​A difficult day today on the water. Initially, we were all huddled in the MBYC shed, wondering if we'd get a start. Drizzle turned to rain and the forecast was bleak.

Eventually, enough sailors said yes to an attempt at sailing and we were rewarded. The rain abated, but not much wind came in and we sailed 8 races in a 1-4 knot breeze from the North West through to South East.

We didn't run with a Pro today. Stu set the courses and we policed each other at the start line. Thanks to those who were called and went back without fuss for a restart. It makes things so much more enjoyable with simple compliance to the rules.

Today, Gary McCarthy was the one to beat. He had his GC24 tuned beautifully, and sailed th elight weather courses really efficiently. A worthy winner today with 11 points.
Lisa overcame her early setback with the winch and sailed well throughout, with a 14 enough for second place overall.
Roddy Jackman also had a real good day, finishing one behind Lisa in third, on 15 points.

Andrew Wardrop dominated the Silver Fleet with his new Proteus 3D Printed IOM. Taking the day out with 7 points.
Simon Delaney took out second place on countback to John Short in 3rd, both on 12 points.

Coming up

Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap at the Dam, starting at 1030.

Next Sunday is A Class Scratch Scratch at Montrose, starting at 1300 - Club boat available for anyone who wants to give it a go.

Kyle

 ​For the Classics and Woodies, we decided to run today's sailing like the successful round we had at Trevallyn last year. Two Woodie races followed by two Classics races and so on.

With a long lunch break in the middle due to lack of wind, we still got in 8 races with each division, which was a fantastic result.

We had 10 Woodies sailing today, and 7 Classics.

Stu Dawes ran proceedings with good overall control, which is why we got so many good races in. Sometimes the wind didn't co-operate for us with the significant shifts, but we could only work with what was in our control. That said, just one race abandonment and some really good courses ensured that we all enjoyed the day as much as possible. Great to note the amount of sailors finishing the day saying what a pleasant day's sailing it was.

In the Woodies division, the competiton was really close, as evidenced int he final results. 4 points separating 1st and 6th place!!
Rod Marshall came out winner of the Woodies with 18 points.
Second place went to Andrew Wardrop on 19 points
Third was Wayne Behrens on 20 points.

The Classics division was also hotly contested with 3 points separating the top 4.
Peter Webberley took out the Classics with 14 points.
Lisa Blackwood took out second on countback with 16 points.
Kyle Stewart took 3rd, having lost out on the countback - also on 16 points

Well done everyone on such an enjoyable day. A longer one with the 11am start through to 4 finish, but the extra two hours allowed two sets of 8 races with a fairly lengthy lunch break.

Thanks again to Stu for doing the PRO duties today. It was really appreciated, as well as to John Hall who also came to PRO, but was given a Woodie to sail instead :)

For those sailing IOM Scratch tomorrow, see you at MBYC for a 1pm button press.

For anyone interested, we will also be at MBYC on Monday from 1pm, sailing the A Class yachts in preparation for the National Champs in a few weeks time. If you'd like a sail, feel free to come along. We also have hte Club A sitting in the boat shed for anyone who would like to have a sail of that one as well.

Kyle

With a  lovely summer’s day, a temperature nudging 30 degrees and a North Westerly of about 5 knots the scene was set for some more DF95 handicap racing at Risdon Brook dam.
Lisa Blackwood kindly offered to do the PRO duties today giving our regular DF95 PRO Andrew Wardrop a well earned day off. Thank you so much for your work today Lisa! Some of the courses that Lisa set were quite creative and they worked well for the conditions even though there were considerable shifts happening throughout the day. 
For the last two races Lisa set a course involving gates each end (ie every buoy was a gate). You had to think carefully about your selection. It was not just a matter of making the choice on the basis of windward or leeward buoy as sometimes one buoy was favoured with more wind pressure.
Buzzy Behrens came out on top today a good 5 points clear of second place. Buzzy has developed a reputation for his knowledge of the dam especially when conditions are a bit flukey. Second place went to Richard Whylie who had the most consistent scorecard featuring lots of 3rd and 4th places. And Chris Wood took out third place and was one of four skippers to win two races. Congratulations Buzzy, Richard and Chris.

With the IOM Woodie and Classics sail day this coming Saturday, Peter Webberley has generously offered te use of his spare TS-2 for anyone that would like to have a sail. If interested, please contact Peter or Kyle.

Peter also has an IOM Woodie (Ellipsis) for sale at the moment. It is listed on the RBRYC Website in the Club news / For Sale area



Coming up:
Saturday: Woodies and Classics Invitation at Risdon Brook Dam (11:00 button press)
Sunday: IOM scratch racing at Montrose (1:00 button press)

Monday : A few skippers will be sailing their A Class boats from 1pm for preparation for the Nationals a few weeks later. Everyone is welcome to come along as well if htey wish to have a practice sail.
Next Wednesday: IOM Handicap Shield racing at Risdon Brook Dam (10:30 button press)


Shorty

​A difficult day overall today. Some nightmares returned with wind direction scarily similar to last years IOM Nationals. Strength from nothing to 25 knots with not much time between extremes, with a few rain squalls added in for good measure. As our friends at MBYC reported on their sailing results today "The forecast was of the type "it may blow and it may rain but it may not, and if it does we have no idea how hard or where from."
So it proved to be."

We had six sailors along today and with John Short directing things for us, we got way nicely on time. Unfortunately, Ray had a boat issue just prior to button press ont he first race, however was fixed for race 2.

Boats were either in C (Ray, Kyle and John) or C2 rigs (Lisa, Rod and Stu), wit Lisa changing up to a C for the last 3 races. In a way, it did handicap things a little bit, but it's what the skippers felt was right in the variable conditions.

We got 10 races finished in the session, with Kyle running away to a dominant win today on just 10 points.
Ray took out second spot, with 19 points and Lisa rounded out the top 3 with 21.

The day required a lot of concentration with a heavily flowing tide and a lot of effort spent in looking for ht eright breeze and being on the correct tack to take advantage when you could.

An enjoyable day overall, with a few sprinkles of frustrations that all days have.

Unfortunately, that's the last Marblehead sail till Mid March (John Emms Memorial), after the National Championships.

Coming up

Wednesday sees DF95 Handicap at the Dam, starting at 1030.

Saturday is the IOM Woodie/Classic day at Risdon Brook, button press at 1300

Next Sunday is IOM Scratch, also at MBYC, button press at 1300

Kyle

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

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:

• Wednesday, 28th January: IOM Mid-Week Long Distance Handicap, button press at 10:30 AM - 3PM.
• Next Sunday, 1st February: Marblehead Scratch at Montrose,  button press at 1PM.

Kyle

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:

• Wednesday, 21st January: IOM Mid-Week Handicap, button press at 10:30 AM.
• Next Sunday, 23rd November: IOM Scratch at Montrose,  button press at 1PM.
• Next Monday, 26th January: DF95 Australia Day Shield, button press 1PM

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