Tweed Valley Sailing Club

The Tweed turned on another fine winter’s day for the 25 skippers and crew competing in the 4^th race day of the Tweed Valley Sailing Clubs’ winter series on Sunday. With the promise of a fresh southerly, the fleet of 13, comprising 4 Lasers, 4 Corsairs, 2 catamarans, and a MG, NS14 and Taser prepared for the two races on the Fingal reach of the Tweed River.

The course was set, and the start boat in position, when disaster struck for Adam and Zack. Unfortunately, they tore their jib, ending their race prior to getting underway. The rest of the fleet jostled for position in preparation for the starter’s gun. The start was intense, and the first leg closely contested, before the lead boats could break free. Strong gusts up to 20 knots kept all sailors intensely focused. Though a few Laser sailors rinsed off their boats, and themselves, before recovering to complete the two-lap race. The wind eased in the second race, though racing was similarly competitive. The post-race “analysis” contained the usual good-hearted “what if” and “if only”, with another fun race day enjoyed by all!

In the Corsair division, Monopoly (Andy, Maddie and Melissa) was the champion boat, passing Go, and leading all the way to the finish, to be first in both races.

Dreadnought (Peter Fell) came out with all guns firing, similarly won both races in the Laser division. The multihull division was dominated by Sledder (Dave and Sid).

In the overall handicap point score On and Off (Dave and Cooper) won the monohull division in their NS14, followed by team Monopoly and Sledder winning the multihull division. We look forward to the next TVSC sailing day on the 13^th of June.

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.