We’re booked in for Sunday the 21st of July 2019 for our big night of the year…the TVSC Summer Series Presentation Dinner and Dance at the Kingscliff Bowls Club from 4:30pm.
Full invitation’s will be available soon.
Our Juniors Had a Great Day on Sunday
Our juniors morning last Sunday was fantastic. Thanks so much to all the parents who helped out too.
Juniors and our Second Race of the season are on for this coming Sunday. (Register for Juniors Here.) See you there!
Welcome Back!
Greetings all – please take a minute to read this…
Our “month off” is nearly over, not that we haven’t been busy in April, with three excellent weekday sessions for juniors and teens.Lots of new recruits – so a BIG WELCOME to all the new families, we are looking forward to seeing you at our regular events starting next Sunday.
The Winter Calendar (draft) is now available.
We have a new short term boat hire agreement and hire fees in place, for those wanting to use club boats
Our next Committee Meeting will probably be on the 11th of May
- START OF SEASON WORKING BEE – Proposed Date Mornings: Sat 11 May or Sat 18 May or Sun 19 May – please advise availability. Hoping to do some more planting around container as well as a big tidy up.
- ANNUAL PRESENTATION DINNER – all welcome – family friendly, not a late finish. Venue and date should be finalised next week – aiming for 15 or 16 June – alternative date Sunday 15 July.
- Try Sailing dates will be announced as they are scheduled, by email. (we need skippers & someone to organise these)
- Duty Officers – please book yourself in for a race date or 2.
- Sorry no Juniors/Teens session next Sunday morning (5 May) but all welcome to find crew spots or skipper Sabots or X3s in the afternoon race.
and …..Get involved – the more people who get involved, the less we all have to do and the better our club will be.
It is too much for the current small team so take on a small responsibility… and then train someone else to do it.Here are some of the things you could do
- Race Duty Officer Roster manager (making sure we have a duty officer for each race)
- Catering Team – need a roster manager for Race BBQs
- Forms “Office Manager” (making sure we have copies of indemnity forms, parent consent forms, etc etc)
- Two more EMAIL Secretaries – to respond to enquires etc
- Juniors Team Roster and dates organiser.
- Juniors Bookings – via gmail reponses onto a Google Spreadsheet
- Annual Dinner organising Team
- Race results entry to Halsail
- Tumbulgum Passage Race Team (Race Sat 31 Aug)
- Skippers to do Try Sailing sessions – + a Try Sailing Organiser.
- Committee Secretary … not a big job, but the club doesn’t run without one.
- Merchandise – Back up Membership Officer- ready to take over in October?
- Back up Treasurer – ready to take over in October?
- Boat maintenance (repairs to trailers/Corsairs etc)
- and many more fun ways to be involved …… what about a trip to a trivia night
Big thanks to Liz Grace who has been reorgansing all the life jackets each week … bottom rack Juniors, Top rack adults .. order: small – Large. Anyone want to look after the Wet Shoes ? …need to be taken home every so often for a good wash.
Enjoy your week and see you next Sunday.
Northern Rivers NS14 Training Clinic
New and experienced NS14 sailors from the Tweed Valley Sailing Club are welcome to attend a training clinic on the weekend of 6-7 April at the Big River Sailing Club.
For details and booking information go to https://www.trybooking.com/BBPMB
At least 3 boats from Tvsc will be going … Adam Hurt in his new Flight 24, Matt Andrews in Impulsive Max and Robert Preston in his new Aero 9 Pura Vida.
TVSC Member Robert Preston is organising the event with support of the NSW NS14 association.
Contact Robert for more information at Robert.Preston@bigpond.com.
Becalmed Conditions at Big River
It was a very quiet day on the Tweed River last Sunday, with no Sailing boats to be seen, as the Tweed Sailing club members travelled south to Harwood on the Clarence river to compete in the Annual “Big River sailing Club” Regatta Race.
Harwood is a great place to sail; the Clarence is nearly a mile wide and is generally very windy. Sailors look forward to this race all year. 75 boats competed from sailing clubs from NSW and Qld.
This year a reduced fleet of 7 boats and 14 crew from the Tweed competed in a light breeze which occasionally died out completely’ leaving the fleet becalmed. It took a lot of patience; the first Tweed boat took 3 hours and 30 minutes to complete the long course.
The best overall corrected time performance from the Tweed came from Kate Yeomans in her Laser “Bluey”, getting 21st out of 40 boats in the un-ballasted mono hull division.
First to finish from the Tweed was single hander, Impulse “Itcycoo” (Tim Brown), beating second place Impulse “Rosie” (Adam Hurt) by 2 minutes and Laser “Bluey” (Kate Yeomans) getting home 3rd, 9 minutes back.
The main race as usual was amongst the big Three handed Corsairs. In a very surprising result, Corsair “Minnow (Andrew Jaggers, Tara Beth & Bronwyn Yeldham) got home in front of regular adversary “Swell Lady” (Monique Smith, Deb Flannery & Gary McCrohan) by only 3 seconds in an incredibly close finish, while 3rd was “Keen As” (Mark Reynolds & Craig Foley) sailing short-handed due to a lack of crew.
One multihull from Tweed joined the Catamaran race, Dave Chester in Sledder who had a slow and frustrating day and headed back to the camp ground before getting to the top mark.
Next week the club is back on the Tweed, and will hold the final race of the Summer Season. With the expected return of Club Commodore Bill Fenelon in Corsair Minnow, and International champion sailor Matt Andrews in Swell Lady, it promises to be a closely contested event.
Sailing is a great spectator sport. Come down and enjoy a pleasant afternoon by the river on the Fingal Reach and enjoy the race.
The Tweed sailing Club always welcomes new sailors and experience is not necessary to join the crew on a Corsair. Crew for the rescue boat, or skippers with NSW Boating licenses are also welcome.
Bill Fenelon TVSC Commodore
Tomorrows Race Postponed to Next Sunday
Due to the forecast for tomorrow remaining at over 30 knots, the decision has been taken by the Race committee to cancel tomorrow’s race.
Weather permitting we will be racing next Sunday 3 March instead.
The race will be for the single handers class championships and All Boats Pointscore but as it will be low tide during the race next Sunday it is probably unsuitable for the NS14 class champ – open to discussion between the NS14 skippers.
Mark Storrier will be duty officer – please advise if you can assist: safety boat driver/crew; sign on; timekeeping etc
Big River Sailing Club Housewarming Regatta
It’s on, it’s happening – the Big River Sailing Club Housewarming Regatta (Annual Regatta 2019) will be held on 16/17th March in their brand new clubhouse.
Camping is free, bring the family!
Sailing – they can’t get enough!
The last school holidays sail at Fingal on Wednesday was the biggest yet with over 25 young sailors and the biggest number of teenagers so far. 12 boats took to the water – from classic Sabots with 2 small crew up to 16ft Corsairs carrying an adult and up to 6 kids at a time!
Everyone gets to learn how to steer and work the sails – lots of new vocab and never a moments rest as the crew have to jump around to balance the boat when the wind picks up. All agree the most fun is leaning right out as the boat fly’s along sending spray over everyone. All this with only the wind to power us!
The other popular boat is the Australian made Extreme X3 – a durable plastic hull and various different sail combinations to suit the crew and the conditions. These are also used for Adult learn to sail – and even the experienced members enjoy taking them out when the wind gets up. The team took a break for a sausage sizzle and refreshments and continued on after lunch so the more experienced sailors could make the most of a great breeze.
We also had a few adult beginners come down for a lesson. One of our Juniors Team, Igor Prado, originally from Brazil, was a complete beginner a few months ago and after only one full day lesson from our chief instructor John Hayward he is now taking out any boat he can get his hands on. The club Laser being a favourite.
The Laser is a single handed Olympic class dinghy with 1 sail – difficult to sail well especially downwind but still a great boat to learn on. You soon know when you did something wrong … as you find yourself swimming instead of sailing, no bad thing on a hot summers day!
John Hayward will be available to give 1 on 1 private lessons from the end of March – contact him directly 0431 025 497 if interested.
Beginners always welcome to come and crew on race days too – email tvscmail@gmail.com for more information. Our next Race at Fingal is on Sunday 3rd Feb – midday briefing – lots of fun to watch too. Do you have a Power Boat Licence? we need Safety boat drivers for February – contact Bill 0411 123 405 if you would like to try out.
Kamilaroi Visitors to Fingal – Hooked on Sailing!
Last Friday 18 Jan was a big day for TVSC. The morning saw a record number come down to Fingal for a special school holiday Try Sailing session. Teenagers Avryl and Brianna, who learned to sail in Canada, jumped aboard with longtime Teen Squad member Isaac Poulsen on a 125 – enjoying the great breeze and determined to get out on the trapeze wire. Their parents Kerrie and John took one of the club Corsairs out. We’re hoping they come back to race in the Corsair Class Champ on 3 Feb as they looked like they could put up some very good competition. The club Laser also got a work out with Dad Jo Adlard jumping on after deciding a Sabot was really too small – it started to fill with water as he left the beach (bungs missing!). Jo’s confidence quickly returned – sailing really is like riding a bike, you never forget the thrill of a gust of wind propelling you across the water as if there was a silent engine on the back.
Back Right Bill Fenelon & Darrel Smith (MBYS) with Beck Couch and Moree Visitors & TVSC sailors.
In the afternoon we welcomed a group of 12 boys from Moree who joined some of the TVSC juniors for an afternoon learning to sail. Five TVSC members brought their Corsairs along and after a short intro to the ropes and cleats and how everything works from Commodore Bill Fenelon they jumped aboard their boats and headed out. In no time they were stearing and working the sails themselves. Every sailing trip needs a destination so they headed to Ukerebagh Island to stop for a cool off swim before heading back to Fingal. Another big day in the their packed itinery. And it was definitely one of the sailing club’s most fun and memorable days, all the volunteers agreed.
Commodore Bill Fenelon greeting Ronald Swan and the rest of the boys from Moree.
Big thanks to TVSC members Craig Foley, Alison Blatcher, Matt Andrews and Karen Vidler and Safety Boats Bryan Townsend and Reg Court. Special thanks to the organisers for the Moree visitors – in particular Beck Couch (Tweed Police Aboriginal Liaison Officer), Darrel Smith (Miyay Birray Youth Service in Moree),Tweed Police and PCYC, Fingal Rovers SLSC. To come sailing on the Tweed get in touch.
New Sailors Love the Tweed
Did you see the 20 sails out on the river at Fingal last Sunday? That was your local sailing club putting on a great show in their first regatta of 2019. They also ran a Try Sailing event for adults keen to learn or get back on the water, some after a 20 year break!
Byron Bay family Suzanna, Michael & Lucy Murray drove up to Fingal to take Lucy for her first sail. It may have been over 20 years since Suzanna had sailed but as she said “it’s like riding a bike” and they spent the morning exploring the river on one of the club Corsairs.
In the afternoon 36 crew enjoyed the racing with some complete beginners getting their first taste of how much fun sailing can be. There were 3 class championships running too.
Firstly The NS14’s who were missing a few key players, so there only 3 boats competing. Just back from competing in the NS14 Nationals Robert Preston took out beginner crew Igor Prado and was only 18 seconds behind 2nd placed Dave Robinson with son, Hugh. First place went to Adam Hurt and junior crew Thomas Busbridge.
The single handed Impulses, with 4 competitors, had Peter Fell visiting from Brisbane up the front also taking line honours in the monohulls in 74 mins. Tim Brown on Itchy Coo was over 3 minutes ahead of new kid on the Impulse block, Craig Foley on “Woodcraft” and Lex Branch on “Splitter” bringing up the rear.
Most of the Laser fleet were missing today – which gave some first timers a chance. Monique Smith, racing in this class for the first time, on Flying Dragon put up a good fight against hard to beat Kate Yeomans on Bluey. Both finishing middle of the fleet. Dave Condor from Byangum was sailing his laser for only the 2nd time did well in the first 2 laps but slipped a few places in the final lap.
Only 1 multihull raced – Hobie 16 Sledder. Dave Chester is keen to get more multihulls to race against – in the meantime they entertain the rest of the fleet!
The 3 handed Corsairs had a break from their class champ series but still had 6 boats racing. Karen Vidler skippering Club Corsair 107 with Rob Shaddock and Marg Walgers, led the Corsairs for the first leg and had a close race with Scott and Debbie Jones on “Nimbus” with ring in crew & sail maker Matthew Andrews from Ocean Shores who eventually beat Karen to the line by only 35 seconds. Karen will be one to watch for the rest of the series.
Karen’s 11 year old son Kynan Luescher also impressed everyone today – stepping up to take the helm of Corsair “One Too Many” with owners Liz and Michael Grace who are still learning the ropes of their new boat.
Corsair Melita III somehow managed to scrape in at third place. This was despite bringing up the rear of the fleet for the first 2 laps and making so many mistakes, missing course marks and a going back to correct, that they nearly decided to just head to the beach for a swim – the river was so clear and inviting. Skipper Alison Blatcher and new crew Camille Lettieri and Wren Mclean got it together for the last lap and just pipped Peter Ross, Christine Martin and Mark Storrier on “Adrift” at the line, so they swapped the swim for the only close finish of the day.
Our next race is on the 3rd of February, with social sails this Friday the 18th and the following Wednesday the 23rd. All are Welcome!