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I was not holding much hope this morning of getting sailing under way. Leaving home with zero breeze and glass on the Derwent on the way to the dam, and a weather report saying that not much was coming. As we drove up the dam entrance road though, the trees were telling a very different story, and on cresting the hill, I saw a nice 6 or so knot Katabatic blowing down the length of the dam. The eight sailors all got their acts together nice and quick and we were away right on the 10 button press. We again welcomed Malcolm Watson from up north, who sailed his Blister 3 and we had 8 sailors all up sailing today, which was fantastic to see. Of the yachts in the south, I think we were only missing the club boat from the ones who have sailed this year. 8 races were completed today, under the watchful eye of PRO Ray Joyce with a pretty standard course owing to the consistent wind direction we had today. Normal start, 8-7 to 4-3 to 6-5, down to the gate and then finish. The last two races were shortened to 8-7 to gate and finish due to the lightening wind. At the end of the 8th, we agreed on an early finish because of the vanishing breeze, and called it a day. The sailing itself was very close, with a mistake and subsequent penalty turn enough to spit you out the back and not be able to catch up again. Awesome to see 5 winners in the 8 races with myself, Stu and Rod taking two each, with wins also to Lisa and Phil. At the end of the day though, it was Stu that came away with the round win on 11 points – Very consistent sailing with drops of 4’s as his worst races. Second place was yours truly, just two behind on 13 points, also consistent with a pair of 5’s as the drops. Third place today went to Rod by countback from Lisa, who were both on 17 points. Rod did really well, considering he ended up with some extra ballast in the last two races, which was enough difference to fall away from Stu and myself at the end. A welcome to A Class racing also to Ricky price, who sailed Tank Walters old Venom – all nicely done up and sailed really well. Fantastic to get another A on the water – also showing along with Stu that the Venoms are at no disadvantage to the Blisters. All up, a great days sailing today. Big thanks to Ray for his work as PRO for us today. Really makes it so much better when the sailors can all concentrate o their own thing with the PRO there making sure the courses are fair and that the day goes without a hitch. Just the one thing for us all to be cognisant with – at the end of the day, please make sure all things are packed up and the transport to the boat shed is all handled with as much help as needed. We ended up a bit short on helpers with getting the boat on the back of Ray’s car and we (I) had put the electric outboard in a very awkward spot in the boat, meaning everything had to be pulled out to get the outboard in to the lockup in the shed. A little bit of thought and help goes a long way to help those who put the boat and equipment away. As usual, Grant Wise has shared some fantastic photos of todays sailing, and Ray and I have also shared some video action. Ray with some races and I put up a run beck to the launch area of Lisa’s yacht after some comms problems and subsequent rescue. Amazing how far these boats will travel when tuned nicely – well past our long distance course and almost to the other end of the dam by the time we caught up with it. Photos and video are posted on the RC Sailing Tasmania Facebook page. Coming up Wednesday is IOM Handicap at the dam, button press at 1030 Next Sunday is IOM Scratch at the dam, button press at 1000. Lisa will not be sailing with us next Sunday at the dam. Instead, she will be representing the club at the IOM Nationals on the Sunshine Coast during the week. Best of luck Lisa. We look forward to the stories you will bring back and will be watching the results as they get updated. Kyle 
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