Racing is on this Sunday followed by AGM online

Our summer season of racing begins this coming Sunday, the 3rd of October. Since the border restrictions mean that our Qld members are unable to race, we’ll hold off on starting the championship series until they can return.

Until that time, some kind of racing or sailing will take place every second Sunday with a briefing at midday. Please register your boat here.

Memberships are due now for the new season. You should be able to sign up or renew online here.

Our Annual General Meeting will be held at 5 pm on Sunday, NSW time online via Zoom. The yearly reports will be delivered and all committee positions will be elected by attending members.

Everyone is very welcome to attend. Nominations for positions are open now and will be accepted at the meeting too. The meeting should take no longer than forty minutes.

The link to join the meeting is https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78954999556?pwd=V2o1ek5YWlBIM280TGttdU1RdHZqQT09 with the password of tvsc

Meeting ID: 789 5499 9556 (If needed)

Please note that daylight savings begins on Sunday morning in NSW and the above times are NSW based.

AGM Notice

AGM Agenda

School Holiday Learn to Sail Course

On Monday eight new youngsters glanced apprehensively at the whitecaps on the river as they were shown how to rig the X3s. They were soon out on the water, without sails, practising steering behind the rescue boats.

Then with the help of our ‘experienced’ Juniors Kynan, Ari and Zac and his dad Adam, they were out reaching back and forth across the river in a 15 knot northerly with no capsizes.

After wrapping up with capsize drill in “the pond” (just in case), they were all smiles and were ready for more the second day.

On Tuesday they were keen to get out there again, but with a southerly gusting up to twenty, they were restricted to the calmer “Pond”. This proved popular with all kids getting the hang of steering, trimming, tacking and gybing in close quarters. Then we noticed the wind had eased, so let them loose on the “big River”, with the guidance of our assistant instructors.

Two kids did find it all a bit too much and hopefully will try again later. However, the rest were steering their boats to windward against the outgoing tide and were ready to go again tomorrow.

I was extremely pleased with their progress after just two half days! Then we came ashore to learn that the Tweed Shire would be in Lockdown for a week!! (Come on people! Do the right thing so that kids can enjoy their School Hols!)

Anyhow, we decided to continue the Course, after the week of Lockdown. Hopefully Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings of next week. In case of a further lockdown, I will make up the lost days on Saturday Mornings.

Hopefully, this group will soon join the rest of our Juniors, racing in our fleet of Juniors classes.

A huge thank you to Bryan, Adam, Gail, Karen, Kynan, Zac and Ari for their invaluable help as always.

Cheers, John

New Season, Registrations and AGM

Hello Everyone,

The new sailing season is upon us, so all memberships need renewing and we need to hold an AGM, including voting on committee positions.  We also need to get sailing!  (Which new juniors are already doing this week.)

We haven’t yet organised a sailing calendar as we’re not too sure when we can sail as a full club, without border crossing issues.  But at this time, our plan is to have a racing day every second Sunday with class championships starting once the border restrictions are removed.  (It looks like the first sailing day will be the 3rd of October.)

To renew your membership for this new season, please use the online system here.
At this time, our AGM will be held on the 3rd of October, probably over Zoom, rather than in person – again.  If you’re interested in taking on a committee position, then please nominate or have someone nominate you.  Everyone is welcome to attend the AGM and participate.
The minutes from last year’s AGM are available here.

We would also like to organise a roster for duty officers and safety boat duty for each day.  A survey will be sent out asking about available dates soon.
We never did hold an end of the sailing year event to celebrate our summer and winter season winners along with our ten year anniversary.  Hopefully, we can organise something soon, once the border is open.

Juniors Holiday School Program

Our volunteers will be holding a two week school holiday learn to sail program for juniors with no sailing experience.  This program will be for Monday to Wednesday of both weeks of the NSW school holidays from 9 am until 12:30 pm.

We appreciate that covid restrictions may mean that this event has to be cancelled or that your child personally may not be able to attend when the time comes.  In that event, we’ll offer a full refund.

This program will only be for juniors who are new to sailing.  Existing sailors are encouraged to continue attending our Sunday morning juniors sessions instead.  (Experienced juniors might like to contact John about helping with coaching on the day.)

The course is suitable for juniors aged between 9 and 17 years and who can swim 25m.

The package is $100 and includes Juniors Membership for the 21/22 season.

Please call John Hayward on 0431 025 497 if you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help out.

Event registration is here.

20 Knots and Restrictions Make for a Small Turnout

The release from lockdown in SE QLD came too late for the racing at TVSC today. Combined with a strong southerly of about 20 knots, only a hardy few new south welsh men (and women) braved the elements (and followed the rules) to go for a sail at Fingal on Sunday 8th.

If only the 125 had a trapeze…

Matt and Kat on the 125 Dinghy were first to exit the boat harbour and did some spectacular reaches across the river to test out the new Flow Sails mainsail. Opting to come in rather than pushing the envelope, they put the boat and sails away for another day.

Three people on Neil Armstrong…how many were on board by the time they left the harbour? cough

Two corsairs skippered by Peter and Ben went out and had a blast reaching, tacking and running in the blustery conditions while the safety boat crew of John and Peter had an Interlude on a moored yacht with Rudi and Monique, sipping coffee and keeping a weather eye on the capering Corsairs.

Look at that sky!?! is this even the same day?

All ended well with both Corsairs handling the conditions well, no unscheduled swims were observed and all the crews were better for the experience of setting sail when the weather might have caused fainter hearts to falter on the launching ramp.

With the SE QLD lockdown ending, we hope to have a bumper crowd for our next sailing adventure on the 22nd of August

Hey…is that Matt? Local media personality, from at the helm with Matt???

Words and photos by Peter Fell and Gail Bernet

Sailing is on this Sunday

The formal race for this Sunday is postponed, due to the current restrictions, but there will still be sailing happening.  Briefing at midday.

Juniors are on in the morning, please register here.
Some kind of formal sailing will be taking place in the afternoon, with a briefing at midday.  Skippers, please register here.

Please do not attend if it’s not permitted for you to be there.

Stay safe.

Tweed by 3 at the Mooloolaba Women’s Keelboat Regatta

This past weekend 3 members (named Tweed By 3), – the 3 Ms – Maddie, Mel and Mon, representing Tweed Valley Sailing Club, headed to the Mooloolaba Women’s Keelboat Regatta (now in its 3rd year), sailing Elliott 6s.

Maddie, Mel and Mon participated in the Women’s Skills Development Program at Mooloolaba YC with coach Kristen Davidson to learn to sail the Elliott 6s.

Friday morning was a much-needed training session (we have only sailed altogether once before in a previous spinnaker lesson held by Mooloolaba YC), with 5 “practice” races with 4 teams that afternoon, for “The Battle of the Bubbles”. The wind was approx. 9 knots E. Our claim to fame was winning the 1st race! To obtain another point overall, any boat could turn their boat into the wind and reverse the Elliott over the finish line and complete it within 2 minutes. In one race we were coming last and pulled the reverse finish off well! Overall, we came 3rd. The other teams on Friday were from Mooloolaba YC (having the advantage of knowing the river so well), including Olympian for Canada, Danielle Kennedy. This is Maddie’s first time as skipper, with Mel on jib and Mon on the mainsail.

Tweed by 3 goes into reverse to back up over the line for an extra point.

On Saturday, with very little wind (and building for the afternoon), we spent 40 minutes on the water, waiting for the wind to come up and the first race to start. Minutes from the first warning signal “lockdown” was announced – THE END! We were advised to return to shore where we de-rigged, debriefed and were sent packing to beat the 4 pm lockdown.

The regatta has been rescheduled for the weekend of 30 October, so we are very keen to improve, especially our spinnaker work – does anyone have a spare Elliott we can train on?

Stay safe and Covid free!

By Mon and Maddie