Category: Sailing Reports

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Words by Peter Fell.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Tweed sailors travelled to the Clarence River last weekend for the bi-annual sailing regatta at the Big River Sailing Club, Harwood. The BRSC hosted the Bridge to Breakers 2020 Regatta with record numbers in attendance. The 70 strong fleet of mixed classes also enjoyed near perfect sailing conditions with dry warm weather and north east winds. Whilst the incoming tide made for demanding upwind work, the flat water and fresh but manageable wind strength enabled most competitors to complete all four races that made up the series.

Tweed sailors were represented in 3 divisions, Cats, Fast Mono hulls, and standard monohulls. Best in the Cats was Hobie 16 “Sledder” (Dave Chester & Isaac Poulsen), scoring 6^th place out of 20 boats in the long distance “Bridge to Breakers”

Fast mono hulls were dominated by Tweed sailors Adam Hurt & Kate Yeomans, teamed up in NS14 “Flight 24”, they scored 3 firsts and one second to easily win this division.

In the standard monohull division, 6 Corsairs from TVSC competed in a mixed fleet of 30 boats, with the TVSC’s best result, 10^th place going to Corsair “Monopoly” (Andy Lamont, Maddie Lyons & Amber Bdec) second placed Corsair was “Gidget” (Craig Foley John Morgan & Melissa Le Roux) and 3^rd Corsair was “Nimbis (Andy Locke, Brandon Locke, & Dan Broad). Peter Fell placed 3rd in the Lasers on Dreadnought.

It was another very strong turn out from the Tweed Valley sailing club at this regatta. Our sailors love the wide-open waters and stiff breezes of the Clarence river, and have attended every Bridge to Breakers regatta since the Tweed clubs’ beginnings ten years ago. Full results are here.

Next fortnights neap tide will see sailing return to the Lower Tweed as the fleet sets sail at Fingal boat harbour on Sunday the 6^th of December. Visitors and spectators are very welcome. Races start at 1pm (NSW)  

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Volunteers to help with rescue boats are always welcome.

Contact Bill Fenelon TVSC Commodore 0411 123 405

The Tweed Valley Sailing Club conducted Race 8 of the Summer series on Sunday, with a strong wind forecast, 12 boats turned up to race. The weather kept other river users at home, and the sailors enjoyed a fun and windy afternoon sailing.

(Title photo is from the Saturday Start at Ballina.)

Racing was held over 3 laps of the long course which features “one mile” windward legs. It was hard work in the 20 knot Sou-Sou-Easterly breeze but boats were assisted to windward by a flooding tide.

It was a close 3-way battle for fastest today between 3 different classes, with the win going to Adam Hurt, sailing Impulse dinghy “Rosie”, completing the long course in 1 hour 12 minutes, getting home 1 min 30sec ahead of Kate Yeomans in a Laser and third was NS14 “On & Off” sailed by Dave Robinson & Joe D’Ambrosia a further 1 min 30 sec back.

Summer Handicap series top points today went to Kate Yeomans (Laser), 2^nd went to Adam Hurt (Impulse), 3^rd went to Craig Foley (Laser) and 4^th went to Justin Johnson, Emily Johnson and Eden Johnson in a Corsair.

Class Championships were conducted for the Corsair Class (scratch race) and Single Handers competed in their Yardstick championship.

Getting points for 1^st place in the Corsairs, “None the Wiser”  (Justine Johnson, Emily Johnson & Eden Johnson), getting home 5 minutes before 2^nd placed “Keenas”( Mark Reynolds, Vicky Von Bernard & Igor Prado)  & 3^rd placed, a further minute behind,  “Minnow” (Frank Bolfava, Andy Locke & Lachlan McMillan) while 4^th was “One too many” (Michael Grace, James Hay & Eoin Whatley).

It was a disappointing day for Corsair Class favourite “Monopoly”, after a very quick start and an apparent dominance of the fleet the yacht suffered damage in the rigging and was forced to withdraw without completing its 1^st lap.

In the single handers yardstick championship, top points went to Kate Yeomans (Laser) 2^nd was Adam Hurt (Impulse), and 3^rd was Craig Foley (Laser)

On Saturday, four crews from the Tweed travelled to Ballina to compete in the River marathon race hosted by the Richmond River Sailing Club. Tweed boats performed very well; Corsair “Monopoly” (Andrew Lamont, Maddy Lyons & Clare Southwell) winning fastest corrected time in the mono-hulled Dinghy division, and Laser “Bluey” (Kate Yeomans) getting second place with Mark on Keenas in fourth. (Justin finished…eventually)

Next fortnight, TVSC will travel to Harwood to compete in the Big River “Bridge to Breakers” regatta. The next sailing event on the Tweed will be on Sunday the 6^th of December at Fingal Head.

The Club currently needs Rescue Boat drivers. People with boat licenses are encourage to enquire and all training is provided. Contact club Commodore Bill Fenelon 0411 123 405