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Women and Girls Learn to Dinghy Sail Course – commencing Saturday 5 February and 19 February 2022

This course is being held to all Females (15 years of age plus), as part of the SheSails program, developing Women in Sailing.  

Commencing on Saturday 5 February 2022, our club is running a Start Sailing 1 – Introduction to Sailing Course at Fingal Boat Harbour.  The course consists of 2 x 6 hour sessions over 2 Saturdays –  05.02.22 (commencing at 9 am) and 19.02.22 (8 am start) – starting times work around the high tide and based on NSW day light savings time.

The cost is $150 for the 2 sessions, and non-refundable, should you not attend both sessions.   This will include Tweed Valley Sailing club membership which is $100 (membership runs out on 30 September each year).  Benefits of being a club member is you have insurance coverage when sailing with the club, and that once you are a confident sailor you can hire the club dinghies (which you will be learning in).

The course is limited to 10 participants only.  

If you would like to learn the basics of sailing, and start your dinghy sailing journey, you will enjoy this course.   

Intro to sailing:  By the end of this course you will be confidant in:

  1. Preparing to go on the water:  clothing to suit the conditions, use of safety equipment and the need for protection from environmental elements.
  2. Be able to rig a boat with assistance and identify the commonly used parts of the boat.
  3. Tie a figure of 8 knot and  a bowline.
  4. Perform a capsize recovery in shallow water and participate in single boat towing.
  5. Be able to launch and recover a boat with assistance; correctly tack and stop the boat; successfully sail a windward/broad reach course;  paddle boat around a marked course.
  6. Understand the meaning of port and starboard;  windward and leeward;  and overtaking vessels.
  7. Identify the wind direction;  able to source weather forecasts. 

There will be no official certificate issued, but the course is run within the guidelines of Discover Sailing syllabus.  

There will be safety boats and drivers, and a group of experienced sailor volunteers to assist you.  The dinghies we will use in this course are pacers and X3s.

Pre-requisites:

. confidant swimmer (performing a capsizing is part of the course, but you will be wearing a lifejacket).

. agile and quite fit and strong (you will be constantly ducking under a boom and moving from one side of the dinghy to the other.  Lifting is involved too.)

If you require further information, please don’t hesitate to email or phone me, details below.  

To register: click on the link below:

https://www.revolutionise.com.au/tweedvalleysc/events/126199/

Kind regards

Monique

SheSails Rep

TVSC

e:  swell.lady16@gmail.com

Ph:  0409 761 908

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Class Champions Day 1 and Sausage Sizzle Catch up

We’re racing this coming Sunday for day 1 of our shortened summer championship series. We’ll be racing until March with six racing days, of two races per day. With two drops, if you miss a day, it won’t affect your score.

After the racing, we will get out the BBQ and have a sausage sizzle/catch up.

Briefing at Midday (NSW Time). (Registration links are further down)

We will need someone to be the timekeeper on the day for scoring. If you’re available, then please contact Craig on 0413 052 898.

As a reminder, we will need volunteers for Duty Officer, Safety Boat, Time Keeping and Race Officer for one-off days during the season. Training will be provided. Please note your availability here so that we can organise a roster. (These roles are not restricted to just skippers, anyone can volunteer.)

Skippers, please register here.

If you’d like to crew, and don’t have an arrangement with a skipper, leave your details here and a skipper may get in touch. Skippers, please consult the list of the available crew here.

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A Shortened Summer 21/22 Championship

We want to resume regular Sunday racing every second Sunday from the 9th of January 2022. The intention would be to hold two races, with every race day considered a Class Championship day through until the end of the season, near the end of March. We would then have a short break before getting into the 2022 Winter Season!

We will send out further details of the day the week before, but at this stage, since it’s been so long since we were all able to race together, we’d like to finish the day with a sausage sizzle/catch up after the racing.

There won’t be any Juniors Christmas Holiday Program as we do not have the Instructors available to run the course at this time. We hope to have regular Juniors running before Easter with an Easter Holiday program too. Juniors are welcome to race with us in their division or crew with available Adults.

Those NSW Juniors who have NSW Active Kids vouchers expire on the 31st of December. If you want to use them for sailing, then please submit them ASAP so that we can redeem them.

We will need a Duty Officer, Time Keeper, Start Boat and Safety Boat operators for the shortened season for each day. Skippers, if taking one of the roles means that you cannot race, we will still award you points.

Please provide feedback on this Survey to nominate days that you might be available for roles.

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Fresh Conditions for the Last Sailing Day of the Year

Nine boats took part in Sunday’s race of two laps from Fingal to the motorway, with ideal conditions of an incoming tide against a fresh southerly wind.

Peter Fell led the single-handers all the way to the finish, with Lex Branch never getting in contention after an unfortunate pre-start capsize.

Doug Haig beat Peter Ross by a boat length in the Corsairs with Michael Grace
putting in a credible performance. Geoffrey Colwill and Aron in a club Pacer had to finish on just his jib having capsized on the last lap.

Dave Robinson on ‘The Gambler’ revelled in the strong wind, winning the multi-hulls!

New member Perry completed the race on the club laser 4.7 Tippy Too.

See you all in the new year for hopefully our first NSW/Qld combined fleet race for a shortened summer season.

Word by Bryan, photos by Gail.

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Racing this Sunday, before the holiday break

Racing is on this coming Sunday, the last day before we break for the holidays. There are no juniors in the morning, though competent kids are welcome to join the sailing in the afternoon.

At the moment, with the border changes coming after this weekend, Qlders will be able to race in the new year, so we expect a shortened summer championship season to start from the 9th of January, with racing every second weekend until the easter break. We will send a separate email with further details, including requests for volunteers for Duty Officer, Time Keeping and Safety Boat operators.

Some of our Queensland Corsair boats raced at last weekend’s Monomasters at Lake Cootharaba. A write up is on the website with some great photos. The next away event will be at Big River’s Annual Regatta on the 26/27th of February weekend, so mark your calendars.

Details for this weekend:

Briefing at midday, (casual) racing from 1 pm. (NSW Time)

Skippers, please register your boat entry here.

Crew are welcome to register their availability here. (Skippers, the list of people looking for spots is here.)

If you’d like to hire a club boat for the afternoon, please check our website’s hire section.

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TVSC Represents at the LCSC 2021 Monomasters

On the 4 / 5 December, 5 Corsairs, 15 sailors and various support crew/family/sailing fans threw tents, guitars, keyboards, ukuleles, sailing gloves, zinc and suncream into the back of the vans and trekked north 260 km to Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club for the 2021 Monomasters.

The kids grow up so fast these days! (You should have kept the L on for the racing, Justin!)
Yawn…white vans…again.

Due to border restrictions, only the Queensland based sailors/boats could make the trip.

Monopoly leads Epic and Keenas around the wing mark, with some other miscellaneous traffic getting in the way.

Saturday’s two races were held in 8-12 knots and tested who could play the shifts the best and find a clear track through the 81 boat fleet.

Heading out to the wing mark, again, there seems to be other traffic in the way!?!

Sunday, the wind was a lot stronger. Race three was gusting 16knots, and race four was missed by all the tweed sailors who missed the bit on the sailing instructions about when to break for lunch (or more importantly, when NOT to….)

Jason demonstrates alternatives to wearing your hat on your head.
Hollen isn’t looking that keen…

Race 5 was proper blowy, perhaps gusting to 22knots at times; it was a case of who could hold on and not tip (hint, not Monopoly).

Monopoly was back with a new mast…well the “new” mast’s still older than 2/3rds of the crew.

The top 3 Corsairs were the reverse order from last year; Justin, Emily & Eden Johnson took home the chocolates in None The Wiser (802). Andy, Maddie and Kanisha on Monopoly slipped (tipped) to 3rd, and Craig with Scotty and Kate, always the bridesmaid, never the bride got 2nd for the 2nd year in a row.

The very attractive bridesmaid with crew Scotty and Kate, setting up for the bear away.

The big surprise from the regatta was the vast improvement of the new skipper, Jason who with crew Dasha and Alex, was leading races and just proved that time on water = better performances. He will undoubtedly be pushing for a podium finish next year.

Justin finally lets his kids do something on the boat…
The attractive bridesmaid versus the (much) less attractive bride.

Of course, the end of racing didn’t mean the end of the day’s events with group dinners at the pub and a sing-along after…Friday, Saturday and even Sunday night.

Pick the crew member who went to bed shortly after this photo was taken?
We present…”The Beatles” How it’s meant to be played.

With the Queensland Border set to open early, it will be great for all TVSC Sailors from the North and South of the border to be reunited for the start of racing next year. From the looks of the performances of the Queenslanders at the Monomasters, the southerners will have their work cut out for them!

Most on-water photos are credited to Russell Witt. More photos from the weekend are on his website here.

Happy Holidays!

Words by Justin Johnson. Captions by the very attractive bridesmaid.

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Juniors and Qld Sailing This Sunday

Juniors are on this Sunday morning at Fingal, starting at 8:30 am NSW Time.

Please register your attendance here before the day. We also ask that any parents using one of the club boats, first organise to hire it via the website.

Some of the Queensland boats will be practising for the Monomasters, at Oxenford from midday on Sunday. Interested sailors are welcome to attend.

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No Racing or Juniors this Sunday

Due to the Big River Bridge to Breakers Regatta this weekend, we won’t be running any Juniors or Sunday Afternoon racing at Fingal. We wish those attending the Bridge to Breakers all the best. (Make sure to let them know that the Queensland boats will be there in February!)

Peter Fell represented TVSC at the NSW Impulse State Champs on the weekend at Lake Macquarie.

There is a committee meeting on Saturday at 11 am NSW time. All members are welcome to attend; the meeting location will probably be at the Jack Evans boat harbour.

Some of the Queensland boats, again, will be sailing at Oxenford on Sunday. If you’d like to join in, then please get in touch with Craig on 0413 052 898.

Queensland Sailors on Sunday at Lake Orr, Varsity