have a boat organised but would like to crew, whether you have experience or not, one option is to fill in your contact details here. Skippers will be able to see the information and perhaps get in touch to arrange a spot before the day.
After long break due to Covid restrictions, junior sailing has restarted at Fingal Head, beginning with a 6-day coaching camp over the school holidays, leading to club boats being allocated to sailors.
15 trainees from the region quickly learnt the skills and are now competent to sail and join club racing.
4 juniors will race in the Flying Ant class skiff.
Edward Miles sailing NJ “Seaforth”
The Flying Ant (FA) was designed in NZ but has raced in Australia for over 50 years. It is a 3.2m long 2-handed skiff, with a sloop rig, (mainsail, jib and spinnaker), with the crew on trapeze. Its high-performance hull makes it a great boat for young sailors wanting experience the thrills of performance skiff sailing.
The FA has a strong nation-wide class association that runs state and Australian championships every season.
Coming up from the Byron Shire, 9 Y.O. Ari Manu Gorman has taken FA “Ant Eater”, and sailing with 11 Y.O. Will Stovin from Tweed, they demonstrated mastery over this exciting boat. Next week, Will takes over another FA and the two boats will race with the adult fleet.
Will Stovin & Ari Munu Gorman in Sabot “Baranduda”
Meanwhile, also from the Byron shire, 9 Y.O. Edward Miles has been sailing the clubs classic Aussie “Northbridge Junior” (NJ) and has mastered this boat. It is expected he will now move up into the Flying Ant and will sail with Ari.
Sailing is a great sport for kids with boys and girls able to compete equally. Kids can start from as young as 7 years old, but must first be able to swim and be confident in the water.
Contact Tweed Valley sailing club commodore Bill Fenelon 0411 123 405
Racing is on this coming Sunday, the 7th of February Briefing at midday, race start at 1pm (NSW Time). Class Championship Race 4 for all classes except NS14s
One Long Race.
Race 3 is yet to be held, after being postponed.
Full details and all registration links are on the event page on our website.
For our Sunday Event: All skippers, please register and pay online before the day On the day, everyone must checkin at the container for COVID registration. For skippers looking for crew, the event page has a section for you to leave your contact details. There’s also a new page for people who would like to sail, to leave their contact details for potential skippers to contact them.
Again, all of the forms/registrations mentioned are linked from the event page.
People looking to crew: If you do not have a boat organised but would like to crew, whether you have experience or not, one option is to fill in your contact details here. Skippers will be able to see the information and perhaps get in touch to arrange a spot before the day.
