A warm North-Westerly of 10 or 12 knots looked perfect for the small group of skippers at Risdon Brook Dam for today’s mid-week event. I am guessing that many of our usual starters were still in recovery mode after the huge effort that was needed to participate in the Nationals which finished on Sunday.
 
Lisa Blackwood was PRO for the day and did a great job. Thanks Lisa. Her courses included the ‘new’ buoy 10 which was perfect for the North Westerly conditions. Lisa was able to grab my boat for a couple of races in the middle of the program and then Andrew’s for a race in the afternoon session.
 
All skippers agreed to abandon our usual handicap racing but have some scratch racing instead. All also agreed that B-rigs would be the best choice for the breezy morning. Two races later the wind had moderated considerably however and so we all changed to A-rigs.
 
Racing was very close all day and all skippers had their chances of winning races at different stages. The points table was close too with Wayne winning the day but only by countback from Stuart Dawes. Andrew Wardrop was a couple of points behind in third position. Congratulations to all three.
 
That said, today seemed to be more about getting back to good racing with our mates rather than scoring points overall. It was a really enjoyable radio sailing session.


From the Committree
Just a few small things for members benefit

• We have consciously purchased more Nationals hats than needed for the Nationals that have just been completed. They are now available to members (or anyone else) for what it cost us ($20).
• Kyle noticed the fantastic new transmitter covers that some sailors had at the nationals. He has organised to get some from BG in the UK and they are on their way. He has purchased 10 of them and some are already taken. If you would like one, they can be purchased for what it cost us to bring to Tassie ($80 ea). Bringing one in by itself is close to $100, so a good bulk saving there for anyone looking for a top quality cover. Sourced from the BG Website
• Often, after a nationals event, there are yachts that come up for sale. If you have a yacht that you'd like listed, please get in touch with us and we will put it on our website and assist (if needed) in getting it published to the ARYA website as well.

  
COMING UP:
Back to our regular calendar!
Sunday: IOM Scratch racing at Montrose (1:00 pm button-press)
​Next Wednesday: DF95 Handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam (11:00 am button-press)

Shorty

A bit of a cooler day today, but was a good one for a thorough test of the A Class yachts before the Nationals start in three days time.

A few sailors turned up a bit earlier for Nats preparations. Flag pole sorted, competiton buoys laid, gazeebos checked and repairs planned on the one that needs some TLC.

Tide today was very low. So much so that the floating pontoon was not floating at any point in the day.

Back to the yachts, Kyle had a new boat to test out in competiton after the "soft launch" last week. Mike and Lisa had new sails to sort out as well. Phil had the first sail of his new (2nd hand) A, John continued testing out his A and Lester Pearson visited for some testing of the Elwick Bay waters.

Stu and Les got us away close to the start time. Some allowance made (thanks) for my running around with buoy placements and helping others get their boats ready.

We used the competiton course as best we could without a boat being out there to adjust (which will be available throughout the nationals). After a while, we saw that races were under ten minutes, so the two lap course was pushed to three.

Michael was having a really good day, but could only sail for about an hour, Firsts, seconds and a 3rd showed he will be up the pointy end this coming week.

We did have an amount of attrition towards the end of the day, with John breaking a jib boom, Phil's battery died  and Kyle lost a jib sheet prior to the last race.

In all though it was a solid hit out with 6 of the 7 yachts getting at least one podium finish in.

In the end, Kyle came away with the round win. Very happy with the performance of the new build, winning the day on 13 points - all 1's and 2's after the drops. A very consistent day.

Second place was Lisa Blackwood, 3 behind on 16 points. Mostly consistent day and the boat was very fast, but a few mistakes cost dearly in the end.

Third place was Rod Marshall, on 26 points. Never far behind and took advantage on multiple occasions when the boat in front made a mistake or didn't quite see the wind shift coming.

Big thanks to Les, Stu and Ray today for doing the RO work for a great tune up in preparation for the Nationals.

Coming up

Wednesday is the start of the ARYA Nationals with A Class racing (12-14 Feb), followed by IOM (15-18 Feb), RM's (19-21 Feb) and finally the 10R's (22-24 Feb).

Racing starts at 10 most days till 6 with the exception of each class' last day which will finish at 1pm. The A Class and 10R are likely to finish by the end of the second day with maximum races sailed.

Please get along to see the action if you can. It's a great opportunity to see the best in Australia sailing.

Kyle

What a perfect day today.

For starters, a small group turned up a bit early and removed our permanent buoys from the sail area and installed the new "Championship Buoys" for use over the next few weeks. The idea being a good dress rehersal for the upcoming National Championships.

Our course was set a bit different today, and we plan to use the same throughout the Champs. A start line alongside the lee gate consisting of three buoys. Two were around 25m apart for the start line, with one buoy closer to shore about 5m away from one of the start buoys, which made up the leeward gate. That allowed for the maximum available first beat to the windward mark and offset mark in order to maximise the space available to separate the fleet prior to rounding that first mark. We completed two of these laps and closed out to a dedicated finish line about half way up the beat.

At 10am, when we started prepping, the river was glassed out, but by 1pm start, all boats had selected their B rigs for the day, which ended up being rather over-powered by the close of the days sailing.

Fifteen sailors fronted today, with both Stu and myself electing to not sail and help out with buoy setting and RO duties.

Unfortunately, a new skipper, Rowan, started the first race but suffered a winch failure and couldn't contest the remainer of the day. He will be back, being quite keen on contesting the Nationals as a newly minted RBRYC member. Rowan comes from a decorated sailing background, having just competed in the SB20 World Championships and also heavily involved in foiling Moths.

We also welcomed Lester Pearson, who has come for the Nationals from NSW, and has made a bit of a holiday of it and will be spending some time fishing around the state as well. Lester will be sailing in the A Class and IOM Class Championships.

From the get go today, Mat Gray showed he has lost nothing at all with his sailing. Broke out in the first race and showed a clean set of heels throughout most of the day. Great to see you back on the water Mat, and looking forward to you hopefully being OK for the IOM Nationals.

The sailing today was quite fast in the upper end of B rig conditions. The wonderful sea breeze giving us absolute champagne conditions throughout. Very little to no noise from the skippers today, and the RO's thank everyone for their behaviour on the water.

As mentioned, by the end of the 11 races today, Mat Gray had blasted away to a resounding round win, on 11 points. He has to drop two second places...... Top effort Mat.

Second place today went to Michael Hickman on 24 points. Also very well sailed today.

Third place today went to Lisa Blackwood on 31 points.

Clearly today was dominated by the top four skippers, all having a very consistent day out.

In Silver Fleet,  we had Jammy Jones taking the round out on 19 points. Welcome back to club racing Jammy, and we hope you enjoyed it anf want to sail much more often with us.

Second place, just two behind, was Ian Hey on 21 points, with John Short a further two behind on 23 points.

Thanks today to our RO's Les and Stuart for their work on setting courses, managaing that start line and calling over the finishing boats. Great job guys.

Coming up

This coming Wednesday will be Mid Week DF95 Handicap at the dam, button press at 1pm.

Next Sunday will be A Class Scratch at Montrose, button press at 1pm as well as preparations for the Nationals. Come along and help out if you can for the preparations. We have a committee meeting tomorrow night to conclude (hopefully) all of our committee preparations and organising of volunteers to roles etc. If you have yet to offer assistance but feel you would like to, please get in touch with us as soon as possible so we can add you to the list and give an allocation to roles/tasks.

Kyle