Category: TVSC

TVSC News and events

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Last Race of the Season

At the Helm with Bill Fenelon.

Several TVSC members were away for Hamilton Island Race week so a smaller than usual fleet of 9 boats competed in the final day of the Winter Series last Sunday.

Three 1 lap races were contested in a blustery Northerly wind reaching 21knots breeze, which was gusty and unpredictable making conditions difficult for the sailors on the river, so the sailors really earned their post-race sausages!

Joining the Tweed River fleet for the first time today were locals Steve and Tai Grimes, sailing an International 420. These guys had an enjoyable first afternoon and easily beat the Corsair fleet.  The top boat today was a visitor to the Tweed. Single Hander, Impulse “Sapphire” sailed by Oxley Sailing Club Commodore Keith Briers. Keith was fastest in two of the three races and only dropped to second, missing first place by only 7 seconds to Laser “Siesta” sailed by Gary McCrohan from Tyalgum. Also sailing a Laser, Maurie Meyer was only a few seconds back who took third place.

Four boats competed in the Three Handed one design Corsair division, fastest today was “Nimbus” (Scott, Debbie, and Sahara Jones), winning all 3 races, and second was “Keenas” (Mark Reynolds, Marg Walgers and Garry Bargh).

Next Saturday 31st, the club hosts its premiere event, the long-distance Tumbulgum Passage race, starting from Clarrie Purnell Park in Condong at 10.30am and finishing at Fingal – when they get there. The sailing boats really brighten up the river and are a great spectacle to enjoy from various places along the River foreshores.  It’s taken between 3 and 6 hours in the past so it can be a long day on the river – cheers from the river bank at Tumbulgum and Chinderah really help the crews so come down and follow the race. This will be the 6th annual running of this event which attracts sailors from Brisbane and all the Northern Rivers with around 30 boats entering.

The Club asks that other river users are aware they may encounter sailing boats at any place along the river this Saturday.  TVSC acknowledges the support of local businesses sponsoring this Saturdays race: Hakka Hire, Red Box Gym, The Water Sports Guru, Cubby Bakehouse Café, Tweed River Seafoods and Body Connection Pilates.

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Winter Sailing

Despite the cold weather the “Try Sailing” session on Sunday 23 June was fully booked. Three Corsairs were kept busy racing up and down the river with keen new crews getting an exciting first sail in 18 knot gusty winds. All are keen to come back for more action to crew in the remaining 3 winter races at Fingal on 14 July, 11 & 25 Aug.

The big Winter event is the Tumbulgum Passage Condong to Fingal Race which finishes off the season on Saturday 31 August starting at 10.30am at Clarrie Purnell Park in Condong – it’s a fun day for spectators to follow with great viewing from Tumbulgum, Chinderah and Fingal.

Juniors & Teens Sailing will continue in July and then take a break in August. There are big plans for the 2019-20 season for our young sailors with Australian Sailing qualified instructors coming on board and a fleet of six Manly Juniors soon to be arriving at the club ready for race training sessions with an option of attending the MJ National titles in Sydney in January. These boats have been fully funded by the MJ Association – thanks to their generosity and to the determination of our soon to be competition coach, Nicole Bushnell, for making this happen.

We’d also like to welcome out 100th member for the 2018-19 season, Dan Watts and family from Burleigh Waters. With a growing membership, 8 year old Tweed Valley SC has been impressing the sailing community far and wide – famous for our friendly and fun spirit. TVSC is really proving that sailing isn’t an exclusive sport – it’s available for anyone who wants to have a go.

Congratulations to members Alison Blatcher and Robert Preston who have both made it to the shortlist of finalists in Australian Sailing’s annual awards; Alison for volunteer of the year award and Robert for Sport promotion award, the only regional club to be represented at the NSW awards.

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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.  

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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. 

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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.

Camping is always free at Big River

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.

You know it’s light, when thirty seconds before the start…everyone’s facing the wrong way!

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.

75 Boats competed in the weekend Regatta.

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.

Dave, Gary and Monique at Harwood.
Dave, Gary and Monique.

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

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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

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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!

Rigby on the Northbridge Junior and Taj and Sam on an X3

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.

Brianna, Avryl and their new crew Brylea on the 125.

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.