TVSC – Page 18 – Tweed Valley Sailing Club

February 23, 2021February 23, 2021

Sailing on Sunday

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.

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 3^rd.

In the Pointscore series, two races were held, and 1^st was International 420 “Lets Disco” (Steve Grimes & Kai De Sousa), 2^nd was Laser “Vickie 2” (Maurie Meyer) and 3^rd, 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 7^th of March at 12:00

Contact Bill Fenelon Commodore 0411 123 405

February 15, 2021February 15, 2021

Sunday’s Race Postponed (Again)

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!

February 9, 2021February 9, 2021

24 Boats for last Sunday’s Race

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.)

Results are here.

Gidget coming through the downwind fleet.

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.

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.

The Next sailing event on the Fingal Reach is Sunday the 14th February Racing starts at 1pm

Visitors, and spectators are always welcome at the Tweed Valley sailing Club

Any enquires phone our commodore, Bill Fenelon on 0411 123 405 and join our mailing list.

February 8, 2021February 8, 2021

Race 3 – All Class Champs this coming Sunday

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.

See you Sunday!

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021

Juniors Sailing at Fingal

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.

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

February 1, 2021February 1, 2021

Racing is on this Sunday – All Class Champs

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.

Again, all of the forms/registrations mentioned are linked from the event page.

See you Sunday!

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021

Big River Annual Regatta

The Big River Sailing Club is holding their Annual Regatta on the weekend of the 6/7th of March. (On the Clarence river, near Yamba, under two hours drive from Fingal.)

We’d like as many Corsairs as possible to enter, as we’d like to hold a Corsair Nationals during that event.

Registrations are now open.

Skippers, would you please let Craig know that you’re coming and what crew you need?

For people looking for a great weekend experience, the weekend involves free camping on site from Friday afternoon with a long race on Saturday and three short races on Sunday. Lunches, Saturday Dinner and Sunday Breakfast are provided (for a fee) by the club. (There’s no caravan power, hot showers are available.)

As per their last event, registrations are limited to seventy boats.

Whether you have experience or not, if you do not have a crew spot, but would like to crew (and have the stamina for the full weekend!) then please call Craig on 0413 052 898. He’ll see if he can line you up with a skipper.

Other classes are welcome too.

See you there!

January 11, 2021January 11, 2021

Rescheduled Day 2 coming up this Sunday

Racing is on this coming Sunday, the 17th of January
Briefing at midday, race start at 1pm (NSW Time).

This is the rescheduled day 2 for NS14 Class Champs and Handicap Racing. If you already registered for this event in the past, then there’s nothing to do. You can confirm your listing on the registration page.

Full details and all registration links are on the event page on our website.

All skippers, please register and pay online before the day
Covid registration is now a check in, done on the day, not before. Our website has a check in option in the top menu. Please check in when you arrive on Sunday.

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.

If crews can help setup and packup on the day, then that would be appreciated.

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. If you are not a member, then you will need to pay for a sail pass for the day. ($4. Which can be deducted from your membership in the future.)

See you Sunday.

January 4, 2021January 4, 2021

Racing is on this Sunday, NS14 Champs and Short Races

Racing is on this coming Sunday, the 10th of January
Briefing at midday, race start at 1pm (NSW Time).

There’s still two postponed races to be held in the coming weeks, but this race was already scheduled.

Three Handicap Races and NS14 Class Championship Day 3? (Day 2 will come later – existing registrations for that will stay.)

Full details and all registration links are on the event page on our website.

Again, all of the forms/registrations mentioned are linked from the event page.

If crews can help setup and packup on the day, then that would be appreciated.

See you Sunday.

January 1, 2021January 1, 2021

Juniors Holiday Program

We’re running a Juniors sailing program over six days in the next two weeks of school holidays.

Wednesday the 6th of January to Friday the 8th
Wednesday the 13th of January to Friday the 15th

Registration is open to anyone between the age of 8 to 18 with any level of experience. You may attend a few days or all days.

For insurance purposes, you must either be a member or buy a sail pass for each day (Which is a temporary membership). Full membership and sail passes can be bought online from our Membership Page.

We want to limit each day to a maximum of twenty juniors.

Each day, the session will run from 11am to 4pm. (NSW time)

The cost per day is $20 or $100 for all six sessions.

Book sessions here. (Because of the requirement for membership or sail passes, you must log in as the person attending first, to be able to book the session. For example a parent cannot use their own login, to book in for a junior – if you see no option to book a session, then it might be because you haven’t arranged the membership. You can find your username by using the ‘lost password’ option – sorry, we know it’s a bit convoluted, but it’s what Australian Sailing provide as the system to use.)

The club provides life jackets – you just need to bring, a hat (tied on), long sleeved top, water, a change of clothes and footwear you don’t mind getting wet (not thongs) – wetsuit boots ideal, but old runners are fine too. If it’s cold, an old 100% wool jumper with a wind proof jacket is the best sailing outfit. No need to buy any special gear.

Food will not be provided by the club, due to covid regulations.

Everyone must check in, every day, using our online covid registration.

Parents are encouraged to stay and help setup and put away boats and equipment. We are all volunteers using a combination of our own boats and club boats, so please keep that in mind.

Our Commodore, Bill Fenelon, will be running these sessions. Please contact him on 0411 123 405 if you have any related questions.

Please contact Craig Foley on 0413052898 if you have any issues with booking or paying online.