Tweed Valley Sailing Club

15 boats carrying 34 crew turned up to race on Sunday but after viewing the cold and rough conditions on the river, some boats were to remain dry on their trailers, as the clubs Lasers “Great Grand Masters” (over 65 YO’s) elected to stay dry and watch from the spectator’s tent. 

Gusty and difficult conditions, with a strong ebbing tide combining with a 25 knot Southerly made for a challenging afternoon sailing on the Tweed River, with only half the fleet completing the course. Many boats capsized and the water was cold.

12 boats started the race and only 6 boats finished, as the challenging conditions wore the fleet down.

Perennial winner, Dave “Chest bond” Chester, on his Hobie 16, and sailing new crew, Sid Willis, got back in his usual position in the front of the fleet, lapping everybody and getting home 24 minutes ahead of the first mono hull.  Dave likes to be in front!!! and measures his success by how many boats he can lap, and so was very happy with today’s performance.

Back in the real race, (the monohull fleet) first to finish was single-handed Laser “Black Duck”, sailed by Grand Master (or rather, Mistress!) Kate Yeoman, getting the gun from 2^nd placed monohull, Corsair “Minnow” by 20 seconds. It was a typical tenacious effort for Kate who once worked in the NT as a crocodile wrangler. Kate never gives up and came from behind to take the lead in the final lap as the two leading monohulls crossed tacks and change positions several times in a battle to the finish. No more than 30 seconds separated these two boats the entire race.  

Again, the Corsairs were the dominating Class with 6 of these Classic Aussie 16ft three handed boats competing and all setting spinnakers. It was a good day for the crew on “Minnow” (Bill Fenelon, Kynan Luescher, Miles Browne and Scott Jones). Always a front runner in the stronger breezes, and this week sailing with 4 crew, lead the entire fleet for the first two laps and won the Corsair class.

3^rd boat to finish and second Corsair was “Keenas” (Craig Foley, Mark Reynolds and Taj Krasna.) The Keenas boys were always in the hunt and are definitely the major improvers in the Corsairs. Eventually finishing 3 minutes behind Minnow after a brief disaster when Mark went for a quick swim.

Next to get home and in an unfamiliar position 7 minutes back, was Club Champion Corsair “Swell Lady” Monique Smith, Matt Andrews and Deb Flannery), after also suffering a minor disaster, dropping their spinnaker into the water (which is like a giant and very effective sea anchor and caused an explosion of loud sailor talk on the boat!!!). Until this mishap, it was business as usual on Swell Lady and they fought a very close battle for the lead with Minnow. They never recovered their position following this disaster but did manage to sail on and finish after completely re rigging their spinnaker while sailing up the beat to windward.

Another Corsair has joined our fleet, sailed by Peter Ross, Mark Storrier & Roger Clark, making a total of 15 of these boats registered to race with the club.

Three boats competed in the two handed 14ft class, which featured a new Club owned boat, NS14 “Impulsive Max” kindly donated by the South Brisbane Sailing Club. This boat sailed its first race with the club, crewed by Robert Preston and Racheal O’Hagan. It was hard work in the 14ft division with many capsizes. Impulsive Max was first home in this class and followed by another club NS14 Blu Tack sailed by Andrew Jaggers and Matt Colnan.

Juniors sailing is growing strongly on the Tweed with large group coming down each weekend and learning the skills. Juniors sail in the morning on small boats, then double up as crew on the racing boats in the afternoons. 

Many thanks to our shore-based support team that make racing possible. Suzanne Blatcher (Head Time Keeper) assisted by Barry Callanan and Sandy Williams, and our rescue boat team, skipper Bryan Townsend and crew Adrian Colnan.

Next Race on the Fingal Reach will be on the 24^th of June.

New sailors are always welcome and experienced is not required to crew.

Rescue boat drivers and crew are needed, you need a NSW Boating licence, or crew in the rescue boat and log your time towards a licence.

For any enquiries, please phone Bill Fenelon on 0411 123 405.

Sunday morning on the river at Fingal Head saw the usual Juniors sailing and training with 25 kids enjoying some fun on the water in the club Sabots & X3 dinghies. Volunteer instructors focus on making the sessions enjoyable with just small amounts of sailing theory to start off. With a wealth of top level sailing experience at the club the Juniors have the potential to become excellent sailors.

Some of the juniors stay on for the afternoon race to crew with seniors on larger boats and will move on to skippering their own boats in Juniors racing next season.

A big turn out for the last major race of the summer series 23 boats with 45 crew including 7 from the Juniors & Teenagers Division.

By the afternoon the stage was set for the most competitive sailing race seen on the Tweed for years – the final heats of the Northern Rivers Corsair and Multihull Class Championships and the final of the 10 race Summer Handicap Series. Some concern about lack of wind was unfounded with the rigging area sheltered from the easterly breeze but conditions on the water turned out to be perfect. The easterly made most legs of the course an easy straight drag race.

The Corsair positions were at nail biting stage. After the previous 4 heats it was still impossible to predict the final championship results for the Corsairs. Top Corsair “Odin” skipper Daniel Sieders only needed a 4th to win the whole series and last year’s winner “Swell Lady” skipper Monique Smith needed to place first to be in the running. The next 3 crews down the ranking all had a chance at 2nd place for the series with a good result today.

So all eyes were on the nine Corsairs for the very crowded start with a lot of close manoeuvring as every skipper tried to be at the ideal start position. Corsair 104 Melita III unfortunately ran out of space at the windward end of the line and had to give way with a speedy U-turn for a 2nd attempt to cross the line still up with the main fleet.

After the gun it was very short leg to the top mark so the 23 boats were still tightly bunched and rounded the next 5 marks sometimes 4 abreast with not one collision being a testament to their skill. Then the long reach up river to the bottom mark started to spread the fleet out. Despite their hitch at thestart Melita III steamed ahead and was in the lead of the Corsair fleet after the first lap – 30 seconds ahead of “Keenas” with “Swell Lady” only 10 seconds behind them. By the 2nd lap Swell Lady had recovered to 2nd place but Melita III was still 2 minutes ahead. The other Corsairs were fighting for placings too with Peter Ross on 107 “Rockin’ Robyn” having his best race to date with crew Mark Storrier from club sponsors Ecomist, they were ahead of another of the usual front runners, 199 “Minnow”, for the first lap and took First overall on
handicap.

Alison Blatcher, Marg Walgers & Karen Vidler brought Melita III home for her first win of the season over 5 minutes in front of 2 nd placed “Swell Lady” (Monique Smith, Matthew Andrews, Deborah Flannery) with only 10 seconds behind in 3rd “Minnow” (Bill Fenelon, Max Hennessy & Robert Preston). Jimmy Nickless would be pleased with 4th for first time on the helm of “Epic” with Peter Skinner and only 20 seconds behind Peter Ross came in 5th. “Keenas” (Mark Reynolds, Craig Foley, Taj Krasna) dropped back to 6th with in 7th “Nimbus” (Kevin Bourke, Sally Machray & Filipe Saraiva). 8th was Adam Hurt who left his NS14 at home to skipper “Capers” in his first Corsair race with regular crew Tom Busbridge alongside Mick “Beef” O’Keefe and managed to beat “Odin” in a surprise final result with Odin’s crew cheering everyone on from the back of the fleet!

Multihulls also had their final yardstick based championship race today with 3 boats competing John & Saffron Cooke took 1 st on Weta “Scored a Tri”. All sailors were also competing in the last of the 10 race series of the individual handicap point-score to get their name on the big trophy awarded at the annual dinner. The final results of all 5 heats of the class champs will be announced then too – so the wait’s not over yet!

Kate Yeomans must be in with a chance – she took 1 st out of the 7 Lasers but none of them could beat Tim Brown on his Impulse. Andrew Jaggers from Summit Organics in Tyalgum has been the clubs most enthusiastic new member. He tried a Laser for the first time this week – the fifth? Class of dinghy he has enthusiastically jumped on board to date.

New skipper Rainer Glasker with crew Tara Beth had their best race yet in the club’s Access 303. They are looking for more competitors in this division for next season. 2 more Access dinghies are available for racing supplied by Sailability on Tweed and Mirrors, Sabots etc. can also compete.  Get in touch if you are interested – all abilities welcome.

We take a break for a few weeks, before the Winter Season starts anew.  Hopefully we’ll also see everyone at the Presentation Dinner!

It looked like just another blue sky beautiful day on the Tweed but beneath the surface of paradise the odds were against any chance of an easy race for the 16 TVSC boats and 31 crew sailing last Sunday. The race start time was in the strongest part of the big ebb tide with a light, unpredictable easterly wind dancing round the skippers. If they got caught in a lull the tide dragged them backwards until the wind returned. The “zigzag” part of the course in front of the start tent caused the most headaches with mistimed tacking leading to many attempts to round the buoys – no doubt very entertaining for those on shore. Those that got it right found themselves way out in front of their rivals.

This was the last chance for the NS14’s and Lasers to move up the ranks in their Class Championships – everything hinged on the results of this final race for them.

First the Lasers. The last battle of the year for Laser Grandmasters John Hayward (Fingal) & Gary McCrohon (Tyalgum). John had the lead after the first lap after Gary got stuck in a strong tide and disappearing wind on the first leg on the north side of the river but by the end of the second lap Gary was 1 second ahead and despite all effort from John he had to concede defeat to Gary at the finish. Third was Kate Yeomans and 4th Peter Redmond.

The NS14 fleet was led by a cat and mouse race between Glenn Slight & Kynan Luescher on “Radical Phase” and Bill Fenelon & Taj Krasna on “Tornado”. After being only metres apart for most of the race it was the choice to take different routes to the last buoy rounding that finally saw Tornado gain water and they finished in 96 min 22 secs – over a minute in front of Radical Phase. Adam Hurt & Tom Busbridge in the lead on the start line took 3rd and David Robsinson and son Hugh were 4th.

The Corsairs were led by Mark Reynolds & Craig Foley on “Keenas” for most of the race – the only other Corsair to finish was Melita III skippered by Alison Blatcher + Marg Walgers & Bernadette crewing.

Division 2 racing for the slower boats is set to take off next season with Rainer Glasker & Tara Beth in the clubs yellow Access dinghy inviting more boats to join them. Sailability on Tweed can provide 2 more Access dinghies on race days and Mirrors and Sabots are expected to swell the numbers the division.

18 kids attended earlier in the day at the Juniors session with a sail up to Tony’s island and back. TVSC under 18 sailors Taj Krasna, Max Hennessy (both from Fingal Head) and Isaac Poulsen (Burringbar) spent the previous weekend crewing on Corsairs at the Big River SC Regatta swapping from helming to hauling up spinnakers to “hiking out” getting covered in spray returning with many tales to tell.

Next Sunday 25 March is the last race of the summer series. Come down to watch the start at 1pm from the spectators’ tent by the main boat harbour at Fingal Head. Adults or under 18’s wanting to sail please contact the club.

The TVSC’s Annual “Chindy Challenge” Race was held last Sunday. Beautiful weather and water clear to the bottom made up for the previous weeks cancelled race. A 16 boat fleet with 28 crew including 6 Corsairs and 5 Lasers sailed in 10-13 NE wind which made for a relatively quiet afternoon on the river. Plenty of time to enjoy the crystal clear water, stingrays jumping and a dolphin or 2 to complete the perfect picture. A different course to the usual 3 laps round the buoys, from Fingal up pass the Chindy Tavern (the race sponsors) and back downstream again to the finish line.

Not so quiet at the start line as the boats jostled for the best position some losing out and hitting the start buoy and having to go round to start again. After flying into the lead at the start Corsair 104 Melita III with new Matt Andrews Sails had a few set backs losing the lead after being forced to do a U-turn to get back to a missed mark but caught up again until another channel marker got the better of skipper Alison Blatcher. Crew Peter Ross and Richard Roberts will no doubt be giving directions next time.

Fastest to the finish (first “on scratch” as they say) was Glenn Slight on Maricat “Osprey” in 89 minutes. The monohull scratch winner was only a minute behind, a very pleasing result for Mauri Meyer (Laser). The winning Corsair also had a change of fortune from the last few races – Bill Fenelon on 199 Minnow with Kynan Luescher and Taj Krasna (an all Fingal crew) were all stoked to finished in 93 minutes.

Corsair “Keenas” skippered by Mark Reynolds with crew Craig Foley were missing their usual for’d hand, Taj Krasna, as he’d jumped ship to sail on Minnow this week. He could have made all the difference to them as they finished only 35 seconds behind Minnow. They will be back together for the Big River SC Annual Regatta and Corsair Eastern State Titles down at Harwood on the Clarence this weekend. A very big weekend for the Corsair sailors – look out for the report next week.

The overall winner of this years Chindy Challenge on time corrected for class of boat results will be announced at the club’s annual dinner in May – although the bets are on that it could be an impulsive result.

It was also a good day to welcome two new skippers and boats to the club. Dave Robinson and son Cooper on their NS14 and Joe Trueman on his red sailed Mirror. Joe was surprised to discover he had an on water coach – his Dad was on the VMR boat standing by with a few words of advice.

There’s always room for more boats and more crew, beginners or experts, so you if you have a desire to get on the water under sail come on down. Juniors and Try Sailing will be back again on Sunday morning 18 March with a race in the afternoon.

Email tvscmail@gmail.com to book, only $5 per session and membership not required for first 3 sails.