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!
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.
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 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.
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.
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!
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!
Committee Meeting this Saturday
Our next committee meeting will be this Saturday. 10am at the Sheaoak Cafe, Fingal.
All are welcome to attend.
Racing on 21 and 28th of March Cancelled
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.
Racing this Sunday – All Classes
Hi Everyone,
Racing is on this Sunday.
12pm Briefing
1pm Race Start
Times are NSW Time.
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.
So pay attention to which class is starting.
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.
See you Sunday!