Kite Boarding

October 21, 2012 Leave a comment

So some time back those at the International SailingFederation [ISAF] decided that the sport of Windsurfing.sailboarding would be dropped from the Olympic games for RIO 2016. In it’s place would be Kiteboarding.

 

Whilst I know a few who Kiteboard, I’ve had little experience with it. As a teenager, I dropped out of sailing for a while and bought a couple of Windsurfers and competed in a few regattas, went wave jumping on Sydneys Northern beaches and even ventured up to the Central Coast on occasion. There are those who are yet to come to grips with either as a sport relating to Sailing, but as they are all powered by wind, I won’t get in to an arguement on the minor technicalities.

 

So the other day I was looking at http://www.seabreeze.com.au an excellent Australian weather website and noticed that there was a Kite event on at Botany Bay being organised by one of DeckHardware’s  customers, Kite Power. I had a look at the link and realised that whilst they are a new group to racing, what better way as a Yachting Australia Race Official than to get involved, especially with RIO 2016 in mind.
I got in touch with Steve McCormack and offered my services and arranged a meeting. Steve eagerly accepted my offer as an RO, so there I was on Saturday at my first event.

They had over 30 competitors in two divisions, race and off the beach. As a RO setting the course was easy, the hard thing was how do you identify them? Kite Power had arranged numbered T shirts so that was easy, but a little harder than I thought. I was helped out by Evelyn who knew most of the competitors, all I had to do was train her in the art of Race management and we were off. We got in two races in each division in around 18-20 knots of breeze, perfect conditions for the flyers. As we went in to sequence for race 3 in the racers, one competitor Jordan Girdis noted  that the breeze had increased some what. We hoisted the AP [Answering Pennant] and did a spot of checking with the local windstations and the use of my JDC Eole. Yes the breeze had got up somewhat and was more survival that good racing. After a 3/4hr postponement we agreed to pull the pin on the day.

The competitors were a mix of sailors including Jordan who had just competed in the recent Melges24 Worlds in San Francisco and Aiden Menzies a former crewmate of Nathan Outteridge. It was good to see them all mixing and talking about the different equipment. Certainly an eye opener for me with no previous experience with Kite Boarding. These guys were also acceptable to having a national race official coming in from the outside to make things run smoothly. The comradery was excellent with a BBQ running, Getto Blaster sounding out the tunes on the beach, it was all about atmosphere and it helped to set the scene.
I’d like to say thanks to Steve and Evelyn and the rest of the team who helped run the event, none of whom I’d met until that morning. I certainly look forward to the next event and helping out those who are looking to compete at Sail Melbourne later in the year where I have put up my hand to help as an RO. These guys certainly have the enthusiasm for their sport and made for a great day. Next time I hope ‘Hughie’ the wind god plays nice and we get a good NorEaster.

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2012 NSW Youth Championships

October 3, 2012 1 Comment

After many years of involvement in competing in and then running the Heaven can Wait 24 hour race around Lake Macquarie over the October long weekend it was time for a little change of scenery. To the other side!

I put my hand up several months ago to help run the NSW Youth Championships, not really knowing what I was in for. There were two courses, I was the Race Official on Bravo and Jeremy Atkinson from Woollahra was on Alpha. I had 29ers, 420s, Laser radials and 4.7s and the largest fleet in the Flying Elevens. Overall there were some 200 boats and 275 competitors.

I was fortunate to have my daughter Melissa once again backing me up on the start boat looking after the clock, she usually avoids most race management with me except for the Rolex Sydney Hobart race, preferring to do her own. Rhys Llewellen a DeckHardware Ambassador parent came from Narrabeen Lakes Sailing Club to do the flags. I was extremely fortunate to have another MHYC member in John Winchester offering his time to lay all the marks of my trapezoid course. Having these three with me made the three days and fifty starts [plus generals!] a lot easier. I didn’t have to worry about anything happening behind me, all went to plan. Rhys also took care each day in picking up the radios and trackers and returning them upon returning to the shore, John had to load and unload his boat daily with 5 marks. I think I had it easy worrying about the weather and the course to set.

Saturday dawned with a forecast of strong winds, we were not disappointed! The sailors came out and were greeted with gusts to 30 knots, a decision was made to send them ashore to wait it out. After several hours and the breeze reaching 35 knots on occasion it dropped down to a more manageable 18-20 and we were able to get in 2 races before sunset.

Sunday was a total change as Hughie definitely disappeared overnight. This time the land breeze took several hours to rotate around to a nice seabreeze of 10-12 knots, perfect. Even though most of the sailors were out there all day, we managed to get in 4 races. I’m sure that there were plenty of exhausted youth sailors that night, I know of a couple who were asleep early.

Monday was the same as the day before, except this time we kept them all ashore till the seabreeze arrived. We were fortunate to get in the required number of races after the gear breaking conditions of Saturday, there were several masts broken in the F11s and Lasers.

As for the results, I’ll leave that to the NSW Yachting website. What was notable was the number of ‘repeat offenders’ starting at our end of the line each time, the start team had a repour with some, “he’s back…”. There was one female Laser sailor who had the boys bluffed; she certainly nailed the start on more than one occasion. It was also nice seeing those who did timed runs in from the port end working out the line bias.

What disappointed me most was the total disregard by many parents and coaches in Sailing Instruction 25 requiring them to stay 50m away from the course area. This is one point that has been duly noted the next time I run a Youth Event. Jeremy said that he could almost have spent the night in the protest room blowing out his Alpha fleet, but decided against it too.

Next year? Maybe time to go sailing again in the HCW.

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Power point

September 18, 2012 Leave a comment

Yesterday morning I recieved a phone call from the Cruising Division at Middle Harbour Yacht Club, their guest speaker for last nights meeting had dropped out. Could I fill in and do a talk?

Sure.

Melissa spent most of the morning putting together a modified version of the Power Point presentation that she and Ben did for the Sydney International Boat show a couple of weeks ago [well it seems like that].

The cruising division at the club is quite active and they usually have around 40 members turn up, cook a BBQ and then have their meeting followed by a guest, in this case me. As the clubs principal race officer, I know a few of them , but it was great to meet up with some of the rest of the division. They even have one fellow who keeps up to track with any new developments in the news, magazines or on the net. In this case he mentioned the rash of European built boats coming in with sub standard skin fittings. well, did I come on a good night!

The presentation started on Liros ropes, the care, upkeep, choices and a host of other issues when owning a yacht. I had a few rope whip samples which were passed around. Some of those there still had wire halyards! I then opened up the bin I had of Forespar including a few of the Marelon skin fittings. This raised an eye with many there as it was surprising how many didn’t look after or regularly maintain their seacocks and valves, I think a few may when they next go aboard.

I spoke for over 1/2hr and then with questions and there were plenty, I was talking for over an hour, followed by those who came up afterwards. I think I managed to open a few eyes with the DeckHardware product range, many had picked up one of our discs at the show but were still to have a look. After last night a few will.

Come this Saturday at the club, I’m sure there will be a few asking some more questions. Hopefully I can help them out.

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First race season 2012/13 at MHYC

September 10, 2012 Leave a comment

Last Saturday was the first pointscore race of the season, with a good rollup in all divisions including the new #4 Division of fortnightly competitors. The breeze was out of the South West, however given the shifty nature of the breeze, a Westerly course was set. This gave the competitors a chance to do triangles as well as windward returns with a bit of Middle Head mystique thrown in.

 

With only one OCS on the day, all fleets were surprisingly well behaved on the startline. There was one incident however, Ken Krone aboard Kestral had a MOB in the last boatlength prior to his start. I was looking down the line and missed it, all I saw was his mainsheet being eased to slow the boat down. Once notified by the start team, I radioed Tender3 on the pin for them to come and assist. Ken arrived shortly after and picked him up and then retiring from the race. I look forward to seeing his report on the incident.

The start team then moved to watch the bottom mark for a few laps then moved on to be in position at Balmoral for the finish, this also gave Melissa the opportunity to take photos from a different direction.

The final issue on the day for the start team was the rescue of a distressed sailboarder. We had picked up all of the marks and were returning to MHYC when we saw a hand waving at us. The sailboarder had come out of Balmoral and was over come by exhaustion and the cold. We brought him onboard Hugh S George and took him in to the inner line of moorings at Balmoral for a short paddle ashore.

 

Photos taken by Melissa can be seen on both the DeckHardware and MHYC Facebook pages.

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It’s been a full on month or so

August 17, 2012 Leave a comment

It’s been a full on month or so for Robyn, Melissa, me and all the helpers at Deckhardware. First up we had the farewell at Wangi Wangi for the Australian champion 49er team of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen and their coach Emmett Lazich prior to London 2012. It was so rewarding as friends and sponsors of these guys that they came home with the Gold medal, knowing the work that has been put in to their effort, it was great to see the smiles on the dias.

We look forward to catching up with the guys later in the year.

The following weekend was the Sydney International Boatshow, with a great team again including Goughy, Georgia, Brad and making his first appearance for us in Sydney, Ben. Several others made the show easier, in setups, during and the breakdown. They included Nicole, Shane and Michael along with Greg and Emma Harris. It was a huge show for DeckHardware and we couldn’t do it without the support of these guys. Thanks.

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Another interstate trip

July 9, 2012 Leave a comment

Last week I made a late trip down to Melbourne, I had hoped to spend the week seeing a majority of customers that I don’t see on my regular trips. Unfortunately due to the ill health of Robyn I could only get away for a couple of days. So instead of driving down Sunday, I left late thursday afternoon and could only spend Friday seeing a few people.

 

Saturday was spent attending a Yachting Australia Racing Rules and race officers meeting at Royal Brighton Yacht Club, before the return 10 hour drive home on Sunday. Why drive? Too often I’m asked do you have this to show me, I haven’t seen that before. having a van full of products enables me to show a range of the nearly 10,000 items in our price list.

 

 

I had the chance to visit the Melbourne Wooden Boat Centre at Docklands. This is a Co-operative of owner builders building a nd repairing a quite differing range of craft. Luke Evans is one of those building his first little sailing dinghy, a 16’er as seen in the front right of the photo. Luke is after a classic style in his finish and Liros do a range of ropes that will hopefully fit his final look. I was able to show him a variety of the DeckHardware range, including the Allen fittings and PROtect Tape. Some of the other boats ranged from a Minnow up to a Dragon class yacht, there were rowing sculls and Dragon paddling canoes, quite a range.

 

Saturday at Brighton was a first also. As my clubs Principal race officer, I try to keep up to date on what’s going on, especially with the new ISAF rules coming in to effect in January. Each state had a nominated person to vote but there were several of us sitting in and able to to comment where neccessary. It will be interesting to see the new rules of Sailing come in to effect as I had not been involved before.

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Saturday on Sydney Harbour

June 12, 2012 Leave a comment

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This weekend was a long weekend in Sydney so there was no racing at Middle Harbour. After an early start at Woollahra Sailing Club where the East Coast Championships were being held for the 420s and Optimists, it was back to MHYC.

At Woollahra, I was able to have a good look at some of the 420s and catch up with some of the coaches and parents.

Later Steve Tucker, my assistant RO at MHYC, Phil Clinton, Vice Commodore and the chair of the sailing committee and I went out for a run around the harbour. The object was to GPS mark all the NSW Yachting Association marks as well as some of the other common marks such as the Shark, Clarke Islands and Fort Denison we use. Steve was going to update all the course lengths as they haven’t been done for some time, it’ll also give us an accurate database for any other courses we may set around the fixed marks.

Some of those we pinged were the posts at the islands, the one shown is on the Southeast corner of Clarke Island. Steve said that last season he’d run aground on the rock to which to post is fitted in a 30’er. Being in the MHYC startboat Hugh George [36′ and twin turbo diesel] and giving Phil Clinton driving lessons, we were able to come right alongside and have a good look down…mmmnn that one? The three of us were all able to have a good look for future races! Whether or not that’s inside knowledge or not…put it down to research.

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First full week back to ‘normal’

June 4, 2012 2 Comments

After the few weeks leading up to Sanctuary Cove 2012 and the associated planning, setting up and returning to Sydney, today see’s the first week of a near normal week. After spending yesterday setting up the stands again in the warehouse as a prelude to th Sydney International Boat Show where DeckHardware will have a larger and improved stand on Sydney 2011.

Sanctuary Cove was an improvement on last years show with many if not most of the visitors to our stand knowing what they were looking for. As in every year, Man Ship Marine’s range of hatches and ports was the most requested product, it was surprising to see a larger number than usual of owner builders requesting information. They ranged from those who had plans, one fellow was on to his second hull in his catamaran build to a fellow from Victoria who had just turned over his Van DeStadt to start on the interior and deck. Now with an increasing range of products, DeckHardware can supply product information across a range of enquiries, from the Forespar Marelon plumbing products to the TBS non skid for their decks.

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Saturday was the first day back on the Middle Harbour startboat in some time. This was race 5 of the Winter series and I had missed the last race of the summer pointscore whilst Melissa and I attended a YANSW course. The photo shows Division 2 with 10 seconds to go, not showing is the one boat who was OCS, in Winter I try to lay a line that makes the fleet start down the line, but they still start on the boat and give away too many boatlengths. And the rain in the distance over South Head? Yes, we got wet!

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It’s been a big couple of weeks and I haven’t been anywhere.

May 8, 2012 Leave a comment

With the Sanctuary Cove Boatshow coming up in a couple of weeks time, I haven’t had a chance to get out on the road. Many of my friends and some of our DeckHardware customers know that I spend quite a bit of time on the road visiting the various chandleries, boatbuilders and riggers around Australia, however there’s been plenty to do with the show season upon us.

Last week I had the chance to go out to test a few of the PeterGs boat cleaning products on an old Laser. The boat had been in storage for some time before being picked up by a couple of friends and occasional DeckHardware helpers James Gough and Liz Gazzard. Goughy and I had a range of the PeterGs to trial cleaning up the boat.

We tried the Marine Wash, an Alcoline product on one side and on the other the KleenAHull and Acidic product to compare the outcome. Whilst we didn’t expect too much from the Marine Wash on the bottom, we had excellent results from the KleenAHull as shown by the photo. You can see the difference from the square we masked off. With a final cleanup of the Port side, Goughy and Liz have a new looking boat, bar the tape mark down the centre line!

Over the weekend, rather than being out on the startboat no the seasons over, I’ve been building new stands for the boatshows. Man Ship Marine and Houdini both have new products and therefore new stands for this year. We’ve also re-arranged many of the other stands to show off differing lines from each manufacturer, Forespar for example have their new range of Tef45 products for anti corrosion use. For those in Australia, you’ll just have to come along and have a look, we’ll be at both Sanctuary Cove and the Sydney boatshows. Everyone else will have to keep an eye on the DeckHardware Facebook page where Melissa will be keeping you updated.

 

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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.

 

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