Dear Members, Sailors, Friends and supporters,
Welcome to the 2020-2021 summer sailing series. And our 10th year of Sailing on the Tweed river.
Our seasons race calendar is now finalized and can be viewed at our club’s fantastic web site.
Please go to https://www.tvsc.com.au/events/ . Details on this coming weekend’s race are here.
Have a good look at our web site; for the Calendar, as well as results, on line registration and race fee payments, membership details, try sailing details and info about Juniors training. As well as a fantastic gallery of photos & videos from the club’s ten-year history.
Changes this year include registration On-line, via our web page. This is a part of our COVID safe plan and we request all participants to use this registration and payment portal to avoid physical contact on sailing days. (For each race day.)
People wishing to crew can also register their interest and Skippers looking for crew can also register their need. This will help Skippers find crew, and crew to find a berth.
Another change this year is every alternate fortnight, we will conduct 3 short races. NS14s will race their Class Championship on the short course and complete 3 races, adding up to a total of 15 Races over 5 events and allowing 3 discards for the series.
Some things haven’t changed. Racing will generally be fortnightly to avoid the Spring Tide, but some longer up river events will utilize spring tide weekends. This will include races, and lunch cruises.
There will be no scheduled races on Qld Public Holidays to avoid conflict at the ramp and with other river uses.
Racing is on this coming Sunday and is the first race of the summer point score series, based on handicap. Conducted concurrently this weekend will be the 1st heat of our highly prestigious Corsair Class Championship and we are expecting to see a big fleet of our One design 3 handed senior class.
Corsairs Class Championships and single handers will be conducted on our long Olympic course over 3 laps.
Also conducted concurrently this weekend will be the clubs Single Hander yardstick Championship series.
For this Sunday, the briefing is at Midday (NSW time – Daylight Savings Time) and Race Start is at 1pm.
Links to register your boat, covid registration, skippers looking for crew and crew wanting a spot, are all on the event page here.
We are looking forward to some good racing in our NS14 fleet, with two junior teams joining the fleet.
I would like to acknowledge the work of our management volunteers;
Once again, we will have the support of Suzanne Blatcher as time keeper and assisted by Gary McCrohan.
Bryan Townsend is our clubs Rear Commodore and is doing a great job looking after and driving our rescue boats,
Craig Foley is again our Treasurer, and has overseen this job well, and our club is in very good shape financially. Craig also is responsible for our fantastic web site and is holding the fort as Race officer in my absence.
Mark Reynolds is again our membership officer.
Gail Bernet has taken over the role of Secretary from Garry Bargh, Garry did an excellent job in this position and we wish him well in his new club. And we welcome Gail to the job.
Peter Ross is our Grants manager, and is busy applying for all sorts of grants to help fund items required for the club.
Monique Smith is coordinating our “She Sails” efforts and is now halfway through her first “Women on Water “sailing introductory course.
This year we say good bye to Alison Blatcher who had an enormous influence in our club fro its very early days and introduced the Corsair class to the Tweed. Alison was widely viewed as the Clubs Admiral and we are much depleted without her.
David Chester has vacated the Vice Commodore position, and we are now in search of his replacement. Please contact me if you would be interested in this position.
We are also very short of volunteers in other management positions.
We have had no nominations for committee positions and welcome any members who would like to join the committee.
We are also looking for volunteers to manage our merchandise, our Juniors Training, and Learn to sail coordinator’s.
Last season was cut short due to COVID, and we were forced to cancel our annual dinner. Although we managed to complete most of our programed races.
This season I am planning our biggest Presentation dinner ever to make up for this, and to celebrate our club conducting sailing events on the Tweed for ten years.
I look forward to seeing all our members, past and present at this dinner, to help celebrate this milestone, and we are expecting our first Commodore and founding member Hugh Millikan to travel from NZ to attend,
Let’s have a great summer on the water and enjoy sailing on the Tweed River. I look forward to seeing you and sailing with you this season.
Bill Fenelon, TVSC Commodore. 0411 123 405
Day 1 of the 2020 Summer Series
Tweed Valley Sailing club kicked of its 10th Summer Sailing series on Sunday with 14 boats sailed by 22 crew, in a perfect sunny afternoon on the Fingal reach of the Tweed River with a gentle 10 knot breeze.
This season represents a milestone and a big occasion for the club; conceived by a small group of totally inexperienced enthusiasts, with the dream of creating a sailing club on a River where the sport had been inactive for nearly 20 years since the demise of the very popular Tweed Aquatic club in the early 90’s.
Re-starting local sailing in humble circumstances, 3 boats competed in the first race at the end of 2010, and we didn’t know if it would survive a second year, but the sailing club prospered and flourished to become a vibrant and active sport alternative for the local community, conducting regular racing all year round in an unbroken run through to this Sundays Race. Of the people who founded the club and sailed that day back in 2010, 4 were sailing this Sunday, and many have stayed with the club throughout its years.
The TVSC has a unique racing fleet of mostly Australian designed, multi crewed single hulled sailing dinghies. The 3 handed Corsair class is a sixteen-foot, three handed sailing dinghy. The boat was designed by Australian designer Alan Payne who is famous for designing Sir Frank Packer’s America’s Cup challenge yachts Gretel and Gretel II. Some of these boats are now over 50 years old, but are ideally suited to the shallow Tweed River. They have flourished in our club since being introduced by original club member, Alison Blatcher, in our first year. Local sailors recognised its merits and our club adopted the class. We now have the largest fleet of Corsairs in Australia, we also have the top 3 Corsair sailors in the country including current Australian Champion Arron Hunt.
Another class raced is the Australian NS14 (Northbridge Senior); 14 feet in length, the class was designed in 1960, older than Corsairs, but being a development class, it has evolved into a modern contemporary racing skiff, raced by some of Australia’s best sailors. These are a very popular and nationwide class, with development in the early years happening right here in the Tweed, the class is raced in all the Northern Rivers. But TVSC has the largest fleet in country NSW.
Some members like to sail single handed, and the club also has a very competitive fleet of the Olympic Class Laser.
For a little club, existing only in a shipping container, we have been very successful and can boast some of our countries top racing sailors. We recently had a visit from Olympic 470 Gold Medallists’ Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan, accompanied by sailing legend Ian Murray. These guys normally hang out in the biggest European Yacht clubs, but they loved our little container in the bushes beside the Fingal boat Harbour and the crystal-clear waters of the Lower Tweed.
Race One of the 2020 Summer series included three short races. The fleet included 5 Lasers, 4 Corsairs and 3 NS14’s.
Making their senior sailing debut on NS14 Zazen, junior team, Tom Busbridge and Layla Shultz, raced as a team for the first time, and put in a great performance completing the races, but found the step up into adult racing a challenge, however they will only get better very quickly. Tom was ecstatic about getting over the line in front of Capers in race 2, beating fellow Junior Kynan Leuscher.
The next race will be Sunday the 11th of October. Briefing is at 12 noon and the race starts at 13:00 There may be several crew positions available, phone Commodore Bill Fenelon for details
The 7th annual Tweed River Passage Race.
Last Sunday, 14 boats with 28 crew sailed the longest course on the Tweed River, starting at Condong and finishing at Fingal Head. Traffic travelling along Tweed Valley Way would have been surprised to see a sailing race right beside the highway.
It was a perfect spring day, early light rain developing into a sunny day, but the fleet had to sail against a contrary wind.
Starting at 11am at Condong in 10knots of breeze, Kate Yeomans, sailing a Laser, quickly moved to the front and would lead the entire passage, arriving at Fingal Head in 3hours and 33 minutes. It was a dominant display from Kate, sailing with perfect power to weight ratio, beating 2nd place by 19 minutes.
The main group followed in a tight bunch, initially headed by Monique Smith, also in a Laser. Monique held a strong grip on 2nd until the Tumbulgum bridge. Winds swirling around the bridge pylons held her back, and in short time, three Corsairs slipped in front. Difficult winds are always a feature of this race, and although this year the wind was generally steady, there are sections of the river that have zero wind.
By the time the fleet arrived on the Fingal reach, six boats were closely bunched and finished within 8 minutes of each other after beating straight into the wind all the way from Condong.
Scratch; 1st Laser 179414 “Bluey” (Kate Yeomans), 2nd Corsair 848 “Monopoly” (Andrew Lamont, Craig Foley & John Morgan) & 3rd Corsair 396 “Nimbis” (Debbie Jones & Scott Jones), 4th Laser 207817 “Rolling” Stone (Monique Smith)
Yardstick (Corrected) ; 1st Laser 179414 “Bluey” (Kate Yeomans), 2nd Corsair 848 “Monopoly” (Andrew Lamont, Craig Foley & John Morgan) 3rd 125 class “Paper Plane” (Matt Andrews & Melissa Le Roux) 4th Corsair 396 “Nimbis” (Debbie Jones & Scott Jones),
Many other crews sailed this race for the first time. All deserve congratulations to mange to finish this difficult race.
The TVSC is commencing its Summer series next Sunday. All races start with a briefing at 12 noon. Race start is at 1pm (NSW Time).
First Race of the Summer Season Begins this Sunday
Our summer season begins this coming Sunday the 27th of September.
Briefing at midday, race start at 1pm (NSW Time).
Handicap Racing
There will be time keeping.
There are a couple of registration forms, so please bear with us as we experiment and try to make things work easily from everyone’s point of view. (i.e. mine)
Full details and links are on the event page on our website.
We are going to start charging for race entry again, so all skippers need to use the Skippers Registration form to enter their boat, boat details and pay their $5. You can do this on the day on your phone or earlier in the week. You can pay by direct debit into our bank account or via credit card. The details are shown when you register.
For skippers needing crew or people wanting to crew, there is a Skippers ‘Looking for Crew’ form on the event page. Skippers, please fill that in if you need crew. There’s also a link (on the event page) that lists Skippers who are seeking crew…(so maybe you’ve guessed what’s coming next already)…if you’d like to crew, then check that list and ring/email the skippers about a spot…and if you need crew…then fill in the appropriate form. Please. If this gets too (more?) complicated, then we’ll try another method. (There may still be random spots free on the day, as that is life, so you’re very welcome to come along and try to get a spot.)
To comply with our covid safe plan, everyone attending must register with the covid safe registration page…too. (Sorry) But guess what? That’s on the event page too!
Finally, it’s our intention to race every second Sunday and to occasionally have training/learn to sail/juniors days on the other Sundays. More news on that soon.
See you Sunday!
Sailing Two Sunday’s in a Row
Tweed Valley Sailing Club will host its annual Tweed River Passage Race next Sunday
Another big fleet of 15 boats raced on the Fingal reach of the Tweed River on Sunday as teams prepared for the clubs biggest single event, the annual Tweed River Passage Race, starting at Condong and finishing at Fingal Head.
Fastest around the buoys was Maurie Meyer in a Laser, putting in an outstanding effort, 2nd place was taken by Igor Prado from Brazil, racing his NS14 Blu Tack. It was Igor’s best performance with the club and the best result ever for Blu Tack.
Next Sunday, expect to see the Tweed River light up as sailing boats race the entire length of the river, (not blocked by low bridges.) It is an awesome spectator event and the Tweed Sailing club hopes locals and tourist will come down and watch the fleet sail. The race will start at Condong boat Ramp at 11:00 and will probably finish at Fingal at about 3pm.
The River passage race was developed by long time club stalwart Alison Blatcher 8 years ago and has become an immensely popular annual event.
The race can be viewed from anywhere along the Tweed River bank, and even as you drive along Tweed Valley Highway you will see the fleet proceeding downstream, but we recommend you should watch where you are driving and not the action on the river. Stop any where and take in the action of this spectacular event.
Covid Registration for the Tumbulgum 2020 Passage Race
Our Annual Passage Race is on again this coming Sunday.
To comply with our Covid Safe Business Plan, all attendees must register using this registration form.
All skippers must also register their boat with this registration form. If skippers are not sure if they’ve registered already, then please check the list of registrations here.
Briefing at 10am (at Condon)
Race Start at 11am
Results announced after the finish at Fingal
Full details for the day are on the registration form, but please be aware that this is a one way race from Condon to Fingal. Skippers and crew must make their own arrangements for transport, moving trailers etc.
If you would like to crew and haven’t made arrangements, then we will try to match you to a Skipper/boat before Sunday.
We would like all Corsairs in the water before briefing. There is a pontoon for the boats to raft up against.
A portaloo will be provided at Condon.
See you there!
Video from last night’s AGM
Zoom Link for Tonight’s AGM
Password: sailing
You should be able to use your web browser to join the meeting here.
If that doesn’t work, then please use this link.
Agenda and supporting documents are on the event page here.
Racing is on again this coming Sunday. Three short races.
Briefing at 10am, first race start at 11am.
Other Events:
- Our online AGM is the same day, in the evening. All invited.
- Our annual passage race is on the 20th. Skippers please register.
- The first She Sails session is on the 26th.
There are certain requirements.
Everyone must register, including crew, here. (We need to keep records of everyone to comply with our COVID Safe Plan.)
Full contact is allowed while racing, with no limits on crew numbers.
When ashore, social distancing must be maintained.
Racing will be free.
There will be no time keeping, sign on, BBQ or results recorded.
There may be some crewing spots available for people who are new, so please register and we’ll see what we can arrange. If you want to crew and can make arrangements directly with a skipper, then please do so, before registering.
Some of the X3s may be available for those without a boat, but some experience. (If you are allocated a club boat, come earlier than 11am, so that you have time to rig before briefing.)
Juniors are encouraged to race too.
Otherwise, the usual rules apply, as per our website. (Footwear, life jackets etc.)
Some Photos from Sunday’s Race
Skippers, please don’t forget to register for Tumbulgum!
