Community Sailing on the Tweed River
What a great day, with 20 boats competing including some new members and visitors! Thanks to Bob and the safety boat crew. We couldn’t race without you.
The Laser Class was won by Gary, with Kate and Peter coming in second and third.
The NS14 Class was won by Glenn and Kynan, Adam and Tom coming in second and Bill and Taj coming in third.
Congratulations to Geoff & Jo Carter, 1st place on handicap with Dave Chester & Kevin Bourke 2nd & 3rd. And again to Dave Chester & Isaac Poulsen 1st place on corrected time with Tim Brown & Lex Branch 2nd & 3rd.
Considering that Dave Chester had worked hard all morning unpacking and packing up for Juniors that was a very good result!
Thanks all for making the effort to sail on such a hot day – hope you have all recovered from the heat. We’ve got a week off now – social sail to Chinderah tavern for lunch on 4 Feb and the next race on the 11th of Feb.
If you’d like to learn to sail, race your own boat, crew or be a safety boat driver, then please get in touch.
It’s very late notice, as it was a challenge to get enough available volunteers for midweek – as always it all comes together – thanks team!
They will be relaxed mornings – no racing to worry about in the afternoon.
X3s and Sabots + 1 Corsair on both days.
Please RSVP by SMS to Alison 0434 982 922 if you’re not already on the list so we know how many boats to rig.
Sign on & rigging from 8.45am NSW time
Off the water by 11.45am
Sailing Fee – $5
Sausages after sailing on Wednesday – BYO lunch on Thursday.
Our first race of 2018 couldn’t have been better. Plenty of breeze 15 to 26 knot SSE and a strong outgoing tide to make us all really work hard.
A long race so a special thank you to our support team: safety boat driver Bob Ormsby with crew, first time out, Bunnings BBQ catch – Paul Whitehead + Suzanne Blatcher & Kurt Luescher timekeeping. Big thanks to Marg Walgers for feeding us all after the race and Lex Branch and Adam Busbridge for photos.
So down to the details : 21 Boats made for an impressive and interesting start. Lots of right of way and look out calls but thanks to some good sailing there was not 1 collision (as far as I know) – plenty of very close passes though – good work everyone! The Corsair Class Champ had a record 9 entrants thanks to the Commodore’s hard work rigging 3 Corsairs to make sure both club boats got out on the water today.
Big welcome to lots of new sailors – Rhonda & David Stevens who came to try sailing in the morning ; Corsair Nimbus’ new crew (and new TVSC member) Sally Machray & John; James Rothwell crewing on Bills Corsair with Junior Tully Andrews (her first race); Tully’s brother Rigby also in his first race was with Azo Bell on Club Corsair 107 + visiting from Big River SC, Denise Bruschweiler; and last but not least welcome to experienced sailor Rachel O’Hagen, new to the Tweed and missing her old club at Williamstown in Victoria. Rachel sailed with recent recruit Horst Tietze and another visitor from Victoria , Richard Lawton on club Corsair 266.
The results speak for themselves. Bill handicapped himself with extra crew and followed the rules with a 360 for causing someone to alter course (unlike Wild Oats in the Hobart) – so Minnow was at the back of the fleet for a change.
Tim, Matt & Tom Busbridge (J) kept them company with Azo, Denise & Rigby having some trouble with an unfamiliar boat (with every rope the same colour blue!);
Keenas, Melita IIi & Nimbus made up the middle of the fleet all using their spinnakers and fighting for the lead every lap. Well done to Mark Reynolds, Craig Foley & Taj Krasna (J) for taking a well deserved 3rd place in the Corsair fleet.
Out in front was Swell Lady but even with Matt back on board they couldn’t catch Daniel, Adrian & Tamara on Odin. So that’s the Corsairs …maybe we’ll have 10 boats next time!
The Lasers were missing Mauri but had Peter Redmond & Michael Mills filling the gap. A close race between Macca and Millsy.
Division 2 needs some more boats – Rainer on the Access took first place (being the only boat in the division) – handling the strong breeze well especially considering its only his 3rd time out.
Congrats to corrected time winner Tim Brown on new Impulse “Itchy Coo” (maybe get a flower sticker on the boat for every win she has Tim? ) and Handicap winner Paul Uhlmann & Ian Lomas on Tasar “Wingover”.
Great to see father and daughter team Mike and Imogen on the club Tasar and also Andrew J with Mark Storrier on club NS14 Blutack were having a ball by the looks.
The multihulls fleet was down to 1 – so hard to do class champ results – Hobie 16 Sledder entertained us as usual, this time the crew skippered most of the race (well done Isaac) but Dave didn’t do so well as crew , falling off the boat at the finish line.
We were all off the water by the time the 30+ gusts came in!
Not long to wait for the next race – come down to Fingal and watch the action next Sunday 21 January – briefing at 12 – race start at 1 – finish between 2.30 and 3.30pm. Thanks folks.
Tweed Valley Sailing Club were proud to be represented by 5 of their members crewing in the races at the Sail Paradise Regatta week at Southport yacht club this year. Experienced sailors Craig Foley from Tugun on Stormy Petrel V & Deborah Flannery from Bilambil on Shirley Valentine & John Pring on Wildflower 2 have been regularly sailing on the “big boats” during 2017. Their experience on dinghies on the Tweed River gives them a head start on other potential crew. Even with only a few months of sailing experience with TVSC Andrew Jaggers from Chillingham and Jessica Normand from Byron Bay found spots on KD Girl and Ramble Tamble respectively and had the time of their lives in the winds gusting to 20 plus knots.
There were other TVSC connections though. One of the club’s inital start up members back in 2011 – Rob Westmorland from Bilambil still sails his Laser dinghy for fun but now spends his spare time on some of the best yachts in Australia. His love for sailing has really paid off and he and John Pring have started 2018 on a real high.
The yachts competed in 5 races over 4 days with TVSC’s best result being Wildflower II coming FIRST in their division and Stormy Petrel V coming in 2nd in the Cruising Yacht Spinnaker division.
I think we’re likely to see more TVSC members up at this great regatta in 2019. in the meantime they have a year to practice with competition no less fierce (but friendly!) on the Tweed with another club race with TVSC at Fingal Head this Sunday afternoon.
If you too would like to have a taste of sailing contact the club by email tvscmail@gmail.com or call club Commodore Bill Fenelon 0411 123 405.
Greetings Sailors,
I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing break over Christmas.
We can now get on with the business end of the season with 3 Corsair Class Championship races remaining and two NS14 / Laser Championship heats to go.
The season ends with race 10 on the 25th of March, now little over two months away.
Remember the very important date coming up in March, The Harwood Regatta on the 10th & 11th of March. We are hoping a big fleet of TVSC Corsairs will attend this regatta and we can establish the East Coast Corsair Championship.
Bunning’s BBQ
Big congratulations to Kevin and Jenny for a superbly organized Bunning’s BBQ. And a big thank you to all who participated and help raised $1500 for the club.
This was a highly successful day and we may have some new members from it.
Racing on Sunday
Get ready for an epic Corsair Race this Sunday. This will be Heat 3 of the Corsair Class Championship and anyone could win.
We now have 13 Corsairs registered with the club. This is amazing to have such a large fleet of one design 3 handed boats. Nearly all are using spinnakers! We also have some quality boats in our fleet. I think this is the best racing I have been involved in and I’m really looking forward to Sundays Race.
Corsair Class Ranking List
So far this series, after two races, three boats share equal first place, Epic, Odin and Minnow. Only one point behind in 2nd place is Keenas, 3 points behind Keenas in 3rd position, Swell Lady, equal fourth but 10 points back with 2 DNF’s is Capers and Melita. Next with a DNF & a DNS is Swallow, then the next six boats have all recorded two DNS’s (worth 15points) Nimbus, Peggy, Dominatrix, Rockin Robin, and Corsair 616.
This Sunday’s race will feature the return of Monique’s legend sheet hand, Matt Andrews and we can expect to see fireworks from Swell Lady, as Monique will try to salvage her season. Odin will be very fast and will go well in the fresh breeze, Keenas has been very fast in all races and got the bullet in Race 2, Peggy will be making an appearance and we can’t wait to see it go ! There’s a rumors they have a new “Big” kite! And previous Class Champion Kevin Burke will be also in the hunt. It promises to be a great afternoon
Looks like we will have a stiff breeze of between 15 & 20 knots, (36kmh) shifting from NNW to SE during the race. At start time the tide will be in full ebb flow and will continue and slowly slacken, so we better hope the wind stays in the North. Lucky its Corsairs cause it’s going to be very shallow at the finish.
Juniors
Juniors will go ahead this Sunday, starting at 9am. All members are urged to get involved with helping out at juniors, and rescue boat drivers are needed. It’s a relaxed morning and a chance to get some experience driving the rescue boat. Plus there’s time to get to the She Oak for Breakfast before the afternoon race.
I look forward to seeing you there on Sunday.
Bill Fenelon TVSC Commodore.
The Temperature reached 34 degrees … but thankfully that didn’t put people off buying hot sausages – over $1500 raised by a huge team of sizzling TVSC members expertly organised by Kevin Bourke & Jenny Bankier.
30 members including 4 of our keen juniors – Taj, Rigby, Tom & Kynan were involved with making this a fundraising success – a real credit to our club.
Special shout out to Josh Ferguson & Kynan who did double shifts.
Thanks everyone , it was a great fun day – let’s do another one (when its cooler!)
Racing starts again on the 14th of January.
Our Bunnings BBQ is on January the 7th, at the Tweed Heads Bunnings.
Have a great break!
On Sunday, Tweed Valley Sailing Club conducted its 5th race of the Summer Pointscore Series with strong winds reaching 26 knots at times on the Tweed River.
14 boats, sailed by 25 crew, battled the windy weather with many giving up and retiring early. Only 6 boats completed the course.
It was exciting sailing for the survivors, with a strong flood tide against the wind, creating large waves in the river which enabled boats to surf and gain speed.
1st Finisher, Weta “Scored a Tri” (John & Saffron Cook), completing the 10km course in record time of 70 minutes. John and Saffron were very happy with their afternoon, winning their first line honours result this season, edging out perennial winner Dave Chester & crew Kynan Luescher with Daves Hobie 16, who lead the fleet by 3 minutes after the first lap but was forced to retire following a capsize early into the second lap.
Line Honours in the mono hulls went to NS14 Tornado, (Bill Fenelon & Taj Krasna) beating second placed Laser “Siesta” (Gary McCrohan) by 2 minutes and third placed Laser “Bluey” (Kate Yeomans) only 9 seconds behind.
The two big events this Sunday were the 3rd heat of the North Coast NS14 class Championship series and the Tweed River Laser Class Championship.
3 boats started in the NS14’s with only one completing the course.
30 years old and built on the Northern Rivers, NS14 Tornado was skilfully sailed and avoided damage to complete the difficult course and take the bullet. Tornado show exceptional boat speed on the fast reaching legs and lead for most of the race. New sailors, Andrew Jaggers and Jessie Normans sailed NS14 “Blue Tack”, but withdrew after numerous capsizes, while Tasar “Hippocampus” (Mike & Imogen Mansted) was also forced to retire early with a broken mast while actually leading the fleet. It was a disappointing result for Mike & Imogen as this would have been their first race win.
3 single handed Lasers competed in heat 3 of their Class Championship, with only two finishing. 1st placed Laser, “Siesta”, had a very close race with “Bluey”, with Gary finishing only 9 seconds ahead of second placed Kate Yeomans. Kate lead for the first 2 laps & showed incredible courage to continue racing despite the strong wind and multiple capsizes.
Racing in the Clubs Summer Pointscore series included 3 Corsairs, 1 Impulse and 1 Access 303. First to finish in this group was “Swell Lady” (Monique Smith, Deborah Flannery & Craig Foley) .
It was a great day out for Monique and her crew, and one of their strongest performances, as they battled & survived the winds and beat second place Corsair “Peggy” (Josh Ferguson, Tim Molloy & Grant Banning) by 8 minutes.
This was the last race day of the year and the club will now take a break for Christmas. Next race at the Tweed Valley Sailing Club will be Heat 3 of the Northern Rivers Corsair Class Championship, conducted on the 14th of January 2018 Race Briefing will be at 12:00 NSW Time and Race Start will be at 1pm.
The sailing club is in need of volunteers to drive our rescue boat. It’s a fun afternoon on the river and everything you need is supplied. Please contact Club Commodore Bill Fenelon 0411 123 405 if you would like to try out. Boating licence is required.
Likewise, if you’d like to crew or learn to sail, then please get in touch.
