Another big week

April 23, 2012 Leave a comment

Thursday saw another drive down to the South Coast of NSW with the Boating Industry Association members to several boatbuilders in Nowra and Woollamia.

I took the opportunity to see our customers down there in a different light, in a group setting as well as a short individual chat. Unfortunately the industry is in a bit of a down turn and there’s not too much happenning in terms of new builds.

Each boatbuilder has plenty of repair work to keep them going, but they do like to build from scratch and they take a lot of pride in their work.

The last visit on the day was to view the proposed site of the Shoalhaven Marina. This will be a huge complex when finished. There will be a marina, slipway, travel lift and full service facilities. Whilst it has been in planning for several decades, it’s now getting closer to being built and will be a huge bonus to the area both in job numbers and to the local area as there are currently limited facilities in the area.

 

Over the weekend Melissa and I sat for the Yachting Association Powerboat Course, this replaces the old TL3 certificate that I had previously recieved. For two days we had lectures/talks and an afternoon on water session practising boat handling, man overboard and mark laying and retrieval.

Whilst a full weekend, it was interesting to see other sailors points of view in boat handling and is a recommendation to others if they too have the opportunity.

 

Filed under DeckHardware

2012 Access World Sailing Championship at Middle Harbour

April 14, 2012 Leave a comment

Well that was a week. It’s been 12 months in the making for Commodore Julie Hodder and her team at Middle Harbour Yacht Club organising and then running the 2012 Access Sailing World Championships. With over 120 competitors and over 200 volunteers to help out both on and off the water it was a huge event for the club.

As MHYC Principal race Officer I was out on the water each day with the exception of Tuesday assisting International Race Official Mark Pryke in the on water running of the event. With 5 different divisions, it was quite an effort to run smoothly and yes I did make mistakes! One occasion forgetting to show the course board correctly resulting in the Answering Pennant [Postponement flag] being hoisted to rectify the situation.

For the sailors, I hope they enjoyed the experience, with winds up to 30 knots on Tuesday to the glass out Friday morning, there was the full range on Sydney’s Middle Harbour.

From a spectator point, it was great viewing with extremely close racing in all divisions. It may have not seemed close in the final results, but the leaders were pushed through out the entire event.

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Filed under Assorted

2012 World Access Dinghy Championships

April 7, 2012 Leave a comment

ImageThis week sees me back at my home club Middle Harbour Yacht Club. After 3 weeks away interstate in 5 it’s nice to come back to familiar surroundings.

Wth over 85 boats and over 100 competitors across multiple divisions, it has been quite an effort by our club Commodore Julie Hodder and a huge team of volunteers in organising this event.

As the club PRO, I’m stepping aside as Mark Pryke has been brought in to oversee the on water running of the event. It will be interesting working alongside him, as though we have known each other for many decades, this will be the first time I’ve been on the water with him, as against being on the water competing against him. Mark is known these days as an International Race Official, however, I spent many years sailing against him in the Adams10s.

The fleet this week includes the Access, Libertys and the Paralympic sailing class, the Skud18 as shown in the photo. In this case it’s Dan and Liesels boat which we sponsor through our support of the Australian Sailing Team. It’ll also be a good opportunity to get some on water footage too.

Hopefully I may get the chance to jump aboard on of the competing boats, just to get a feel of what they are like. I’ve never sailed a dinghy that can’t capsize, should be interesting.

Filed under DeckHardware, Inter State Trips, MHYC, Yacht Race Tagged with , , , , , ,