Category: Sailing Reports

Detailed reports of the latest races

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Sailing – Home and Away

Last weekend 5 boats and 9 sailors from the Tweed travelled to Ballina for Richmond River SC’s Annual Regatta and the celebration of the 50th year of their club house. Andy Lamont and Craig Foley tried their luck on a Tasar for the first time – they may not have won any prizes but plenty of fun was had and at least they completed the course. Also attending, all defeated by the tricky conditions, were Gary-Macca-McCrohon on Laser Siesta, Corsair Melita III skippered by Alison Blatcher with Courtney Tiller & Sebastian; Andrew-Chillingman of Chillingham-Jaggers and Bronwyn sailed a Pacer, also for the first time.

TVSC’s Kate Yeomans on Laser Bluey showed her stamina in completing a course that many of the other sailors faltered on and took first place overall – showing her skill at holding the boat flat at top speed even in 20 knot gusts. Thanks to RRSRC members for an excellent day – followed by tall sailing tails on the club balcony watching the sunset with live music from local band Broadfoot.

The next day, back in Fingal Head, was the second heat of the popular Sprint Series – short back to back races honing everyone’s start-line skills. All were relieved that the wind had eased off (no one wanted another 30 knot race) and 13 Boats with 24 crew competed on the tight course.

Congratulations to NS14 Impulsive Matt skipper Matt Andrews and Igor Prado from Ocean Shores who took out first place on scratch in all 4 races. Adam Hurt and Tom Busbridge on NS14 Flight XXIV from Fingal Head almost had them in race 3 – only 3 seconds behind – four 2nd places for them. Gary McCrohon (Tyalgum) was first in the Lasers for 3 of the 4 races with John Hayward (Fingal) taking a hard fought 1st in the 2nd race.

Four boats competed in the Corsair class with Scott, Debbie and Sahara Jones coming first on Corsair Nimbus for 3 of the 4 with Peter Skinner never far behind on Epic with crew Doug Haig and Gail Bernet. Gail has recently taken up sailing at age 70+. She keeps coming back even after the wild rides and capsizes of the last few weeks.

Our very much appreciated support team, safety boat driver Reg Court, Lex Branch and timekeeper Suzanne Blatcher enjoyed the day too. Suzanne has been the club’s regular timekeeper for the last few year – at age 86 she enjoys being involved with the club but can’t be tempted onto the water any more.

Apologies to all for the recent lack of sailing news especially our avid sailing report readers Noel and Christine Fenelon. We look forward to having our usual reporter back from sea and hard at work on the keyboard in a couple of weeks. Want to sail with us or join the support team? Contact tvscmail@gmail.com Next race at Fingal Sunday 10 Nov 10am.

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A Little Bit On for the Second Day of Racing in the Summer Series.

At the briefing, with an average reported wind speed of 21 knots, but gusts reaching 29, we decided that racing was on! Eight boats with 19 crew readied up on the beach, including two junior crews in their Flying Ants, who could just not be dissuaded from having a go.

Eight rigged on the beach, who will make it all the way?

However, before the start, three boats were already out with capsizes and gear breakages.

Sid and Skye, in Sid’s Flying Ant, made it to the top mark of the first leg. A tremendous effort.

Every boat went for a swim, except for the Weta and Mark and the crew on the Corsair, Keenas.

The across the line finishers were Monique and crew on the Corsair Swell Lady, followed by Dave and Isaac on the Hobie 16, followed by Keenas. Three finishes. Total.

Look how dry everyone is!

See you next time!

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Sailing Club’s 6th Tweed River Marathon – Best Ever!

At the helm with Alison Blatcher.

The Race day morning saw a chilly start, the Condong Sugar Mill chimney showed there was a good breeze but this was all to change. The crowd started to roll up at Clarrie Purnell Park before 7am and soon there were eggs and bacon sizzling and the kettle boiling, the catering team kept the sailors well fed and ready for what started to look like being a truly marathon race.  The TVSC Safety boat crew – Reg Court, Garry Bargh and Richard Roberts had an early start at Fingal – launching the RIBS and heading off upstream to Condong. Roland Schwertner and Rick from Richmond River SC arrived early too and the Murwillumbah Rowing club boat was also ready to go. We welcomed visitors from Oxley SC, Brisbane Sailing Squadron, RQYS (Manly) and the largest contingent from TSS (The Southport School) bringing 6 Pacers. All boats 27 boats were on the water, the starters at the ready ….and the breeze died to nothing. So as the start horn sounded a burst of laughter went around the boats as they sat in the water not moving! This soon changed and the fleet moved off with the wind behind them, brightly coloured spinnakers were hauled up and they disappeared around the bend towards Tumbulgum.

Spectators waved along the river bank and the wind started to pick up as the fleet arrived at Tumbulgum and navigated under the bridge and on towards rainforested Stotts Island.

Three classes of boat were well represented this year – the 3 handed Corsairs (8 boats), 2 handed Pacers (6) and singlehanded Impulses (5). There were also 4 Lasers. In the Corsairs Alison Blatcher, skippering 683 Fairlight with crew Karen Vidler and Imogen Potts had an impressive lead for nearly half of the race but a couple of lulls in wind and river currents spinning them in a full circle at one point saw them start to lose the lead. Corsair 490 Keenas (Mark Reynolds, Marg Walgers & Craig Foley)  crept up and flew past through the Stotts Island narrows never to be caught again. In the very last stretch of the race at Chinderah Corsair 396 Nimbus (Scott Jones and daughter Caitlyn) also over took Fairlight and they fought to the finish line ending just 6 seconds in front of the early leader.

The Pacers sailing without spinnakers were the slowest boats in the fleet but were still only a minute behind the last Corsair at the finish line. After 3 and a half hours of sailing, 3 of the 6 Pacers still managed to finish only 1 second apart. Xavier Doer and Keely Whitaker from TSS took out 1st with TVSC members Igor Prado and junior Kynan Luecher, sailing a Pacer for the first time, coming in 2nd followed by TSS crew Monet Mooney and Jess Sabin. TVSC juniors Isaac Poulsen with Layla Scholz also sailed a Pacer for the first time. This was Isaac’s first time skippering in the Tumbulgum race – he was up with the 1st placed Pacer for much of the race and so should be very pleased. The flukey breeze that this race is known for caught them out and left the other 3 Pacers 10 minutes behind the others by the finish.

In huge contrast to the becalmed start the sailors faced 15-23 knot gusts as they came to the Chinderah reach with the wind coming from all and any directions. They had to be on their toes not to end up going for a swim which made for an exciting last leg. The smiles as they crossed the line may have had a tinge of relief to them!

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An unusual boat sailed by Mark Harper, a Devoti D zero, led the fleet for most of the way. Laser sailor John Pring on “Fig Jam” put in a heroic effort to keep up with him and hung on to be second across the line just over 3 hours after the start. The Lasers and the Impulses played cat and mouse all the way to the finish line – all of them excellent and very experienced sailors so after John crossed the next 3 were only seconds apart – Peter Fell (Impulse Mr Plow) then Mike Robinson (Impulse Plymouth) and TVSC’s Kate Yeomans (Laser Radial Bluey). TVSC’s Adam Hurt from Fingal took the 3rd place in the Impulses on Rosie, by far the oldest Impulse in the fleet.

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Commendations also go to the Dads celebrating early for Fathers Day. Jan Trueman and daughter Ruby from Chillingham sailing their Tasar for the very first time; Matthew Plummer and son Finley sailed one of TSS’s Pacers and David Robinson with son Hugh sailed their NS14. It was a cold race after the Tasar and the Pacer both went for a swim but they made it to the finish line and Ruby, Finley and Hugh will have many stories to tell their friends at school this week.

Once the finish times were adjusted for the different boat speeds Peter Fell from Oxley SC in Brisbane came out this year’s Tumbulgum Passage Champion and took home a voucher for a Husk Distillery Tour for two. Other great prizes donated by local businesses included Red Box Gym and Gold Coast Yoga monthly passes, vouchers for Cubby Bakehouse, Tyalgum Gelato, Watersports Guru and Tweed River seafoods so everyone went home happy.

We look forward to doing it all again next year – with maybe a few practice sails up to Tumbulgum for lunch and back to Fingal before the next marathon race comes round. If you would like to be part of this great event next year – come and join us for the start of our summer season. Get involved in sailing or as part of our enthusiastic support team – we’d love to have you on board.

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Sailing at Fingal Head last Sunday

Last Sunday the Tweed Valley Sailing Club hosted the 2nd race of its 2019 Winter Series. It was a lovely sunny autumn day with a gentle North westerly breeze and a flooding tide all afternoon.

Today’s event consisted of 3 short races (Sprint races). 17 boats with 38 crew competed in 3 major divisions, including 5 single handed Lasers, 5 two handed NS14’s and 6 three handed Corsairs.

The easy and pleasant sailing conditions contributed to the racing being extremely close.

Fastest boat on the course was Dave Chester in a Hobie 16 winning race 1 & 2 with Race 3 going to NS14 “Flight 12” (Adam Hurt & Tom Busbridge)

Fastest Mono Hull in Race 1 was NS14 “Pura Vida” (Robert Preston & Hannah Witten) while 30 seconds back was “Impulsive Max” (Matt Andrews & Igor Prado)

Fastest mono-hull race 2 was NS14 “Impulsive Max” and 20 seconds back 2nd place was NS14 “Flight 12” (Adam Hurt & Tom Busbridge)

Fastest in race 3 NS14 “Flight 12” and 18 seconds back “Impulsive Max” getting 2nd place.

Fastest single-handed Laser was Gary McCrohan winning races 1 & 2 with “Bluey (Kate Yeomans) getting Race 3.

Corsairs were again the biggest class. Winning all 3 races “Minnow” (Bill Fenelon, Deb Flannery & Ami Spicer) The sailing clubs next event will be held next Sunday the 2nd of June.

Bill Fenelon – TVSC Commodore.

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Final Race of the Summer Season

Last Sunday the sailing club conducted its last race for the summer season. 14 boats competed, and fortunately, the breeze picked up and it turned into a pleasant afternoon on the river.

Fastest boat was visitor Jason Purcell, from Big River Sailing Club, sailing a high-tech Carbon Fibre single handed RS Aero, one minute back 2nd finisher, NS14 “Zazen 2” (Adam Hurt and Tom Busbridge). The ultra-light weight RS Aero was always going to be hard to beat in the light wind conditions. Third finisher, one minute back, was Laser “Siesta” (Gary McCrohan) who got in only 5 seconds ahead of Laser “Bluey” (Kate Yeomans).

Five Single Handers competed in their Yardstick based championship series. 1st Finisher was Siesta, Second Bluey, 3rd Impulse “Woodcraft” (Matt Andrews) and 4th “Flying Dragon” (Monique Smith).

The big event today was the final heat of the 4-race, NS14 Class Championship series. This is a scratch series for 14ft two handed boats. Getting the bullet today in a sparse field of only 3 boats was Fingal Team Adam Hurt and Tom Busbridge in their new boat, “Zazen 2” getting home 6 minutes ahead of 2nd placed Impulsive Max (Robert Preston & Rachael O’Hara). The NS14 fleet was decimated 2 months ago after two top boats were severely damaged by Waves created by Wake Surfing boats and these two boats have been unable to return to compete this season. One of these was last years Champion NS14 Tornado.

As usual the 3 handed 16ft spinnaker Corsair Class raced for the summer point score in strong numbers. Four boats competed with first home being “Keenas” (Mark Reynolds & all female ring in crew, Marg Walgers & Deb Flannery) while one minute behind was “Minnow” sailing four handed (Bill Fenelon, Laura Leimola, Kynan Luescher & Taj Krasna).

Meanwhile Tweed Sailors are preparing for State Championships at other clubs. Dave Chester and Deb Flannery competed with 13 Hobie 16’s, raced on Waterloo Bay from Manly boat harbour in a trial race for the state championships. After a 2-race series, Dave and Deb scored a respectable 4th place. Meanwhile Robert Preston with crew Miles will be competing in the next Heron class Australian Championship.

The sailing club would like to extend they’re thanks to the NSW Maritime Authorities “Boating Safety Officer” who patrolled the Fingal Reach on Sunday. Using a Jet Ski, the Officer was un-noticed and kept the river safe for sailing and passive river users.

Next Sunday at Fingal there will be social sailing and Juniors sailing, but no racing now till the Winter series starts in May.

Anybody wishing to get involved in Sailing on the Tweed should contact Club Commodore, Bill Fenelon on 0411 123 4052.

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Dave and Deb’s Excellent Adventure!

With the QLD Hobie State Championships just around the corner TVSC’s favourite multihull team headed up to the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in Manly, Brisbane for some excellent racing against the hot local Hobie 16 fleet. Team Sledder’s usual crew’s weren’t available so in stepped Super Crew Deb Flannery for her second time on the Mighty Sledder! This was serious racing so Deb had to leave her dinghy hiking habit behind and step out (literally) to the next level, trapezing!

We were greeted with a beautiful sunny day in Brisbane but the winds were looking very light from the North East as the mast’s went up and the colourfull sails were raised. But not to worry, the local’s promised the afternoon sea breeze would be blowing by the time of the first start at 1:30pm.

The 13 Hobie 16’s slowly tacked their way out of the Manly boat harbour (10 tacks on Sledder!) out onto Moreton Bay where we were greeted with a glorious 12-14 knot North Easter. The locals were right! Deb apprehensively hooked onto the trapeze wire and out she went. There was nothing to worry about as Super Crew nailed it!
We were absolutely thrilled to hear the General Recall signal after the first start as ours was horrendous, bogged down in traffic going nowhere!

We had a much better restart, getting right into the mix. Not far into the first windward beat I made a stupid error and dropped the mainsheet which gave Deb and I a dunking as the windward hull dropped into the water. We quickly recovered and tacked with only a few boats still behind us. Not easy to play comeback in a feet with World Champion sailors in it! Luckily our early tack paid off big time as the wind seemed better out on the right side of the course. We pushed hard and fought our was back through the fleet to finish in a very respectable 7th, only a couple of minutes behind first place. I was particulary pleased with Deb’s jib trimming skills down wind and how quickly she picked up trapezing, nearly getting out on the wire as quick as me a number of times!

Race 2 was another screamer with an awesome battle at the start between the hardcore Hobie sailors. We battled our way around the course and only had one minor whoopsy when we tried to cross Hobie legend Rob Branch on port but had to bail into a crash tack at the last minute when we decided we couldn’t cross and we were too close to bear away without ending up pitchpoling! We recovered quickly and set off after Branchy and made good gains on the next downwind leg before fighting back past him on the next windward leg.

This was amazing as throughout this whole windward leg Deb’s trapeze harness was slowly coming apart to the point that with a few hundred metres to go to the windward mark Deb was literally holding herself out on trapeze by her strength alone! If she let go she was in the drink, but Super Crew Deb held on, put the team first and made it to the windward mark! Our tack wasn’t the best and Branchy managed to pass us, but with one downwind leg to the finish team Sledder wasn’t giving up!
We chased hard and made big gains but in the end Branchy’s decades of experience paid off and held us off by 1 second. 1 second! We were still stoked to finish the race in 4th in a very tough fleet.

After both races Team Sledder was 4th overall out of the 13 Hobies. I can’t thank Deb enough for coming up to Brisbane and giving it everything she had, including putting her body on the line! Bring on the State Championships!

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Fantastic Conditions for 17 Boats on Sunday’s Race

What a fantastic day of racing yesterday! The wind started light at 10 knots, but by the finish, gusts were reaching 20 knots with wind against tide for exciting and wet conditions.

Connor at the helm.

The juniors were out in the morning too.

The juniors setting off in the morning.
Briefing time…
Dave and Isaac
John and Saffron
Lex ahead of Scott and Debbie.

See you all next weekend at Harwood for their weekend Regatta.

Beginners and experienced alike are always welcome.

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Chindy Challenge Proves a Challenge

14 boats competed last Sunday the Tweed Valley sailing clubs twice yearly Chinderah Challenge, racing from Fingal Head to Chinderah and return. A strong and gusty Sou-Easterly breeze tested the crews and several boats were capsized.

First finisher today was Adam Hurt and Tom Busbridge sailing Adams new NS14. Things didn’t all go Adams way, as Corsair “Swell Lady” (Monique Smith, Matt Andrews and Deb Flannery) pushed them hard all the way and finished close behind in 2nd place. Third was Laser “Bluey” sailed by Kate yeoman and 4th was Corsair “Minnow” (Bill Fenelon, Igor Prada and Laura Leimua).

It was a very pleasant afternoon on the river, sailing upstream as far as Oxley Cove into the magnificent view of Wollumbin in the distance. Todays race was completed in record time of 1hours and 50 mins, thanks to the tide assisting boats in both directions.

Next week the club takes a break from sailing and the next Race at Fingal will be on the 24th of February.

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Sailing On Sunday

18 boats competed in Race 5 of the Tweed Valley Sailing Club summer point score series.

It was a long hot afternoon on the river, racing in a strong ebbing tide with a light and fluky easterly breeze.

Starting first today was a Division 1 fleet which included 4 boats. Getting home first in this division was Rainer Glasker in an “Access 303” and second place went to Leyla Scholtz in Flying Ant “Flippant” and third was Tom Busbridge & Darcy Busbridge in a Club X3.

In Division 2, first finisher this week was perennial winner, Dave Chester with crew Isaac Poulsen on a Hobie 16, sailing the only cat in the fleet.

First mono hull was Maurie Meyer sailing a Laser.

This week’s main race was the 3rd heat of the Corsair Class Championship with 7 boats competing in this 3 handed 16ft. spinnaker boat.  

First place was “Swell Lady” (Monique Smith Matt Andrews & Deb Flannery), second was club boat “Neil Armstrong” (Andrew Jaggers, Tara Gough & Gary McCrohan) and Third “Minnow” (Bill Fenelon, Igor Prada and Laura Leimua) and close behind in 4th was “Nimbis” (Scott Jones, Debbie Jones & Zac Riding) . The top four Corsairs raced closely all afternoon and, in the end, only 2mins 30sec separated all four boats.

It was a great result for Andrew and his team on “Neil Armstrong” getting his best result to date and aided greatly by having the experience of Laser runner up, world champion Gary McCrohan as tactician. Also having a good day on the water, another club boat “Capers” (Nicholas Taylor & Craig Foley) got home first but was heavily sanctioned for sailing shorthanded and scored 5th place.

Also putting in a commendable performance was Corsair “Capers” (Nicholas Taylor & Craig Foley) getting its best result ever, actually finishing in front of the Corsair fleet but dropping back to 5th place due to sailing without a third crew.

The 4-race series for Corsairs is now virtually wrapped up with one race to go, “Swell Lady” now being in an unbeatable position with 3 first places. Next Sunday the club will hold its Chinderah Race, starting at 1pm from Fingal to Chinderah and back. This is a great race to watch from the shore as boats will sail very close to the roadway along the Chinderah reach.

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Sailing on the Tweed, Heat 3 of Sprint Series

A reduced fleet set sail at Fingal on Sunday, due to many boats and crews being away competing at Lake Cootharaba, north of Noosa.

16 ft 3 handed Corsairs, were represented with 2 boats, and 3 single handers. Our club performed very well with Corsair “Swell Lady” (Monique Smith, Matt Andrews and Deb Flannery) winning ahead of another Tweed Corsair “Odin” (Daniel Sieders Adrian Dokter Matt) getting second. Racing was very intense between these 2 boats, with Swell Lady winning 5 of the 6 races. The Tweed crew of “Swell Lady” are now hot prospects of winning the Australian Corsair Championships!

Back on theTweed, 10 boats and 21 crew contested the 3rd and final races of the Summer sprint series, consisting of 3 short course races.

Conditions were testing on the river with a hot gusty northerly blowing, which challenged thecrews.

Todays fleet consisted of 4 16ft Corsairs, and a 16ft Harpoon in the 3 handed heavyweight division, 2 NS14’s in the two-handed division and 2 single handed Olympicclass Lasers.

At the front it was a 3-boat race, between 2 Lasers, and 1 Aussie designed NS14.(Northbridge Senior)

Top boat today was Laser “Siesta” Gary McCrohan getting 2 firsts and a second. Pushing Gary very hard all day was second placed Laser “Vickie 2“(Maurie Meyer) scoring 1st, 2nd & 2nd. While third went to NS14 “On& Off “(Dave Robinson and son Hugh) 3rd, 2nd & 3rd.

Maurie might have managed 2 wins today but for a spectacular capsize in the second race, while Dave and Hugh in the NS14 also had their share of misfortune,hooking up a rounding mark and towing it 100 metres up the river, as well as several capsizes, Hugh said it’s was a tough, bruising day!

Mean while in the Corsairs, a very close battle was being fought, but surprise top boat today was new comers Michael & Liz Grace sailing their new boat, “One too Many” with ring in crew Nicholas Taylor. Obviously, Nicholas is a very good sailor as he led the team to score 1st, DNF (did not finish) &1st, a disastrous capsize ended their second race. Next fastest in the Corsairswas “Melita 3” (Alison Blatcher, Christine Martin and Igor Prado) 2nd,1st & 3rd, and third place went to “Capers” (Andrew Jaggers, David Berg and Tara Beth) 3rd, 2nd & 3rd

It was a tough day for top Corsair “Keenas”, with skipper Mark Reynolds missing his gun sheet hand Craig Foley who was away sailing at Southport. Mark seemed to have his mind on compliance issues and not on sailing, and took an unusual 4thplace.

New boat in the fleet a Harpoon 5.2M sailed very close to the Corsairs and was only beaten in one race by 2 seconds.

Next Race is on the 16th of December and is the last of the year. The sailing club is expecting a big and highly competitive fleet to contest the 2ndHeat of the North Coast Corsair Championship. Racing is expected to be intense.With a flooding spring tide forecast, crews will be hoping for a stiff Southerly.

All are welcome to come down to Fingal and enjoy the race and the ambiance on the riverbank.