So that was Summer

April 28, 2022 Leave a comment

So that was the Summer

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done an update, especially those who like following my travels around the countryside. Covid of course put a stop to all that some time ago and there’s certainly many customers and friends whose company I miss when staying with them.  There’s always plenty of memories and stories to catch up on.

Flying Elevens on the Lake at Belmont

The last few months of weekends have been spent at home, with just a few chasing a variety of fleets that DeckHardware has supported. Trying to get ‘the shot’ whilst not getting in the way of any competitor. There’s been several trips to both Lake Macquarie and to Gosford, luckily the traffic either way hasn’t been too bad.

Flying Elevens at Gosford

One thing that is a little different now that we are using the RIB more, is our knowledge of where all the boat ramps are and the  facilities provided like parking, pontoons and if there are toilets. We had been going to one at Lake Macquarie that is visible from the road when driving past, however there’s no pontoon to tie up to whilst getting in the queue.  We’ve now found another with a pontoon.

A lovely day on Lake Macquarie

Then there’s the sight seeing, going through moored boats, ‘Ohh that’s where it ended up’. Those yachts that we may have competed against in the past.  Of course when you can do 25knots, it’s easy to get around, to and from a race course area. Certainly less hassles than being on the road.

Last weekend, I got back into the swing of things. I hit the road and went out on the water as the events PRO. I headed 4 hours south of Sydney for the annual Batemans Bay Sailing Club regatta, held around ANZAC Day each year. Numbers were down from last year, but the keen competition was still there. We had Six divisions across the main fleet course area and another couple of Sailability divisions inshore.

Division One bottom mark at Batemans Bay

Division One was a combination of mixed, Sharpies, 505s and Flying Dutchmen with the runaway  scratch winner being a B14. Division Two was a fleet of Lasers and a lone Spiral sailed by my weekend host Lachlan Brown. Division Three were the VXOnes competing for their NSW State Titles.  There was some great racing, one heat had 5 boats in about 20 seconds elapsed finishing time. Winner was Rob Douglass, who was a little more consistent in the end. Division Four was a fleet of mixed trailerables, including Spyder22, Haines Trailer Tamp tri, Windrush 600 and a couple of RL24s. Overall it was a Elliott 5.9 on scratch. Division Five were the larger multihulls, NACRA, Viper, Mosquito and Hobie16s. Division Six was a fleet of Hobie 14s and a couple of Maricat 14s.

Division One away

With a pretty standard seabreeze on Saturday of 5-8 knots and a Sou-Easter of 8-10knots on Sunday, the clear skies made it an enjoyable weekend out on the water. The mix of windward leg lengths and triangles kept our start team on their toes trying to keep up, but pretty much all the  competitors finished in about 20-25minutes.

Division Six away

The volunteers, the start team, the mark laying teams and the unsung ashore all contributed to  an excellent weekend. Whilst numbers may have been down a little this year,  I certainly hope that everyone will keep this event on their calendar.

Heading home

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2021, that’s about it

December 6, 2021 Leave a comment

DeckHardware are sponsoring the Flying Eleven States and Nationals with the assistance of Allen Brothers and LIROS Ropes.  Last weekend (20/21 November) was held at Vaucluse Amateur 12″ Sailing Club.   While the 16′ Skiffs were up at Belmont for their states Mel went up to see how things were going, whilst I put the DeckHardware RIB in the water to go across the harbour. It’s the best part of an hours drive around, however in the RIB it was less than half that. Many of the Middle Harbour and Manly competitors were also towed across.  The result was quite a queue and raft up on the wharf.

And there’s more at the back of this pontoon

Weather wise, Saturday was pretty miserable for Summer with light drizzle and a  reasonable South Easter, good for the sailors, not so much the many spectators. Numbers were slightly down, partially due to the inclement weather and being the first regatta of their season, many of the new crews to the class decided against sailing.

Some of the Flying Eleven fleet

As always it was pretty good racing and a delight to watch some of the top crews efforts and boat handling.

That’s 4th and 5th about to round the top mark in the distance.

This weekend was another round of the 16’s this time out on The Sound. Mel and Locky went out Saturday and then I replaced Locky as the boat driver Sunday. Mel took some great photos that have been posted on the DeckHardware Facebook page. The conditions however were no different to the week before. Surely we’ll get a Summers Nor Easter soon., we haven’t had one yet.

Competition is tight in the 16′ skiff fleet, there’s three Olympic Gold medals and numerous National and World titles on this one boat.
Nathan Wilmot on the helm, Malcolm Page on the bow and hidden in this photo.

It was interesting tactics by the leaders on Sunday. In the East South Easterly.  The start was Washaway Beach (near Grotto Point Lighthouse)  I was surprised they didn’t start at the boat end and tack on to port to take advantage of the outgoing Middle Harbour tide before it hit the main bulk tide leaving the harbour.  Instead the top runners started down on the pin , holding on Starboard to Quarantine Head and  then one tack to the top mark across the tide. Those who went right or up the middle lost out, it appeared to be a speed race with no tacks. It worked however and next time there’s the same conditions, I’ll have to study a little more.  As they say , you learn something new each day out on the water.

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Trying to keep up

March 19, 2021 Leave a comment

With all the recent sailing that’s been happening, it’s just a little hard trying to keep up with all the regattas and then we have the unbelievable race 8 in New Zealand for the Americas Cup  .

Rigging at Port Kembla Sailing Club on Lake Illawarra

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Lake Illawarra for the  second round of the Flying Eleven states. On behalf of Allen Brothers England and LIROS Ropes Germany, DeckHardware has been supporting the junior classes, so we took the DeckHardware RIB down for the weekend.  Mel took over a thousand photos on the Saturday and then spent Sunday at home doing  a lot of editing.  Conditions wise, it couldn’t be further from the first round on Pittwater.  Pittwater turned on a good southerly so there was plenty of standing on the centreboards, Lake Illawarra was  the opposite with the winds struggling to get above 8knots over the weekend.  The race team did a good job to get in the races that they did.   Our DeckHardware ambassadors Aimee and Bella led after Pittwater and to finish up second overall and first all girls is a credit to their teamwork and their parental support both off and on the water.   From what I saw over the weekend, all the sailors enjoyed the event, it was pretty close results wise and there was  plenty of speculation  as to the placings until they were published. 

Just after a Flying Eleven start, some go left and some go right

Following the  Elevens, it was back to the Farr40s for more of the same. Unfortunately only 6 boats sailed this event, but the closeness showed just how keenly fought the racing was. First and second tied on point as did third and fourth.  Watching just how close the racing was is why I enjoy being a race official.  Make a small mistake and you lose a boat length or two and you are out the back door. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone claw their way back after say, an OCS. It’s just too close speed wise with plenty of pressure on the tacticians.

Always good racing and great to watch

The third weekend in a row out on the water, strange given the current global situation was to watch the Sydney Harbour Regatta. For something a little different DeckHardware provided Middle Harbour Yacht Club the use of the RIB as a photography boat.  Marg Fraser -Martin has been taking photos both inshore and offshore at MHYC for a few years now and we have a great rapport between us.  We spent the weekend going from course to course [there were seven] and from top mark to gate rounding’s trying to capture some of the action.  Marg took well over two thousand photos over the weekend from sports boats to sports yachts and harbour racers. Then throw in the 18’ers on the harbour and there was plenty of action afloat.

Just a little soft spot for these boats

Here’s a couple of Marg Fraser Martins photos below

Always plenty on , on Sydney Harbour

Karen Gojnich and her J70 crew
Lachlan Steel, one of several DeckHardware ambassadors
Lachlan Steel on Lazarus Partners 18′ skiff
These guys have too much fun

And then one gets a call from a prominent Medalist sailor, “I’ve run out of fuel can I get a tow home?’

And at the end of the weekend, it’s under the Spit Bridge and heading for the boat ramp queue.

There has been of course a sailing event over the Ditch in Auckland, well done to the Kiwis with a little help from an Aussie or two. They certainly had the faster boat towards the end. Lets see what happens in the coming months as to the next one.

That’s nearly it for the summer Downunder season for me , although we still have the  Allen/Liros/DeckHardware sponsored Flying Eleven and 16’Skiff Nationals on  in the coming weeks. Then the Annual Batemans Bay Regatta over  the ANZAC weekend  with everything from Sportsboats, multihull, monos and Sailability. Always a great weekend on the water down south.                                                                                                                                                                                       

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2014 eh?

January 15, 2014 1 Comment

What happened to 2013? That year went pretty quick, as we arranged each trip, some months in advance they quickly caught up. The month of December even more so. My trip to Sail Melbourne at Sandringham Victoria, followed immediately by a trip north to Yamba and Grafton. Then Sail Middle Harbour where I ran part of the regatta for 420s and Finns. Then of course the Rolex Sydney Hobart race, finishing off the year with DeckHardware’s support of the 50th Sabot national titles.

Sail Middle Harbour was the result of Sail Sydney not being run and our club Middle Harbour Yacht Club in conjunction with Middle Harbour 16′ Skiff Club combined to give some of the classes an event. We had a good fleet of 420’s and it was great to have the Finns for the first time, especially with some of those who had been at Sail Melbourne turning up. With good conditions, it was out to the Sound for both fleets as Middle Harbour 16′ Skiff Club had the 29ers inshore from us. Once again I was supported by a great team of volunteers from the club helping make the running of the regatta a little easier.

The annual Rolex Sydney Hobart Race is always a sight to see. With 5 100’ers, a couple of 80’ers, 3  Volvo70s and the Clipper Round the World race fleet, it was always going to be hectic. For this year the CYCA decided to run a third line to split the fleet up a little. The CYCA with Dennis Thompson ran the big boats on the front line, I had the middle with our MHYC team and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron had the back line. We decided to add to our normal startboat team with additional helpers, I try to mix it up each year. We have many requests to come out and this year it was the turn of some of Melissa’s match racing people. As we have two teams, one upstairs and one down, it was great to have the back up of Jeremey Atkinson who is also a highly credited race official and rules expert. We try to have a clear start as no one is called for 5 minutes if they are over. This year we had a couple starting early, one who came back almost straight away and another who waited till they were called. When this happens we have to wait till all are clear before we can follow the fleet out the heads. Once again it was quite a spectacle and this coming years will be just as big being the 70th.

A couple of days later through DeckHardware’s sponsorship of the 50th Sabot National Championships, I spent some time at Drummoyne Sailing Club with the van. Once again it was fantastic to watch some of the up and coming junior sailors and with over 130 competitors trying to remember some of their names was a little hard. It’s always interesting to watch those who are actively involved in their boat preparation and rigging.  Including new DeckHardware Ambassador from Lake Macquarie sailor Jed Fatches. Wangi Wangi Moth sailor Jody Shiels tipped us off on Jeds ability and enthusiasm and it was great to meet and follow Jed and his family. What was interesting was that each state had a team song. This was sung at the opening and closing ceremonies but also each day prior to hitting the water! It was great listening to the teams trying to out sing each other after their coaches pep talk. Sam King from Launceston in Tasmania was the 50th winner of the overall trophy which included names such as Nathan Wilmot and Nathan Outteridge. Tasmania also cleaned up in the teams event, quite a successful trip for them.

As soon as the Sabots finished at Drummoyne it was the turn of the 16′ Skiffs. Both the club and a couple of the sailors had asked if we’d be there with the van. So it was a continuing daily trip over several bridges to be there for the beginning of the 16’s. Lee Knapton and his crew of Brydens won each of the 7 races, something that long time skiffies had not seen for several decades. This was a new boat and as it was fitted with a couple of DeckHardware products Liros and TBS, we were more that interested in the event. DeckHardware ambassador Fire Stopping were also amongst the front runners and it was great to see them also without boat issues at the end of each day.

This past weekend I drove up to Port Stephens for the  Flying Eleven National Championships, as it turned out it was also their 50th birthday with the first boats built by Mariner Craft back in 1964. Having more than a passing interest in the class after Melissa’s involvement in the 90s and some of our friends who now have their children in the class, it was great to watch. Funnily it was a familiar name at the top after the first day of racing – Jed Fatches. Jed had teamed up with fellow Sabot sailor Tom Stivano for this event and they went out and won the first two races! Talk about grins when they came to see me at the van at the end of the day, great to see.

An old mate Graeme Ferguson was there with his family as youngest daughter Jordy was skippering for the first time, the number of girls who are now sailing is fantastic and they certainly give the boys a run. I also caught up with Trevor Barnabas and Hugh Cooke from Manly. Both of these long time skiff sailors were up there with their grandsons, watching and listening to the parting of pre race advise was fantastic, even I learnt something each day. Melissa had gone to school with Christine Barnabas, Zac and Jakes mum, so this was another pairing we were looking out for. Zac had only just won the Manly Junior Nationals on at the same time as the Sabots and this was their first Flying Eleven event in a borrowed boat. It only took them 4 races to win their first! Something to be said for this generation of sailors.

This coming weekend I’m off to Victoria. I’ll be spending a few days doing the rounds of the DeckHardware customers and then I’m off to Geelong. At this time of year for the last 3 decades, I’ve pretty much done or run the Adams10 Championships so I’ve not had the chance to go to Geelong’s Festival of Sail, one of Australia’s  largest regattas. I’m involved in the on water running of the regatta, as I’ve not been before, it’ll be interesting to say the least. This event also includes the Melges24 World Championship, held for the first time in Australia. With 8 nations competing, I hope to have the opportunity to see a little of the racing.

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