Sydneys Winter of late

July 19, 2013 Leave a comment

There’s been plenty in the news on the current weather in Sydney, we’ve had the hottest week in something like 80 years, with five days over 20c. This weekend however things are looking to change with the next cold front coming through.

I dropped down to Middle Harbour Yacht Club to meet up with Australian Sailing Team member Tom Burton to discuss his Liros rope requirements and whilst there took this photo. With a little more breeze in the afternoon it was a great day and a little envious of the ISAF number one ranked Laser sailor going out.

This weekend is the last of the MHYC Winter Series with the following weekend the start of the CYCA Gold Coast race. For a change, I’ll be on the pin end of the line watching the start. We’ll have a couple of our regular team on board including Melissa and Phil who are integral to our Hobart start team. With some favourable weather, we wish the competitors a good trip north. Leading the charge will be Hobart record holder Wild OatsXI with the other super maxis Wild Thing and Lahana and the Volvo70s Black Jack and Southern Excellence. The handicap contender is wide open this year with no clear favourites. We’ll have to wait till closer to the 27th for a better idea.

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Wet wet wet

July 2, 2013 Leave a comment

With apologies to those who went out let alone sailing last Saturday in Sydney, it was wet. As one friend mentioned, it was probably the wettest day on the harbour in quite some time. I think it was the eighth day in a row of rain in Sydney, wettest June for 6 years.

I was once more out on The Sound, this time my first for some time at Middle Harbour Yacht Clubs Winter Series. With a handfull of intrepid sailors, our regular team attempted to stay dry however with a few more anchor winch issues, not quite. The breeze did co-operate however and we had a reasonably steady 10knots for most of the day and they all got around the full course.

Hopefully the coming weeks will improve.019044

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June update

June 16, 2013 1 Comment

Over the June Queens Birthday weekend, I was again out on the water running the Optimist East Coast Championships at MHYC. Whilst we were blessed with nice fine days, the wind gods neglected us. Both days were affected by fickle winds early in the piece. With over 70 competitors in the two Optimist fleets and a couple of Cadets and a few 420s to round out the fleet, there were plenty waiting for a a course to be set, especially on Sunday with a 3 hour delay. Once again I was fortunate to have Melissa  backing me up and Robin Tames and Phil Clinton also aboard the start boat. With a team that starts everything from the annual Rolex Sydney Hobart Race down to the aspiring sailors in the Optimists, it’s good to have the experience aboard. Some competitors came up from Victoria to add to those from around Sydney, hopefully they all enjoyed the experience.

With two fleets sailing different courses, we had three teams finishing them. Phil was inside the cabin with a scribe, Mel was outside with a couple of scribes and I was upstairs on the flybridge. With the competitors coming across the finish line down wind, seeing the sail numbers was a little difficult with their booms straight out from us. I was able to have the view from above and a little easier. How Mel kept up I don’t know, let alone the scribes. Some how we were able to collate the results! The tape recorders got a work out too.

What was nice was the number of the junior competitors saying ‘Thank you’ to the start boat as they finished the last race of the event. That’s always appreciated and I hope they continue to thank the volunteers through out their sailing career.

Yesterday I spent the day at DeckHardware with our 16′ Skiff Ambassadors Fire Stopping. Owner James Bury [white cap] has decided to refit the multiple Australian Champion with an all new fitout of Allen Brothers fittings. All of the old cleats, blocks and systems were replaced with new parts. Along with forward hand Rob Napper, James had arranged professional sailor Mitch White to assist. By bringing the skiff to DeckHardware, the three of them were able to swap and change fittings, whilst I tried to keep a record of those used. With the added use of Schaefer Marine Low friction rings and Liros 1.5mm Dyneema, many of the systems have been tidied up hopefully making the boat easier to sail and therefore faster. Time will tell when James and Mitch return to Sydney at the beginning of the season after competing in Team Transfusion at the Farr40 World Championships in New York.  To have a look at the range of DeckHardware products available you can find them on our website www.deckhardware.com.au

Today was back to Middle Harbour Yacht Club, but this time with another hat, that of one of the clubs Safety Auditors. As the Principal Race Officer, it’s also a chance to hop aboard some of the boats and look at their layout. Something not possible when you are out early and back late. Credit to those who I saw, there’s always some thing you pick up on, from not having the current ISAF 3013-16 Rule book aboard to not having the yachts sail number on the stern. These were minor compared when talking to some of the other auditors.

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2013 Sydney Harbour Regatta

March 11, 2013 Leave a comment

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This weekend saw Sydney Harbour and the waters offshore crowded with racing yachts competing in the annual Middle Harbour Yacht Club Sydney Harbour Regatta. With over 220 competitors ranging in size from the Historical 18’ers and Ynglings up to Grant Warringtons 100′ Maxi Wild Thing out on the ocean passage course.

All the major clubs on the harbour and with assistance from RPAYC on Pittwater and this year NCYC from Newcastle it’s quite an undertaking organising enough officials, startboats and course layers for the nineteen divisions.

In previous events I have looked after Course area E with the Adams10s, Flying Tigers and on occasions, the Farr40s and Sportsboats. This was in the part of the harbour known as the Sound, an area where MHYC has most of it’s racing.

This year however, I had a change of scenery moving to Course area I as RO. As part of the event, the Sydney38 class also had their championships, but with 10 races over three days instead. Fridays racing was held inshore in mainly light conditions, giving all the competitors and officials alike the chance to settle in. On Saturday and Sunday we went offshore to the Manly Cirlce and had some great sailing in a typical summer Nor’Easter. The weekends fleet also included two IRC handicap divisions. Racing was close in all three divisions and watching the fleet round the bottom gate from the startboat was enjoyable, both in the handling and the closeness of the racing.

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It also gave me the opportunity of working with another team of race officials and course boats, in this case the team from the CYCA. All of their team were great to work with and I look forward to the next time.

Back on the beach at MHYC, the sailors were entertained by their favourite band, the Wolverines. Drummer John Clinton had a busy weekend as he was sailing his own boat Holy Cow inshore.

Next up is the Asia Pacific Access Championships in Canberra over Easter. I haven’t been there for a few years, so I’m looking forward to it.

 

More photos are here, http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151295595641721.1073741828.130146381720&type=1

 

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Conditions on the harbour last weekend

March 6, 2013 Leave a comment

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Last weekend I was the PRO for the NSW 420 and 470 class State Championships at MHYC, conditions for the fleet on Saturday were miserable to say the least.

On Saturday with the breeze out of the east and a large swell running in the Sound of Sydney Harbour, the decision was made to move the fleets inshore to the relatively calmer reaches of Middle Harbour. Whilst the wind direction varied through 50 degrees, the strength also varied a great deal from around a nice 15knots to gusts in the mid 20s. This made for trying conditions for the competitors and race officials. On Sunday the conditions abaited a little and we were able to sail the remaining heats with all the competitors enjoying the downhill surfing.

Xavier Winston Smith and Mat Belcher won the 420 and 470 classes quite convincingly. Xavier in one race capsized just before the start and came through to finish second in that race.  For images and video go to our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/deckhardware.


This weekend sees the annual Middle Harbour Yacht Club  Sydney Harbour regatta once again. With the support of the CYCA, RANSA, SASC, RSYS, RPAYC, MYC and this year Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club, there are multiple course both inshore and offshore with competitors ranging from the 100’er Wild Thing down to a fleet of Ynglings. I will be running the Sydney38 class, with 4 races inshore on Friday and 3 each day over the weekend on the Manly Circle.  Entertainment after sailing is once again the popular Aussie band The Wolverines – always a crowd favourite with the sailors. Drummer John Clinton owns the Beneteau ‘Holy Cow’ with distinctive markings on the sails and topsides.

Further information is available on the regatta website, http://www.shr.mhyc.com.au

Hopefully the conditions we have had of late will improve to provide some great sailing.

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That was February

March 1, 2013 Leave a comment

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February started off with the Adams 10m titles once again at Middle Harbour. The weather over the January Australia Day long weekend brought decent wind out of the Noreast for the first and last day, the Sunday was a writeoff as we only got the one race in.

The series was always going to be hard fought between Tim Gallego steering Jim Curtis’s Another Dilemma [MH26] and Ben Nossiter’s Sirius [MH118]. Tim is a long time Adams 10 sailor and since his move to England some years ago, makes the trip out each January for a sail. Ben has for many years – some say too many, ruled the scratch pointscore at MHYC. On this occasion, Tim was able to just make the break at the starts on most occasions and hold off Ben for the 2013 Title.

Chris Williams aboard Coconut Telegraph was the third placed boat and the winner of the DeckHardware donated Pat Carroll Memorial Trophy for the best placed timber seated version.

I then took off on a small overnight drive down to Canberra and across to Eden on the south coast for a DeckHardware sales trip. These places are just a little too far to do in a day from Sydney but an overnighter makes it easer to see the customers down south. I was able to check on the progress of a yacht being fitted with Man Ship Marine hatches, ports and sliding companionway hatches. They look good, however the owner builder has had some down time due to other issues and the launch is some time off.

Back home and it was back in to race management mode, this time the next heat of the NSW Kiteboarding Association titles.034 Kiteboarding attracted a range of competitors. There were those who sailed and those who surfed, rather like the introduction decades ago of the Windsurfer. On this day we only had a handfull of the 38 entrants turn up as the conditions for this form of sailing are rather specific. Most sailors can sail in anything up to 25-30 knots with out major issues. Kites on the other hand require a minimum of 10 knots just to get out on the water. This raises all sorts of issues when planning ahead for course racing.

It is a good experience however and I look forward to next season and hopefully better weather and more competitors.

The following weeks saw me up at Pittwater helping run the Pittwater High Schools District teams sailing event. This was a new one for me as I hadn’t been involved in any teams racing management before. With Melissa as one of the umpires, I was able to get my head around running 60 odd races in one day. It made for some interesting discussions between us on the radio. I wanted to start a race, however I couldn’t because there were no umpires on the startline. More things to think of other than wind/tide and course construction that I usually watch out for. Again it was an experience watching some of the sailors teams racing and making calls to their team mates on who to cover etc.

We have just had the JJ Giltinan World 18’er Championship on the harbour and amongst the competitors was a staff member of Allen Brothers in England. DeckHardware distributes the Allen product range and this was a great opportunity to spend some time with Tristan Hutt and the crew of Pica who made the trip ‘Downunder’. 032The photo shows the CTech team from NZ making the perfect porthand start. They were able to continue this break and lead the whole way around the track. The bow on port behind CTech is The Kitchen Maker skippered by dual Olympic Gold Medalist Mal Page, unfortunately he had to take the sterns on most of the fleet and wasn’t able to recover, finishing mid fleet.

Melissa was able later in the week on the layday to take the Pica team on a tour of the Northern Beaches taking in some of the sights of Home and Away’s Summer Bay. The TV show is seen by more in England than here, so they were pleased to have the opportunity.

The English sailors were more than happy to spend some time away from the English Winter, we think they will be back.

This coming weekend we have the 420/470 States at MHYC and the following weekend in the Sydney Harbour Regatta featuring the Sydney38 Championships, both events I’ll be running as RO. Hopefully we get some of the nice weather as seen in the 18’er photo, but given the battering that the East Coast of Australia has been having of late, I don’t think so.

With the south east of Queensland and norther New South Wales being affected by floods recently, several of my sales trips have had to be changed, hopefully after Easter I can get up north and show off the new DeckHardware products. Our thoughts go out to those who have suffered losses due to these floods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Been a big few days down south

January 3, 2013 Leave a comment

I’ve been in Hobart for a few days now and it’s been pretty much non stop. I’ve been between several regatttas, the International Cadet Worlds and the 420 and Laser Nationals and then there’s the finish of the other race that I started on Boxing Day, the Rolex Sydney Hobart. I’ve helped competitors re rig and rebuild their boats, on one day re splicing three jib halyards.

I’ve seen the Governor of Tasmania preside over 2 prizegivings, someone should however told him not to repeat the same line each time, I’m sure there are a few others who heard the same comments about the Volvo race being a festival as is the feeling in Hobart at this time of year.

I’ve also had the chance to catch up with old friends and made some new ones, one Launceston Hobart competitor made note last night – “you’re that Phil!” I had to remind him that should he come to MHYC, there’s four Phils to choose from. Hobart at this time of year is a festival with the Taste of Tassie food halls on the waterfront a big part of it. I’m yet to have a Scallop pie, one of the local delicacies, but there’s still time. It’s been good catching up with the likes of Ian and David Ross and Andrew Hunn, all of whom I’ve known for over 35 years.

In the coming days there’s the completion of the 420s and Cadets and then the Australian Youth Championships start. Also on this weekend is another round of the Australian Farr40 circuit with several Sydney boats in town including Estate Master and Transfusion. I’ll drop over the other side of the Derwent River to Bellerive to catch up with these guys in the coming days.

I’m in Hobart for another week or so and the way things are, I’ll need it. Normally a trip down here is around 4 days to see all the builders and chandleries, I’ve only had the chance to see two of those.

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Off to Sail Melbourne

November 30, 2012 Leave a comment

Last time around I noted that I had a bit on.

With the Middle Harbour Yacht Clubs Short Ocean racing Championships last weekend, we had 4 divisions racing with boats such as the new McConaghy38 Ginger and Rob Hannas Shogun TP52 team up form Victoria and a range of Sydney and Pittwater locals. Saturday saw a race up to Lion Island and back in a lovely Noreaster, Shogun did the return in 4 hours 5 mins and 55 seconds. Some of the smaller boats would have been just reaching Broken Bay! Truely amazing given the breeze never really got over 14knots.

Sunday saw a planned 2 races cut to one due to the light conditions. I had to postpone the start as there was no breeze to get them out of the harbour, then 3 of the 4 divisions were too keen on the start line so we had a couple of individual recalls in each, hastened by a runout tide. With the lack of breeze offshore the first race was shortened, we had planned for two but the wind didn’t play nice, so it was called for the weekend at that.

For the next week and a bit, I’ll be in Victoria officating at Sail Melbourne, part of ISAFs World Cup series. Over 300 competitors at Sandringham Yacht Club competing in a range of classes on four courses. Needless to say I have a range of DeckHardware products, should any competitor require assistance.

The van is packed, jam packed as I’m also assisting Krystal Weir, Australia’s London 2012 Laser Radial sailor by taking down her boat and some of her gear. Krystal has only sailed the laser a couple of times since the Olympics in a little break/ respite form competition. This event is the first in an effort to gain selection for Rio 2016.

More next week.

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Bit on at this time of year.

November 12, 2012 Leave a comment

At this time of year there’s always a bit on. Saturday before last was round two of the State Kiteboarding championships that I’ve been running, this coming Saturday will see round three at Botany Bay. As of last week ISAF have decided against an earlier decision to instate the Kites for Rio 2016 instead of Sailboards. They have now reversed this decision and the Kites are out. It will be interesting to see how many continue racing in the long term.

The next day saw a little trip up to the Central Coast for the BIA Try Sailing day. I visited Gosford Sailing Club, Budgewoi Sailing Club, South Lake Macquarie Sailing club at Sunshine and Mannering Park Sailing Club. It was good to see the volunteers helping out and assisting those who would like to take up the sport of Sailing – well done. At Sunshine they had over 60 turn up, only a couple had pre registered so well done to all there. The photo shows an 11m One design taking those out at Gosford.

Thursday was another one of my little drives down to the South Coast of NSW. I stopped and saw customers at Lake Illawarra, Nowra, Wollamia, Ulladulla and Batemans Bay. A long day on the road and 625 kms driven.

The photo shows an IOR Robber 1/4 tonner at Wollamia. This yard is full of owner builder/repairers, where they can pull their boats and take their time updating.

Back in the 70s, my late father had the plans to build one and engaged Ken Beashel to price it up. Unfortunately it never went ahead. They were a quick boat in their day in Europe, although none of the Australian built boats had any success that I know of.

Saturday saw me back at MHYC for the first time in several weeks running the club races. With 20knots at the start there was plenty of action on the water.

Yesterday was a rare day away from the water. We have several friends who are due to have babies in the coming weeks, so there was a bit of a get together and a catchup. Very enjoyable day cathing up with old friends.

Next Saturday sees me back at Botany Bay for round three of the Kiteboards and Sunday a trip up to the lake for the first day of racing in the Australian Multihull Championships. This is a look/see, as I’m not involved in the race management.

The following weekend is the MHYC Short Ocean Racing Championships, Saturday is a race up to Lion Island at Broken Bay. Sunday sees two short races offshore. Depending on the forecast, I’ll either send them North to the Manly Circle or south to Bondi.

Following that, I’m off to Melbourne where I’ll be involved in running Sail Melbourne. This is the first time I’ll be involved in Sail Melbourne, but an interesting look at how others run their events none the less. With the amount of yacht race management I do, it’ll be interesting doing dinghies.

Suddenly Christmas is upon us and it’s time for the Rolex Sydney Hobart start, where I’m the RO for the Southern line. This will be the sixth year and it never gets any easier. Each time I go to anchor in the designated spot there’s a hole making holding fast difficult, some how we do it. Last year we had a couple of OCS starters which meant no going out to watch them turn south. Hopefully this year they’ll all behave.
Thats’ the weekends booked till the New Year, like I said a bit on. January?  Off to Tasmania with the DeckHardware van on the ferry. Mels going down with it for a couple of weeks, I’ll bring it back.

Yep, bit on.

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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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