Sydneys Winter

July 4, 2014 Leave a comment

The last few weeks I’ve been out on the water with the brave souls with the Middle Harbour Yacht Club Winter fleet. I say that almost in jest as the weather has been nothing but pleasant out on the water. The breezes have been relatively kind, especially given it’s winter. Yes there have been a couple of occasions when we’ve had to shorten the course, but then you have days like last week where there was a lovely Nor-Wester of 15-18knots with clear skies and flat water. Couldn’t have it any better really, we’ve even had time to watch a couple of whales in the harbour as well.

Here’s a few photos from the last couple of weeks on Sydney Harbour.

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Headed North West

June 10, 2014 Leave a comment

Last weekend I headed inland to Lake Keepit for the first time. The lake is around halfway between Gunnedah and Tamworth and when full is larger than I expected, however on this occasion was around 17%. The Keepit Kool Regatta has been going for several decades and is one of those that should be on most lists for dinghies, multis, sportsboats and trailerable yachts. So I went.

I wasn’t involved in the running of the event, instead I filled the DeckHardware van with a range of products, more than usual and pitched the marquee to show some of the lines we distribute. As is the case with many of these regional areas, there’s those who haven’t heard of DeckHardware, so it’s a good time to show the wares.

With  a division each for monos, multihulls, sportsboats and trailerables there was a spread in the types out on the water. There was the usual fleet of Lasers, however the second biggest  fleet were the Hartley16s. Competitors came to Lake Keepit State Park from many areas, Sydney and Lake Macquarie included. There were Viper sportsboats and a JS30 from Lake Macquarie amongst the faster trailerables and in the dinghies a 16′ skiff, a 49er lead the pack. In the multihulls, a Nacra lead their fleet from an A Class. As seen by the photos, the conditions were generally light, the best breeze on the Sunday was around 6-7 knots, perfect for those modified boats like the 29er with a larger square topped rig. Certainly a spread of types for the handicapper to keep a track of.

Accommodation in the park was in vans, both permanent or BYO or Tent. Many chose the latter option, including myself. The major issue here was that unlike most regattas where you camp next to the club, the accommodation area was about a kilometre away. The facilities however are excellent and certainly well frequented by those with caravans with nice hot showers and a laundry. There is also a huge covered BBQ area for those larger groups.

If you haven’t been, I suggest you go and find out why it’s called the Keepit Kool regatta, I did.

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Headed North

May 28, 2014 Leave a comment

Last Thursday I left Sydney and headed north, this trip was a combination of a few things. I run a course for Yachting New South Wales teaching country clubs the art of being a race official and on this occasion I was at Kingscliff with members of the Tweed Valley Sailing Club. Like many of the country clubs, their fleet is a broad range of classes and abilities, what doesn’t change is the enthusiasm for the sport of sailing. It was good to catch up again with Commodore Bill who I had met on a previous trip. Also with a former customer Michael, now retired to the Gold Coast and sailing an Impulse dinghy. Amongst the experienced members was one fellow just back from a world cruise, he certainly had some stories. There is also some practical and it was good to see those who don’t usually use compasses and GPSs experimenting.

The following day I attended the Sanctuary Cove Boatshow to see what’s new and a general catch up with those there. For the first time in too many years, their was absolutely no rain. Usually the shows have had a shower and even heavy downpours to put a dampener on things. Those outside rejoiced as it was clear skies, although the clothing companies would ague otherwise. Rain for them brings the customers. It was nice to spend the day wandering around without the need for jackets and umbrellas.

Whilst these were the two primary reasons for the trip, I also had the chance to stop and see a few of DeckHardware’s customers both old and new. It’s always good to see them and show a range of products, especially the builders who stop and think ‘where can I use that?’. One I saw is building a carbon 20′ foiling catamaran, taking the rig off his Tornado to have some fun. I look forward to seeing how the country clubs where he sails handicap him. Spending a couple of hours going through the Allen, Liros, PROtect and TBS range opens a few eyes, especially when they are able to place a few blocks and cleats here and there. Another builder I have to take some parts to show when I next drive past in a couple of weeks time, he’s building a one off carbon race boat and every little weight loss helps the speed gains.

Next trip is to Lake Keepit for the Keepit Kool Regatta in June, one I’ve not been to even though it’s been going for several decades now.First up however, I’m attending a race management course for my own accreditation. As the ISAF rules change each four years, so does one have to re sit and re visit the courses to maintain currency. This is a two day event, the ones I hold go for 4-4.5hours. Hopefully I’ll pass without too many issues.

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Down to the South Coast

May 12, 2014 Leave a comment

I spent the last few days driving down south, seeing DeckHardware customers on the way to running a Club Race Officials course on behalf of Yachting New South Wales at Lake Wallagoot just north of Merimbula. Like many I had no idea of where it was or what they sailed, I came away impressed by the enthusiasm of the members I met.

The lake gives about a kilometre of good race course area with around 5-6m of depth, plenty of room for a dinghy or sportsboat regatta. The club race team headed by Tony Hastings have drawn up a range of triangular courses and plotted them to suit the majority of conditions. With only the one power boat, they drop the marks in pre determined GPS positions and come back to run the race, all very civilised. A range of multi and monohulls race under a local yardstick to give everyone a chance.  Everyone takes a turn to run the racing on the day, your typical little volunteer run club.

Along the way south, I dropped by a few of DeckHardware customers showing off some of the products, there’s always something that someone hasn’t seen. From chandleries to owner builds there’s usually something they have seen in the media or on our website but not held. This was also the case with those at Lake Wallagoot. One of the Wallagoot members is re building a plywood Pacer dinghy, as a retired shipwright, it’s almost a work of art with the timber gunwales sanded back for multiple coats of varnish. I’m sure the local juniors will appreciate the chance to have a club boat to learn to sail on that has been carefully refurbished.

One owner builder I saw is finishing off his custom 50′ yacht. We had previously supplied Man Ship Marine sliding hatches and ports, now Richard is at the fitout stage and we spent a couple of hours looking over the yacht and going through the product range options. As with many of the owner/builders, it’s a labour of love with the prospect of going to sea driving many to finish their projects. It’s always good to spend sometime with someone who knows the boat inside and out and following the progress to completion.

Fortunately the weather held out and with only drizzle late in the day on Saturday to follow me back up the coast on the drive home.

I’ll be back down that way later in the year as next season starts.

 

 

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A new season has started

May 5, 2014 Leave a comment

Last Saturday was race one of the Middle Harbour Yacht Clubs Winter Series and just about right on queue the weather turned Winterish. Forecast was for cold wet and breeze, the colder and breeze we had. The small but keen fleet got away in a typical South Wester and sailed the full course in the 18-20 knots of wind.

After starting the fleet, I motored upwind for the finish and noticed a fleet of Maritime and Waterways vessels off Middle Head. We took our time and then we saw the reason. Whales! One breached just off the port bow with no warning. Phone Cameras came out and we got a couple of shots. This is the first pair in the harbour this winter, I’d expect to see more in the coming months.

I’m off on the road in the coming days, this time down to the South Coast to run another Race officers course on Saturday at Lake Wallagoot. Normally a days drive, I’ll take a couple and see some DeckHardware customers on the way. In two weeks time, I’m off the other way to Tweed Heads for the next course, so I’ll cover the NSW coast line. Following that..I’m off to Lake Keepit with the DeckHardware regatta van over the June long weekend. I’ve not been there before but the Keepit Kool Regatta has been run for several decades now. Three trips, so I’ll be covering a bit of New South Wales.007 008 009

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2014 Combined High Schools Regatta

April 21, 2014 4 Comments

After all of the preparation and setup it’s amazing how quickly the 2014 Combined High Schools sailing regatta at Belmont went.  Once again the weather didn’t co-operate with strong southerlies and rain each day. The competitors however liked the good breeze, although many at the end had had enough.

 We support this event because we believe in what it stands for to us, not to lift our profile let alone our income, but to hopefully spread the word so more young sailors can enjoy what so many others have before them. Having competed in it myself then taking my own children to compete it is hard to stay away. The CHS for quite sometime has given many the opportunity to sail something different to what they normally sail. Some who normally sail a Flying Eleven for example, will trial sailing a Tasar or Northbridge Senior. This year one female Heron sailor, tried out an Olympic Finn, completing every race bar one a big effort given the conditions.

It takes more than a week to set up the van and ready myself for the week at the event as well as pack the box of prizes.  The support we provide at the event by having the van setup takes a lot of work but can be very rewarding when you are able to see someone get back out on the water.   Our range of products sees me selling all sorts of little things from a few metres of rope or shockcord to a shackle or tiller extension.   They don’t amount to much but they do help towards covering the cost of being out of the office and paying for the accommodation to be at the event.

The CHS is an event we enjoy being involved in and hope to assist in lifting the profile of such a great event. Along with principal sponsor Slam, DeckHardware has been able to support the CHS at Belmont for quite some years. Rod Carter who runs the event as well as being the Principal Race Officer also shares the same enthusiasm, as do the many volunteers from Belmont 16′ Skiff Club and the parents who man the mark/rescue boats daily. This is one of the few events where I get to stay ashore and just watch the up and coming sailors Australia is producing.

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420 State Titles at MHYC

March 31, 2014 Leave a comment

Out on the water again this weekend was pretty much a joy. As Principal Race Officer at Middle Harbour Yacht Club, I get asked to run all types of events. This time it was the 420 State titles. Whilst I don’t run the centreboard division on a Sunday, this is usually left to the parents, I’m involved in most of the regattas at the club.

This one was one of the best and more enjoyable, we had a great team on the start boat, the two mark laying boats were filled with parents who knew what to do, just fantastic. We also ‘jagged’ the conditions. ‘Hughie’ obliged and provided us with pretty steady winds on both days. Saturday we got away a couple of races till the shift came through and then got away another 3 as the forecast for Sunday was bleak. As it turned out, Sundays racing started after a delay in perfect condition, the 10knot breeze only varied 5 degrees whilst the 20 boat fleet were racing. The only hickup was abandoning race three on Saturday before the finish. We had the 40 degree shift come through during the race and the smaller club start boat [ the yachts had the big one] couldn’t hold at anchor on position. Surprisingly only two competitors asked why? The rest must have agreed due to the shift.

Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to be involved again with the 420 class, they are certainly enthusiastic and a joy to work with. Here is a few photos I had the chance to take.

Next up is the start of the re vamped Sydney Mooloolabah yacht race, this time for multihulls.

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So that was the weekends weather eh?

March 17, 2014 1 Comment

Middle Harbour Yacht Clubs race management team again backed up to run another regatta  a week after the clubs Sydney Harbour Regatta. This time it was the Melges32 National Championships. My RO offsider at the club, Steve Tucker ran three races for the class on Friday in what appeared to be a nice Noreaster. The decision was made to get in an extra race on both Friday and Saturday after viewing the forecast models for the weekend.

Saturday was yet another great day out on the harbour with the Northerly blowing around 12-14 knots, just nice. The fleet started with the usual general recall, the out going tide was a major factor here, no one had bargained on it even though it took the start boat a while to settle in. One of the things of running a fleet the calibre of the Melges32s, the Farr40s and the McConaghy38s, is the way they go about their start procedures. None of the running up and down the line like most club boats, they all work up to windward to check the shifts, come back check the line and then line up to start – text book fashion. Like the other two classes, they start from well back and are on the pace when the flags dropped. Good to watch, the class has a limit of three professional crew and it’s reflected here.

The racing was close with the Tasmanian Voodoo Chile team again making the trip north, they also did the Farr40s and MC38s. They have purchased an excellent second hand Farr40 in the USA to compete in this years World titles. They’ll be one to watch. Chris Way and his Easy Tiger team and another Tasmanian Greg Prescott with 2Unlimited gave the Voodoo Chile crew a run, these three swapped positions regularly on Saturday.

Sundays forecast almost went to plan with a light and sloppy westerly when we went out to run the final 2 races. The breeze was all over the place, shifting from 190 to 340 degrees and hardly reaching 6 knots. Along with the rest of the start team, I was also monitoring the weather, Toby on his Ipad and I had the phone going. A large storm cell appeared on the BOM radar, so I asked Kim Williams the Melges32 class president to come alongside and have a look for his thoughts. We made the decision to hoist AP over H and adjourned to the club, not knowing what was on offer. As the crews were settling down upstairs, there was a large crack of thunder literally over the marina. Those sitting nearby the start team were thankful for being ashore and inside and dry from the rain!

Following a mini meeting of myself, Kim and the top 3 competitors, it was decided to abandon racing for the day. With a time limit of 1500 for racing, it meant if we went out only one race could be held. The points in the top three wouldn’t change as a result, so I think everyone was happy for the early finish to the regatta.

Once again the core volunteer MHYC race management team of Steve, Toby, Ted, Andy and Philc did an excellent job in their assistance in this event, well done guys. Next up for us?

In a couple of weeks time in the 420 State titles.

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Snowy Mountains, it’s been a while

March 5, 2014 Leave a comment

I often make a joke on there being no Palm Trees in Hobart when some one mentions the Rolex Sydney Hobart race.  It’s an old family story that my parents took us to the snow and said ‘there it is, next time you pay for it yourself’.  We did much the same with our children, preferring to spend holidays afloat either on the boat or at regattas.

So it’s been several decades since I’d been to the Snowy Mountains. This one came about following a phone call, ‘would you like to run a race officers course in Jindabyne and then RO the Snowy Mountain two day regatta following?’. Why not?

So the DeckHardware van was loaded up and I headed to the Snowy Mountains for a couple of days. I had eleven students for the course, all were locals, pretty much the whole club bar a couple who were still overseas following the Winter Olympics. Friday morning we did the course and after booking in to the motel, I headed to Lake Jindabyne Sailing Club to check it out. We ran a Friday night twilight course using the laid marks in order to settle in the rest of the visitors as well as me! Lake Jindabyne is as big if not bigger than Belmont Bay or Botany Bay in terms of setting race courses for sailing – and it’s fresh water! I mentioned to the rest of the start team that we should take out some water, ‘we just have a drink when we capsize, the town water comes from here too’. The anchor line was quite visible going down, so yep, it’s clean.

We ran a couple of races starting at midday Saturday in winds of 8-10 knots from 120 degrees  for the 31 competitors, just nice. After an adjournment ashore and a quick briefing on a laid mark course, we had a short sprint starting just before 1700. With rain clouds beckoning, that was the preferred option by many.  Starting in reverse order this time, the small monos, trailerables and the multis starting last, we only just made it to the finish after a fuel issue on the start boat.  Then it rained, but only for 30 minutes or so as the sailors were finishing and unrigging.   All good, race 3 done.

Sunday morning was planned for one longer race, so after a 60 minute postponement, the multis got away in a nice 10-12knot breeze again from 120 degrees on a four lap course. This wasn’t to hold for long and the next two divisions as the breeze slowly dropped.   As most race officials would know, just as you move the start boat to the top mark to finish the race, it’s a race to the bottom again, this time against Hobie 20s !   I decided to shorten the race to just the triangle for all  , some just drifting across the line. AND, as per the norm, as they were sailing back in ‘Hughie’ came back in.   Not to worry, all were happy to have had a sail and whilst the results were all over the place for race 4 everyone enjoyed themselves.

I’d like to thank all involved,the hospitality shown by the  Jindabyne locals, the support of Matt Owen and his Canberra Yacht Club sailors and rescue boat team.  Country clubs are really community run with everyone chipping in.

I think I’ll be back next year – as long as there’s no snow.  Anyone else looking for somewhere different to hold a regatta should get in touch with Lake Jindabyne Sailing Club?

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First trip to Queensland for 2014

February 27, 2014 Leave a comment

Last week saw me driving up to Queensland for the first time in 2014. For a change of pace I went up the inland via the New England Highway. In years gone by this was normally an added hour so to the coast road, however with all the new bypasses it took quite some hours longer. I’ll continue to use the coast from now on I think.

Monday afternoon I started off in the west of Brisbane, helpful as that’s where I was coming in from and then went on to a new retail outlet in Brisbane’s east which opened late last year. Tuesday was spent doing the rounds of the outlets around the Brisbane area and then heading off to the Sunshine Coast. There are a couple of builders finishing off a couple of large Schionning catamarans, these both looked pretty good only a month or so out from launch. Both of these builders have another to follow which is good for the local employment.

The Sunshine Coast area is developing quite quickly and has certainly changed since I first went up there in the mid 70s. It’s no longer a spread out area, all the bush and farm land is being developed at a rate. I then headed south to the Gold Coast, again this area is being built quite rapidly with the upcoming Commonwealth Games. There’s also a light rail/tram railway being built. When I compare the developments in these areas and the total lack of new infrastructure in my local area, it has to make you think. Sydney’s main roads out of the CBD are 2 lanes each way, up north they are 4! Melbourne too has some new freeways and toll roads heading out of town.

Following the week of doing the rounds of the various outlets, boat builders and sailmakers, I then changed my times forward to NSW daylight saving time and stopped off in Ballina. Again catching up with a boatbuilder there, it’s always nice when they come to the DeckHardware van and purchase on the spot.

From Ballina it was down to the Big River Sailing Club at Harwood for another visit. In the past I’ve enjoyed the hospitality of the Northern locals and in turn they appreciate having the van there with a few bits and pieces. This time however I was offered a spot on boat an I550, a little sportsboat built at Ballina. On the last visits, these little boats have inspired me and to have the chance to go for a sail on one, let alone a 2.5hr race, well.. What a hoot, just crack the sheets a little and they are off on the plane like a dinghy. I haven’t had a grin like that since we had Animus up and surfing. I can now see why there’s the eighth boat in the mould and nearly ready to come out.

For a change of pace, I’m heading off to Jindabyne for this weekend. I’ll be running a race officers course as well as the Inaugural Snowy Mountains Regatta. This is catered for the locals who sail a variety of dinghies, cats and small sportboat/trailerables on Lake Jindabyne, they are also hoping for a few of the Canberra locals to come down. The lake is the result of the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme providing power to the South-east of Australia. It’s several times the size of Sydney Harbour so there should be plenty of room, not too much traffic apart from fishermen either. I haven’t been down there for several decades as I’m not a snow person [I’d rather sail], needless to say I have packed  for all weather conditions bar snow. Should be interesting, I hope we get some breeze.

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