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Today was our first long distance sail for the year and the dam turned on a great day with mid-twenties temperature and a nice Southerly of around 5 knots blowing for most of the day. This meant that we had a great windward beat right up the dam. The wind was steady for most of the day but in the last race we had the full compass of directions and gusts of up to 15 knots which put us to the test. The new rescue dinghy was used today for the first time and the report was that it felt way more comfortable and more seaworthy than its predecessor. All up it should be a great asset to the club. With a later finish time today we were able to complete 8 races of the long course. In retrospect that was some sort of Ironman Marathon effort and I for one was done by the time that I got home. Consequently, I suggest that we make 8 races the maximum for long distance days! Jammy Jones sailed just three races today and won two of them before retiring early for the day taking maximum advantage of the adage, “you are only as good as your last race”. Actually it is not a bad example for anyone who is thinking that long distance days might be too much: Come and sail for the morning only. As far as the overall placings went, David Woolley took out 3rd place sailing well to hold his place as back markers caught up with the pack. 1st and 2nd were taken by the back markers Gary McCarthy and Ray Joyce. The pair tied on points with Ray getting the nod with 2 race wins to his credit. Ray’s sail was particularly impressive today as his handicap quickly went to the maximum 90 seconds but he was still competitive from there, sailing the Britpop with excellent boat speed and making good course decisions. Congratulations Sheep, Gary and Ray! Coming Up: Sunday: Marblehead Scratch Racing at Montrose (1:00 button press) - If you want to have a try of one of the Club Marbleheads, please contact Kyle, who will try to arrange one of them for you to use - we have multiple boats that could be made available. Next Wednesday: DF95 Handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam (10:30 button press) Please also note that there has been a calendar change for the upcoming Woodies/Classics event. To encourage Northerners to make the trip down the Woodies/Classics day is now on Saturday 7th Feb at Risdon Brook Dam and will be followed by an IOM Scratch day on the 8th at Montrose. Shorty  
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A very warm day today at MBYC for the 2026 edition of the Australia Day Handicap Shield. A great turnout of 16 sailors to the day, with Andrew Wardrop and Phil Jackman kindly helped out with PRO and Observing duties today. The sailors made the task nice and easy for them, with just a few called on the start line and one race where a number of saiors went tot he incorrect windward mark, and corrected themselves without fuss. The format of the day was a handicap, with everyone starting off scratch initially, and handicap penalties of 15 seconds, 10 seconds and 5 second for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively. The first two races were in very light northerly influenced winds, although I do recall the second race finishing downwind as the Sou' easter started to influence things. Later in the day, a nice sea breeze did filter in for us, which gave some absolutely fantastic sailing for everyone. All sailors got some time in the front half of hte fleet across the day, which was great to see. So many finishes were close enough to drape a towel over, so it really hurt at times when you may have been just 5 seocnds away from 5th for example, but took a 10th out of the race. That said, we did have some standouts at the head of the fleet, namely our first couple of sailors. Stu Dawes continued his long standing dominance over the fleet - even with handicap penalties applied 6 times across the day - a 70 second handicap at the end of the day!! Stu was the well deserved winner of the Australia Day Shield with just 12 points. Second place, earning 40 seonds of handicap penalties across the day was Lisa Blackwood, 10 behind on 22 points. Taking out third place (and attracting 40 seconds in handicap penalties as well) was Kyle Stewart, a further 11 behind on 33 points. On the handicap shield, having a quick look at it, since its inception - we have had 5 sail days completed and now have 4 different winners on it. Saying that, not everything is about who won on the day. It was great to see a lot of laughs on the waters edge, and a great turnout from our friends at the DSS - of which we had 5 along today. We also had representation from Puddleduck regulars and a visit from NTRYC in Malcolm Watson. I think it's fantastic to have so many that have initially come from other areas/clubs to join with us, not just in the day's sailing, but also joining the club as members as well. We are really gratefull to you all. Photos of todays sailing, kindly taken by Grant Wise, can be seen at the RC Sailing Tasmania Facebook page. It is public access, so if you don't have a FB Account, there is no issue and you will still be able to see it by clicking on the link. Coming Up:
 Today’s forecast was for not much wind and a fair bit of rain. Upon arriving at Risdon Brook Dam it did look gloomy but there was a nice south Westerly of 4 or 5 knots blowing and a smooth surface on the Dam. Eleven skippers enjoyed good racing today, the rain held off well and the wind pretty much stayed with us all day allowing us to complete 11 races. We launched our new RIB rescue craft today. Kind of launched it anyway. Actually no rescues were needed and so it sat patiently waiting by the waters edge. This new boat should allow us to conduct boat retrieval in stronger winds and so adds an extra safety margin to our procedures. Thanks to those who organised the boat - especially to Ray who spotted it sitting idly in someone’s carport and to Bodge, Kyle and Stu for giving it a tidy up and getting it to the dam. With the aquisition of the new dinghy, the club will be looking to sell the green plastic dinghy and the older fibreglass rescue dinghy that was used many years ago. If there is someone interested or if nyone knows someone who is interested, please contat Bodge for detail. A running start was used today which is never ideal but the alternative would have been a visit to ‘Andrew’s corner’ which often reduces races to whoever gets lucky. Given this was handicap racing the running start was not too bad. The scorecard was very close today with tied results for 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and 5th and 6th. In fact there was not a lot of points separating the first 9 competitors and every skipper made the podium at some time today. Ian Hey had a real day out to win the event. He started the day on a handicap of 30 but quickly extended it and competed with the scratch boats for most of the day even scoring a second place towards the end of the day while sailing with a big handicap penalty. Lisa Blackwood was probably a bit unlucky to take second place today as it was a count back decision, both skippers won 2 races and Lisa had one DNS where she put her boat aside to have a sail of Andrew Wardrop’s new Proteus. David Woolley and Andrew Wardrop tied for third spot but Andrew could not match sheets impressive scorecard which included 3 race wins. Congratulations Bodge, Lisa, Sheep and Andrew. COMING UP! Monday The Australia Day Shield for DF95’s at Montrose. (1:00 button press). Please note the change of location to the calendar (which has now been updated). This is due to the predicted Easterly conditions predicted for Monday, which will not be very ideal at the dam. Next Wednesday. Super Wednesday Long distance sailing (10:30 button press and a slightly longer afternoon. Come prepared for last race at 3:00) Shorty    At our committee meeting last Sunday, it was proposed that we alter the normal proceedings with DF scratch today with a mixed DF65 and D95 Scratch racing day. Admittedly, I was one of the ones who wasn't so keen as we had tried them multiple times in the past and the DF65 side of it wasn't well supported, but based on the large increase in DF65 sialing in the south (DSS, Bellerive, Puddleduck and Orford), we agreed to try a combined format again. Todays sail day was set up to sail 3 DF65 races, then 3 DF95 races. Then back to DF65 and 95 in stanzas of 3 until our 4hr session finished. In the end, we finished slightly early with 6 races of each class. We got word out to our neighboring clubs that it was an invite day, so non-members couls also sail in the day, and now having a month to enjoy sailing with us until they need to decide whether to join the club or not - more info for those sailors below. It was absolutely fantastic to see 17 skippers along for both classes. 13 sailed both classes on the day. We also had a visit from Mat Gray, who has not been able to come to the sialing in about 8 months now. Great to see him along to watch the day - along with Ken Dobbie, who also enjoyed the day watching the boats from the comfort of Garry's car. We had four visitors along today, but it was great to see that we had 7 members who are not regular sailors come along to sail, showning great support to the club. Quite unusual wind today, with an Easterly airstream to start with, pulling around to an ENE direction - making the setting of a course quite difficult, but I am pretty sure that we got some really good courses in. The DF65's had a reduced course today, basically half the size of our standard courses, with the DF95 a little longer - about 75% of our standard course length. We started the day on our largest suites, A+ in teh 65 and A in the 95, however, after the first three races in each class, sailors opted mostly for B Rigs (and some A"s) for the 65's - both matched quite well in the increasing wind, and B Rigs on the DF95's. As the day wore on, the rig choices became more and more stressed, but I am sure everyone enjoyed some fantastic sailing - and surfing of the waves heading downwind. It certainly was fun to watch. In the DF65's, Stu Dawes showed absolute dominance of the fleet and the conditions, registering 3 wins in the 6 races. Taking out the day with just 9 points. Second place went to our half Tasmanian, Peter Ross, with a great score of 23 points, winning the last race (apparently, your'e only as good as your last one). Third place - on countback - was Richard Fisher, just one behind Pere, on 23. In the DF95's, things were much tighter throughout. That said, Stu took home the daily double with 15 points enough to secure the win for the 95 class. Just one point behind, was Lisa Blackwood, on 16 points. Nick Connor took out third just three further behind on 19 points. For our Silver Fleet members, John Short took first place on 11 points. Phil Jackman was just one point behind in second place, on 12 points. Scott Brain took third, another point behind Phil, on 13 points. Overall, the day was a great success, and I am sure everyone had a great time sailing and joking amongst some good mates. What made the day for me personally, was Matt Bugg leaving after packing his stuff up, and thanking us for a great day - saying it was an absolute blast. We still have quite an amount of work to do at the point to help our motion impaired skippers, but we will get there with better control area access - something we need to focus on in preparation for the Nationals at the site, hopefully in 15 months time (more to come later). The day simply would not have happened without firstly the willingness of the committee to try somehting a bit different in order to get more skippers sailing on the day. I think they should all be commended for trying the day out. It also would not have gone ahead with out the two people stepping away from sailing to do the Pro work. Both could have sailied both classes, but sailed one only, so we could get a single person running each class. So thanks should go to both Ray and myself (aw shucks) for the efforts today as well. We are not fixed to sailing DF's in this way, or in any way at all. We would really like skipper input as to how the day was and if there are any reasonable suggestions to enhance the sailors experiences on the day. Does a combined day work well? Does 3 races per class work? Would it be better having two sessions defined by time for each class (ie DF65 for 2hrs, a 20 minute break and then DF95 for 2hrs)? - or are there any other suggestions that sailors would like to put forward? If so, please contact either myself, Ray, or one of the committee members to get your feedback heard. A final note and thanks to the committee for listening to the issues of hte rescue dinghy at the dam (not as stable as we would like), we (Ray) found a 2nd hand inflatable Rib, very similar to the one we have at MBYC, and was able to purchase it at a great price. We had Kyle, Stu, Ray and Bodge give it a good once over and clean on Saturday and relocated it to the dam, where it will be available for use this Wednesday. The Rib is an aluminium floored hull, and can be carried by two people. A great upgrade in assets for the club. We will now clean up the other two dinghy's at the shed and look to sell them to an interested person - let us know if you are aware of someone who might be interested in either of them. we al know hte green twin hull plastic boat. The other one is a glass tender, about 13' long and in reasonable condition. Certainly seaworthy. Photos of todays sailing, kindly taken by Grant Wise, can be seen at the RC Sailing Tasmania Facebook page. It is public access, so if you don't have a FB Account, there is no issue and you will still be able to see it by clicking on the link. Coming Up:
Kyle    It was cool and cloudy today at Risdon Brook Dam with a nice Southerly of around 5 knots blowing. The wind direction meant that the surface was particularly smooth and so conditions were set for some quite fast sailing. There were some holes and light spots and significant lifts and knocks and so definitely the passing lanes were open if you kept ahead of the game. Before racing today we had a voluntary ‘weigh-in’. It is important that all boats comply to the minimum total weight of 4kg. All boats were found complying today. Later in the season we will have another ‘surprise’ and compulsory weight in. If you did not sail today but would like to check that your boat weighs correctly please contact me or either of the two official measurers Ian Hey or Rod Marshall. It was good to see Charlie Mansfield again. Charlie was racing less Chienz (#48). I reckon that Les would have had a bit of a smile to see it back on the water today and especially as Charlie sailed it to two race wins. Andrew Wardrop launched his new yacht - a plastic printed IOM! It was designed in South Africa and called a Proteus. Andrew showed some great boat speed today and it will be extremely interesting to see how this boat goes. Is this the future of IOM sailing? The rotating PRO system was used with each PRO getting their average points for the race that they missed. The easy sailing conditions led to good seamanship even on crowded buoy roundings. The conditions also allowed all the boats to complete the full complement of races - apart from the first race all boats finished every race. The racing was fairly close today with the back-markers often making up good ground as following gusts on the long down-wind leg from buoy 2 to buoy 7 swept them towards the front-markers. All up however it was the mid-fleeters who performed well today. I took 3rd place with a fairly consistent scorecard. Rod Marshall has opened the handicap season well by coming second today to follow last week’s DF95 event win. Ian Hey took out the day with a race win, two 2nd places and a third. He was a solid 4 pts in front. Congratulations Rod and Bodge. Coming up: Sunday: 1:00 - 5:00 DF65 and DF95 scratch racing at Montrose. The afternoon haas been extended so that we can hold races for the two classes. The plan is to alternate between 2 races for DF65’s then 2 races for DF95’s. It should be fun so bring both boats if you have them. Next Wednesday: 10:30 - 2:00 more IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. Shorty  A beaufitful day for a sail today. Just a shame only four could make it. A nice 10-12 knot Nor Wester all day. no sea breeze today. Enough shifts to make it interesting and we all fell on both sides of lady luck throughout the day. A funny little one was approaching the windward mark on the first lap on one of hte races, and three of us had made mistakes and done our required penalty turns. John Hall wouldn't play the game though, sailing through without causing issue and not doing any penalties - just thought it was unfair that he didn't need to do one.... Anyway, not a real lot to say for the day. Wonderful sailing, although with just the four sailors. Personal lesson today was to make sure th epot lid is secured properly, otherwise water gets in and receivers do not like salt water.......... Quick enough fix, but killed two races because of it. Ray's consistency stood out today, with a well deserved round win on 18 points. I came in second, two behind on 20 points. Stu took third, a further 6 behind on 26 points. Big thanks to Bodge for running the day so efficiently today. Thankyou also to Grant Wise, who came along again today to take some photos of the action. The RM Series Competition this year has been reduced form last year to a series of 6 rounds only (Summer and Winter series in the past due to good turnouts). With the reduced enthusiasm with the class, the series may well fall over unless we somehow get some interest back. For such a wonderful class of yacht, it will be very sad if this does indeed happen. We do have three club RM's and happy for any member to sail them, but the offer has yet to be taken up. After round 2, there may be a reconsidering of the viability of running the series. With a 40+ membership in the club, it is hard to justify dedicating a day for a class with just 4 yachts turning up. Coming up Wednesday sees IOM Handicap at the Dam, starting at 1030. Next Sunday will be a bit different, following the committee meeting today. With the increase in popularity of the DF65 class in the south of the state, we have resolved to run a DF sail day instead of DF95 only day next Sunday. As such, the sail time will be a little longer. We will be starting at the same 1pm, but sailing to 5pm, hoping to take advantage of an afternoon sea breeze. The format of the day is scratch racing throughout, with races being held in the same fashion that worked so well at the combined IOM Classics and Woodie day in Trevallyn last year. That is we will sail 2 races with DF95's, then swap out to two races of DF65. Again, next Sunday will be form 1pm to 5pm We will be sailing both DF65 and DF95 two races at a time, then swapping out to the other class. After the end of the sail day, the committee are keen to hear feedback on the day and are open to any suggestions as we do believe that the sail days will become a DF day intot he future (both classes) and need to find that right balance for sailing for as many members as possible. Kyle  We had a glorious summer’s day, 28 degrees, clear blue skies, and a lovely 8-10 knots of sea breeze at Risdon Brook Dam for our first DF95 handicap event for the year. Seventeen boats was a great fleet especially considering that quite a few skippers are away on holiday. The wind was South Westerly but a steady 5 or 6 knots when we arrived but the sea breeze filled in gradually to provide excellent sailing conditions. Andrew Wardrop was again our PRO for the day and as usual set great courses and kept the day moving well so that we could complete 11 races. Thanks Andrew. This year we are trialling a group start handicap system. I have colour coded the results below so that each of the starting groups appear as a different colour. If you can’t understand it then at least it looks pretty. Some of the finishes were extremely close. Maybe that was good handicapping or maybe it was just that sort of day. One race was so close that Andrew couldn’t pen the results fast enough. So for race 6 those skippers who finished after position 10 were given their average points for that race. It was an excellent day for the front markers. 1st to 4th places were taken by skippers starting with a 15 second handicap penalty. Rod Marshall was todays winner after winning three races back-to-back. (Some sort of hat trick?). Rod gave me a wink on the way out and said that the new handicap system has some potential! Alan Short was second overall and he also had back-to-back wins at the end of the day. Malcolm Watson who was visiting from the North of the State enjoyed his day by taking out third place overall with a consistent scorecard. Congratulations also go to Simon Delaney who won his first race with the club after a lead all the way around effort. Well done Simon - the first of many wins to come! Handicap change depends upon a skippers podium appearances. Rod and Alan dominated the podium today and so are promoted to the next start group for our next meet. Jammy and Scott sailed all day without podium success and get relegated to a lower start group for the next event. All up a great day out and a good start to the year. Shorty  What a day on the water today for the start of the 2026 season. Light winds presented early. ESE breeze between 4 and 10 knots for much of the sailing session. 14 skippers turned up for the day - unfortunately, I had some winch issues (anyone know somebody that fixes them......), so carried out PRO duties for the day instead. Such is life. Thanks to Ted Stevens and Murray Willis, for travelling to sail today. Welcome also to John Penman - who sailed from my understanding - his first Sunday scratch day. Hope you enjoyed it. Away on time at 1pm, with a single race and then break, followed by stanza's of three races and a break. Twelve races completed by the end of the day, with three courses used, trying to get the start line as evenly spread as possible. Some interesting observations today while watching. As much as you bias the outer mark to be the favoured end, it is interesting to see how many boats still try to hit the start off the closer in start mark. Only changed after Gary got an absolute bolter from 3/4 up the start line and then they started to spread a bit more. A few occasions, sailors decided to sail against anopther yacht to try to push an advantage, however, in every instance, the result ended up being the fleet gained the advantage, and not the two skippers that had embraced a yacht vs yacht duel. As usual, close quarters sailing - especially at the marks - only ended up in pain, whereas the skippers in clear air always benefited by not pushing for that 1% gain that often had a big penalty if it went wrong. That said, almost every penalty was done without being called, and the excellent overall behaviour made it a pleasure to be the PRO for the day. Thankyou to all sailors for keeping things in very good spirits. Of note, we had 6 skippers taking a win today, one of them a Silver Fleet skipper (that really was a fantastic race Andrew). That said, seocnd place didn't register a win on the day, but was very consistent throughout the day. Winner today, on 21 points was Lisa Blackwood. Second place, on 27, was Gary McCarthy Third place was Rod Jackman, on 35 points. In Silver Fleet, Ted Stevens took out the day witrh 16 points. Andrew Wardrop took out second on 20 points. John Penman (Welcome to Sunday Sailing John) took third, just one point adrift on 21 Points. Coming up Wednesday is the start of Mid Week Handicap for the year, with the DF95's taking centre stage at the NEW START TIME of 1030. Next Sunday is RM Scratch at Montrose, starting at 1300, Kyle  |