We’re racing this Sunday at Fingal with a briefing at midday. Skippers, please register here.
Juniors training is on in the morning, starting at the earlier time of 8:30. No experience is necessary. Please register here.
For Parents, John is happy to run a Try Sailing session at the same time as Juniors is on so that you can get out on the water too and show your children how it’s done!
This weekend is also when our own Tweedledums Team will represent our club at the Mooloolaba Women’s Keelboat Regatta. Maddie Lyons, Monique Smith and Kate Ausburn will be racing against seven other teams on Elliott 6’s in three days of racing from Friday. We wish them well!
Two Sabots, a Manly Junior, an X3 and a Laser raced off the beach at Fingal into a light fluctuating, at times frustrating, breeze. However, all sailors sailed well against an adverse tide and were still bunched at the windward mark.
One of our new members, Tarquin, surprised all by rounding first in his first time in a Sabot.
However, on the reach to the beach, Kynan in the Laser overhauled him to touch in first.
We all cooled off for a swim before sailing back to Fingal, for another swim. It was a warm day!
Next week Juniors will start earlier at 8.30 to finish before the afternoon race. Make sure you register for Juniors on the club website.
Juniors are on this Sunday morning, and all skill levels are welcome to attend. More details are here.
Racing at Fingal last Sunday.
There’s no racing Sunday afternoon at Fingal, though some Queensland boats are racing at SYCs Oxenford Lake, meeting from 11 am. Don’t hesitate to contact Craig on 0413 052 898 if you’d like to crew.
Several sailors are interested in going to the Big River Bridge to Breakers Regatta in November. We’d generally attend with a large fleet in a typical year, though numbers will be down this time. If you’re interested in either crewing or taking a boat, please contact Michael on 0421 526 727.
As the Queensland boats cannot attend, they’re going to the Lake Cootharaba MonoMasters in early December instead. Once more, and I think you can see where this is going, if you’re interested in either crewing or taking a boat, please get in touch with Craig on 0413 052 898.
The second day of our summer season is this coming Sunday. With the border restrictions still in place (Qlder’s please see below), we’re not yet going to run a formal championship race, but we welcome people to attend and participate in what’s organised on the day. Last Sunday’s race was up the Terranora Inlet!
Skippers, please register your boats here. The briefing is at midday.
Juniors are also on in the morning, starting at 9 am. Please register for juniors here.
We must follow the NSW COVID-19 rules, including that everyone attending must be fully vaccinated. A summary of the rules and how they affect sailing in NSW are here. Please do not attend if it’s not permitted that you do so.
For Queenslanders, a few of us are gathering at Lake Orr in Varsity for some informal racing. Meeting at midday (Proper Queensland time!). Please contact Craig on 0413 052 898 if you’re interested in joining in.
Josh Fergusson is selling his Corsair, hull number 1107, which is one of the newest available! If you’re interested, then please contact Craig on 0413 052 898.
Finally, the Big River Sailing Club is going ahead with their Bridge to Breakers Regatta in November. Registrations are now open, though, at this time, Qld based sailers would be unable to attend. Further details are on their webpage.
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.
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.
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.
