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Today we held the Speak Up! Stay ChatTY regatta. This event was designed to raise the awareness of mental health, to support the Stay ChatTY organisation, to build our club profile, and to offer an open invitation to guests from other clubs. The weather looked dubious all week with an 80% chance of 1 – 5 mm of rain forecast, but I think that it must have fallen overnight as by start time we had a cool but dry day. The wind was a gusty 15 knots from the South East and sudden shifts of up to 30 degrees made sailing really challenging. There were plenty of helpers today. Thanks go to Mat Gray, John Hall and Chris Wood who helped out with official race duties. Tristan Price and his wife Renee (Ricky’s son and daughter-in-law) also attended. Tristan took lots of photos of the event (published soon) and Renee took on the role of tong-master at the barbeque. A huge thanks to you both! Alex Fitzgerald from Speak Up! Stay ChatTY talked to us over lunch. He outlined the history and purpose of his organisation, spoke about the importance of sport and sport clubs in helping address mental health issues, and of how we can support our mates in the club. Alex was pretty blown away by the whole radio sailing thing and thought that what we were doing was excellent both as a sport and from the mental health aspect. Entry donations were collected and in all we raised $320 which will go directly to Speak Up! Stay ChatTY. Thanks to all those who donated. All boats started on scratch for the first race today and handicap penalties of 15 sec, 10 sec and 5 sec were applied for 1st , 2nd and 3rd respectively. I was expecting that the boats which usually have longer handicaps would be left well behind but was surprised on how close and competitive the racing was. Only 11 points separated the first 8 skippers and each of these had race wins. Worthy of special mention today are Ian Hey and Ricky Price both of whom had two race wins. Third overall went to Phil Jackman. Trout was only 1 point away from both winning outright and winning the woodies division. Second and first place were tied on points and separated by count-back. Ray Joyce took out the day from Commadore Rod Marshall. Rod’s day was particularly impressive remembering that everyone started the day on the same handicap. We awarded prizes for first overall, first woodie and first classic. Rod Marshall was the first in the hotly contested woodie division. Rob Cooney took out the classic division with a nice 2nd place in the mix. I really think that congratulations are to all that participated so well today. All up it was a great day out. Next week we will be trialing a brief lunchtime rules presentation as new feature on Wednesdays. Wayne Behrens will present one rule each week. I am looking forward to this and have got a few tricky questions for him! COMING UP: Sunday: Marblehead scratch racing at Montrose (1:00 button press) Next Wednesday: DF95’s handicap racing at the dam. (11:00 button press) Shorty   
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Today’s warm and sunny conditions were like a preview of summer. There was a light North-Westerly when we arrived but it soon gave way to an early sea breeze which was well-cooked after our lunch break and the afternoon session was sailed right at the top end for A-rigs. Our State Champion Mat Gray took on PRO duties for the day and was ably assisted by John Banks. Thank you both for your excellent work today. The podium was well shared today with all skippers making the dais at some stage and eight of the eleven recording race wins. Third overall went to Andrew Floyd in a ‘welcome back’ sail. It was great to see Andrew back sailing again after a bit of a break and although he was all ‘fingers and thumbs’ for a while and he hit a few buoys he sailed well to win in two races. Second place went to Rod Marshall. The bright yellow Rockstar is un-mistakable on the water and had real boat speed today. I managed to take out the day with quite a few useful, handicap preserving third places in the mix. COMING UP: Saturday: DF95 Scratch sailing at the dam (1:00 button) Next Wednesday: The Stay ChatTY regatta. This will be an invitation handicap event. Entry is by donation to stay ChatTY so bring some cash in your pocket next week. The club will be putting on a BBQ lunch so it should be a great day. Button-press will be at 11:00 as normal. Some further details will follow. John S  A very light Nor-Westerly greeted us today for the last day of the IOM State Championship. A slight delay to start with to alter some buoys, but we were soon under way in very light A rig conditions. Same as yesterday, with groups of two races and a quick break in between. Mat starting the day in convincing fashion, with three seconds and two first places to lunch time. Mike also sharing in a couple of wins as well. Further down the lst, and things were getting much tighter with 10-13 all within a few points of each other. The expected sea breeze after lunch didn't seem to want to comply, and we were left with the same very light breeze that we had prior to lunch through to te end of the day, with 26 races being completed in all. After the final race, Mat Gray proved too consistent, with a well deserved win - his third year in succession. 10 wins from 26 races. Second place went to Chris Wood, who also sailed a wonderful championship regatta, on 75 points. Four wins in the last five races shows how strong he finished the day. Rounding out the top three was Michael Hickman on 80 points. Special thanks has to go out to Gary McCarthy, who traveled from sunny Qld to sail with us. We really appreciated your efforts to get down here, as well as your company both on and off the water. We hope to see you again soon - either back down here at another event or when we can reciprocate with an event up there at some stage. Also, to our Northern "member" Ted, for always coming down with a smile and competing with us. Great company every time, and great to see that your yacht was sailing so much better this weekend. To our volunteers, Pro, Jeff Byerley, and observers/scorers Les Hanson and Ken Dobbie. A Big thanks to you three for your time and efforts over the weekend. Without you helping us in your capacity, the event simply would not have been as successful as it was. Coming up This coming Wednesday is IOM Handicap at the dam, button press at 11am Next Sunday 26th November is DF95 Scaratch at the dam, button press at 1pm Kyle   A light southerly greeted the 15 competitors today for the Tasmanian IOM State Championship. Our PRO, Jeff Byerley got us under way nice and quickly after the debrief and we got in four races before it was decided to call an early lunch in the hope of a better breeze developing afterwards. As if made to order, we then changed to B rigs before resuming after lunch and continued the day on them with an ever-increasing level of wind - all from the south to south east, up to around 18 knots, before finishing the day with 13 races completed. We had some attrition with equipment failure, but hope to ahve everyone back tomorrow for the second day of the championship. Some really good, close, tight racing making a really enjoyable day today, which I am sure will continue tomorrow as well. Clubhouse leader today is Mat Gray, on 21 points, with Michael Hickman holding second on 35, with Lisa Blackwood in third on 44 points. Plenty of time though, for things to develop and challenges to be made. Big thanks today to our crew of volunteers, with Jeff carrying out the PRO duties, and Les Hanson and Ken Dobbie ably assisting with start/finish line calls and observing duties. Tomorrows sailing starts at 1000. Any volunteer assistance from our membership or wider audience for observer duties and/or rescue boat duties will be very appreciated tomorrow, for any amount of time that you may have available. Kyle I was unfortunately unable to make it to today’s IOM handicap at the dam and so this report is cobbled together from information that Bodge sent to me. Thanks for standing in today Bodge. It was a nice sunny day with variable winds mostly Northerly 0 - 5 knots with occasional North West gusts of over 10 knots. A-rig was the obvious choice and was used throughout the day. Martin Svensen had rudder servo issues in the pre-event scratch racing but stayed on to officiate today. Thanks for your work Martin. Today we were able to welcome Richard Harradine who was visiting from the Gold Coast. Richard sailed Peter Webberly’s spare TS2 (number158) and was extremely happy to win the last race of the day. We are glad that you enjoyed sailing with us Richard. While nearly all skippers got to the podium at some stage it was the guns who showed their class today. Lisa Blackwood, Jammy Jones and Ray Joyce stole the day taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. COMING UP: Saturday and Sunday: It’s the IOM State Championships at Montrose. There is an impressive start list. Late registrations can be made on-line. Briefing on Saturday is 10:15 for a 10:30 button. Anyone who is not sailing is most welcome to drop in to help with official duties. Next Wednesday: IOM handicap sailing at the dam. (11:00 button) Wednesday 29th November: Stay Chatty Regatta. A handicap charity sail. (More information to follow on this) John S  A good breezy day for us today at MBYC. Eleven sailors fronted for the day, but unfortunately, as the wind increased, we did suffer some losses as the day went on, with just five sailing the last race. Battery issues, winch issues, side stays snapping - we had it all, but better off today than next week at the State Championship. The wind did make things rather difficult for all, with a West to north Westerly at 15 to 30 knots through much of the afternoon. Honours were much more evenly shared today. Rod Jackman with three wins, Lisa with a couple, Mat with two and Chris with three. The big difference today being the higher scores, and not so much the lower ones.. Chris Wood was the one who excelled the most today though. Along with the three wins, he had to throw out two 4th places for his drops, so was a well deserved winner today with 17 points. One point behind on 18 was Mat Gray - again a very consistent day with drops of 4 and 5. Lisa Blackwood rounded out the top three, two further adrift on 20. We had some big movers on handicap this week, with Chris Wood taking the double today with a massive 5 differential points to take first place on handicap. Rod Marchall took second place with 4 differential points, with Rod Jackma, John Hall and Martin Svensen all tied in third place with one differential point each. As always, big thanks to Les for his help as Pro today. Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap at the dam, button press at 11am. Next weekend is the IOM Championship on both Saturday and Sunday at Montrose. "Oficial" entries close today, but later entries are accepted till Friday, so if you have yett o enter and wish to do so, please get it in as soon as possible via our website. Kyle   It was warm and sunny at the dam for today’s IOM handicap racing. A light south Westerly (of about 5 knots) was blowing when we arrived which gave us hope for some good sailing. This wind maintained its strength but moved to the south with shifts both to the West and the East making for some interesting sailing. Predicting the shifts correctly was an important element today. Phil Jackman had electronics trouble even before the start of the first race and so could not compete but he did stay and do PRO duties for the day. Thank you Phil. Today we welcomed back Peter Germaine who migrates between Tassie and Queensland each year, finding the best of the weather. Pete has lost no form and today finished a creditable 4th overall with a win and a second on the scorecard. By the time we had sailed nine races, storm clouds were threatening and with some loud rolls of thunder sounding a warning, Trout decided that safety and comfort were priorities and called it a day. The overall positions: Third place went to Chris Wood who had an excellent start to the day but paid for it in handicap penalties. Chris spent the afternoon with a handicap of 90 seconds and started much later than his nearest rival. Second went to Peter Turner who sailed his classic well to its handicap and finished the day with two race wins and two second places in his tally. Today’s winner was Lisa Blackwood who was the most consistent of the podium place getters. Lisa has just returned from winning the A class national championships making it back-to-back titles for her. Congratulations Lisa and well sailed today too! Coming up: Saturday: IOM scratch racing at Montrose. (1:00 button) Next Wednesday: IOM handicap sailing at the dam (11:00 button) And for your calendar: Wednesday 29th November: The Stay ChatTY Regatta. This will be a handicap, invitation event at the dam with entry by donation to Stay ChatTY. The club will be putting on a BBQ lunch on the day. More information on this will come soon. Shorty  A cool day for us today, but at least we had a great breeze. A wonderful 10-15 knot southerly blowing all afternoon for us, settuing up for some great B rig conditions. Ten sailors made it along today. Great to see Chris along, getting in some important tuning practice for the upcoming states in two weeks time (entries close next week). Some excellent close sailing throughout, and to be honest, a lot of the scores don't do the sailing enough justice, with some finishes having 6 over the line within 5 seconds. On-course behaviour was fantastic today. Only brought up following my positive experience of the same over in SA at the Marblehead Nationals. No "playing games" on the start line hunting boats up, courteous passing on the beats, everything looked respectful at the buoy roundings. A wise man said to me that a fast boat is not always the right boat, but the one that is not involved in incidents, so avoiding them at pretty much any cost is always faster than arguing about a collision - something I have thought about a lot the last little while..... Rod's new Rockstar looked the goods and just needs a few weeks of fine tuning to get things set just nicely. Andrew was getting more comfortable with his V10, enjoying a few races towards the end of the day. A couple more tweaks to the rigs to make sure bowsies stay nice and tight and consistency will increase there for sure. It was great to see multiple people lending a had to Andrew when he needed a hand with a few issues today as well in order to get him back on the water. Help like that for the newer guys will always have them coming back keen to sail next week and is the culture we want to continue to nourish. Anyway, back to results, and Mat came out the winner today on 15 points. Just two points behind in second was Michael, with Chris and Rod J tied in third on 20, Chris taking the third on countback. Great close results there. On handicap, Chris and John tied in first on two net points, with Mat and Rod M tied in third spot. Well done to all. As always, big thanks to Les for his help as Pro today. Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap at the dam, button press at 11am. Kyle   It was a nice warm day for sailing and although the forecast predicted a 5 knot South-Westerly the wind at Risdon Brook Dam was 15 knots and Northerly. This wind maintained strength throughout the day and while A-rigs were the weapon of choice they were a handful at times. A lot of skippers (myself included) found that the DF95 needs to be well rigged to avoid getting in-irons when going about when sailing the A-rig over-powered. I was pretty happy to get third overall today. I lost my jib in a race #3 accident and so was forced to use the B-rig for the two races prior lunch. This proved to work out well for me – winning the next race. Second place was taken by Phil Turnbull with two race wins in the tally. Today’s winner was Ian Hey who had a real day out. Bodge was so far ahead that even rudder servo problems at the end of the day could not stop him winning the event. It was a really impressive result especially considering his good form was at the start of the day and so most of his racing was done with high handicap. Congratulations Bodge. Thanks to Andrew Wardrop who set excellent courses as PRO and kept the day moving well. It was interesting to see a strong South-Easterly sea-breeze on the Derwent as I drove home still with the Northerly still pumping at the Dam. Wind is a fairly local phenomenon. Coming up: Sunday: NOTE CHANGE OF CALENDAR - Scratch sailing will be for IOM’s (instead of RM) at Montrose - 1:00 button press. Next Wednesday: IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam - 11:00 button press. John S  |