NORTHBRIDGE CLUB ABN 78 000 469 947

Main Clubhouse: Bethwaite Lane, Clive Park, Northbridge Seaforth Clubhouse annex: Sangrado Street, Seaforth Postal Address: PO Box 39 Northbridge NSW 1560

www.nsc.asn.au

2018-2019 Season Report

Commodore’s Report I am unable to be present at the AGM and annual club prize-giving as my wife and I left for a holiday abroad. I do beg your understanding!

Your club is honoured to have Mr Trent Zimmerman presenting trophies and joining us for lunch at the prize-giving. We are particularly grateful to Mr Zimmerman for his support of the club, in our successful grant application to the Federal Department of Sport. His office has also provided us with our new Australian flag, which you can see proudly flying today. The Federal Department of Sport matched the Willoughby Council financial commitment provided for our essential deck and pile remediation. We are eternally grateful to the Mayor of Willoughby Gail Giles-Gidney, and her team, for their wonderful contribution to our club. 1Shiny new railings!

The support provided recognises that we at NSC are the custodians of a community resource. We are not a gated community.

Prior to mentioning achievements by the club over the last year (and there have been many), I ask you to spare thoughts for any of our members facing challenges at this time, whether they be health or otherwise. May we all be reminded to count our blessings.

And now to list the achievements of the last 12 months at NSC, that facilitate our sailing.

1. Formation of Rust Group (Rebooted Underutlised Salty Tars). This group meets on the second and 4th Wednesday of the month 9.30 am to 12.30 followed by a bbq lunch on the deck. Regular attendees this year have included Phil Susans, Steve Penny, John Smidmore, Cam McDonald and myself. Major achievements have been restoration of the flag pole (look outside) and club boat repairs. New members, who may not be members of NSC, are always welcome.

2. Construction of the new stairway by Willoughby Council

3. Construction of new compliant railings on top deck

4. Completion of new ramp on Eastern side of deck (special thanks for the ever- capable Jim Beeston who took over the responsibility to complete this construction in a time frame to comply with grant requirements)

5. Essential repairs to the piling and deck structures to cover safety and the requirements of an engineer’s default report, for the purpose of lease renewal with Roads and Maritime Department

6. Establishment of a recycling service at NSC

Your club is in a sound state. But we must remain constantly aware that your 2Pouring concrete for our under-deck piers club relies on the volunteer efforts of all of us. Whether it be taking a turn on the Committee, attending working bees, signing up for Officer of the Day (OOD) or for the newer members or parents of members, signing up for Assistant Officer of the Day (AOOD) duties. No boat licence is needed for this AOOD role, and it is a great role to increase skill and knowledge in rescue, laying, and boat handling generally. We have often seen an OOD with a son or daughter fulfilling the AOOD role – a bonding parent/child experience (hopefully!). Additionally, and very importantly, there are the ever-important canteen roles to be filled.

Imagine if those hungry instructors and sailors were not fed! I encourage you to log onto the website early in the season and book yourself a couple of roles on dates to suit you.

Finally, I would like to thank the committee and the various class captains, and our safety officer – a team of approximately 10 who are the mainstay of our wonderful club. Without them the job of Commodore just would not be possible.

Happy sailing! And, see you in the Spring time.

Peter Doyle Commodore

Financial Report The performance for the financial year is very pleasing with a profit of $34,832, (2018 $2,537), which has partly resulted from an increase in revenue from Junior Learn to Sail, $10k, Clubhouse Hire, $7.5k, and membership fees, $7k at the same time we have been able to keep our expenses at a similar level to the previous year.

Membership numbers increased slightly during the year, largely due to the intake from learn to sail participants, however, not all these new members will continue with sailing in future years.

The Club closed the year with approximately $159k in the bank, an increase of approximately $50,000, however approximately $39k relates to the unused portion of the grant from the Federal Government to assist with necessary repairs to the deck which will be spent in the current financial year.

It should be noted we are the custodians of an aging facility which will require continual maintenance and as such it is necessary to build reserves to cover future maintenance. This year we have been extremely fortunate to have received substantial support from the Federal Government and Willoughby Council.

Andrew Boyce Treasurer

Learn-to-Sail and Live-In Report

Learn to Sail

We had a truly bumper season for Learn-to-Sail. The September school-holiday timing for our first (Spring) intake seems to be popular (even if it is still pretty cold); we had 27 new sailors start and remarkably 23 continued on to our Level 2 course (and 11 of those bought boats and moved into Level 3/junior sailing).

Our second (Summer) intake was also bumper, with 23 starting Level 1 and 28 continuing on into Level 2 (no, they didn’t clone some extra, we had some carry-overs from other clubs and courses!), and again 10 of those bought boats and graduated to junior sailing.

We still had more enquiries! So we ended up running a modest course during LiveIn as well – another 6 sailors making a total of 61 for the season.

We also ran an Adult Learn-to-Sail course in the spring with 6 sprightly seafarers, and once again were flooded with enquiries once it had finished, so ran a second course for a further 10. For especially those parents of junior kids, this is an excellent way to foster bonding – learn to do it yourself!

Next season we want to reduce the load on our instructors (so they can improve their own sailing). So we’ll have a LTS intake during the October holidays and at Live-In only, with abbreviated courses (we’ll go straight from Level 2 into Green Fleet), leaving many more Sundays free.

LiveIn

It just never dies! The Live-In format was largely unchanged from past years. 46 kids showed up, along with a dozen instructors, and the kids found out that a full week of near-anarchy and fun was worth the occasional wet-suit rash, deck splinter, sunburn (yes, a few square inches of skin missed out on sunscreen) and missing mum.

Our Head Instructor, the majestically- serene Sarah Bartels managed the whole thing from start to finish, and the remaining fleet of instructors (Luke, Nathan, Kashi, Justin, Tom, Matt, Hamish, Bezi, India, Sam, Ben and Max) were superb (amazingly, they are still all friends). They were all between 14 and 18 years old, are a truly exceptional bunch of sailors, and I think any parent would be proud of their responsible attitude.

Young kids see what capable youths these instructors are, and aspire to emulate them. It doesn’t seem to matter whether they started as saints or ratbags, their Northbridge sailing experience shapes their growth and maturity. We rely on them totally. Thanks.

The kids had a whale of a time, and as usual learned more about sailing in a week than they did the rest of the year - mostly because they had a lot of fun and accidentally sailed a lot! Parents pitched in yet again with the volunteer position rostering - the kids owe a huge thank-you to you all. For those members not connected to the Live-In, there’s as much volunteer activity during that week as during the rest of the season combined… Many parents loved the opportunity to see their kids having a great time while the chores were done.

Just like Vegas, what 3Gone are the days of happens at Live-In stays cheese and vegemite at Live-In, so there won’t sarnies being enough.... be any tales told here. But we can report that the traditional instructor race produced its usual amount of anarchy, with all instructors taking it as seriously as the Olympics – much ego was at stake. Just seeing the tactics used caused the average sailing skills of the Live-In kids to regress back to Tuesday – for a start all the Opti sprits except two were stolen and hidden prior to the start – pretty easy to guess who was behind that prank (yes, the two that still had sprits…). For the record, the race was won by Justin (AKA “The French kid”), who we fully expect to be an Olympic Nacra finalist 4Now that's a proper shopping soon, having decimated the adult sailors during list! the NSC season, and comprehensively destroyed the home-grown egos at Live-In.

Long may the Live-In survive and thrive! It is a hugely vital part of our sailing culture, and the of other clubs.

Adult Live-In

In fact, Live-In induces so much envy that the adults of the club wanted to have a similar experience (although adapted somewhat – we don’t really cater much during junior Live-In for meditation and red wine!). So Steph Sheridan and Ricky Silbersher arranged their own Adult Live-In in October, and by all accounts had a wonderful long weekend. The attendees want to repeat it next season, so it may become the newest fixture on our calendar.

Pathway

When I look back through old season reports and parent e-mails, a recurring theme is “what do teenagers do after Flying 11s?”.

We haven’t really had satisfactory answers recently. Bear in mind that these youth graduates are probably 15-17, have had a few years in a pretty sporty, lightweight with spinnaker, and see fast boats with asymmetric kites and trapezes out on the racecourse at various regattas. Undoubtedly some may go into existing NSC classes, but the reality is we haven’t had an answer that appeals to these teenagers that will challenge their sailing skills and thrills.

Now we do. The club has decided to focus on the MG14 class as a youth boat, with and Lasers as alternates for sailors and adult-child combinations. Given an MG14 has an identical hull and often rig to an NS14, and can be converted either way in a few minutes, we think it will be attractive to our teenagers, and some exciting sailing will be had.

We don’t expect an immediate fleet, but will work on building up decent numbers during next season.

Andy Saunders

Principal of the Sailing School

Junior Sailing Report 2018/19

This season’s Junior fleet saw steady progression again, with a strong growth in Green Fleet numbers from another bumper intake of learn to sail registrations. Some strong friendship bonds have developed amongst the green fleet sailors with lots of smiling faces. The first half of the season saw some very mild conditions with some mornings suffering from a lack of breeze, appreciated by the less experienced sailors, but very frustrating for the more advanced fleets and those keen to race. Regardless, everyone got out on the water to enjoy the mornings with the help of Sarah Bartels and her amazing team of instructors and a stalwart of dedicated Dads and Mums.

Chatswood Street Fair Something of a tradition, a small gathering of NSC Sailors participated in the annual Chatswood Street Fair Parade in August. Dressed in their wet suits and racing bibs and towing a fully rigged Optimist they proudly promoted NSC to the large crowds gathered to view the event. Afterwards, they manned a booth providing information about NSC and collected contact details from interested public wanting to learn more about the NSC Learn to Sail Program – one of the reasons the Learn-to-Sail intake was so large.

Coaching The premature departure of Head Coach Daniel Smith at the start of the season left a void in our coaching team. Our Head Instructor Sarah Bartels was able to rally our Junior Instructors to fill the void. Fortunately, we were able to secure the services of two new coaches for our Optimist fleet, Lachlan Brewer and Archie Cropley. Lachlan is a past NSC Optimist sailor who twice represented Australia at the Optimist World Championships. Archie is of a similar heritage and recently came 3rd in the 2019 World Youth Championships Boy’s 29ers. Their experience, enthusiasm and rapport with the Juniors has been very welcome and we look forward to their involvement coaching the Junior Fleet next season.

Club Results Not all NSC Competitions were conducted this season. Largely due to lack of wind in the early part of the season. In addition, many of our elite sailors were often absent due to Regatta and State Team commitments.

The finalized winners are as follows: Spring Sprint Series – James Li Summer Sprint Series – Lucille Thompson Willoughby Shield – Nathan Goh Club Championship – Nathan Goh It is pleasing to see our Intermediate Fleet sailors recognized for their achievements.

State Championships and Traveller’s Trophy Regattas Northbridge sailors participated at all the state Traveller’s Trophy regattas throughout the season. The Traveller’s Trophy regatta held at Royal Prince Alfred Sailing Club was the most popular as it provided a final tune up for sailors competing at the 2019 State Optimist Championships.

Gosford Sailing Club held the 2019 NSW Optimist 5Keizo in blustery conditions at Championships the bottom mark, on his way to winning Race 3 at Gosford in March. The two-day event was well attended by six NSC sailors. Wind conditions varied from 10-30+ kts. The Northbridge sailors were always in the mix, and for some it was their first ever regatta.

Keizo Tomishima finished 5th overall and was also awarded 3rd overall in the Traveller’s Trophy Regatta Series. 6Hanako (AUS 1038)

The Optimist Nationals and World Championships The 2019 Optimist National Championships were held in January, at the Sandy Bay Sailing Club in Hobart, Tasmania. The logistical challengers of the location meant that only a few Northbridge Juniors made the journey. The conditions the sailors experienced, can be described as the most 7Lucille (AUS 571) on the Start Line challenging of any Australian National Optimist Championship ever held. Wind speeds varied from light to extreme, as did the temperature. Strong tidal currents and wind shifts played havoc with the fleet; local knowledge was a definite advantage.

The positive, was that the conditions provided a real proving ground in truly selecting the best young optimist sailors in the country. 138 sailors entered the Open Fleet division and the highlight for NSC was the 5th overall placing for Keizo Tomishima. This automatically qualified him to be part of the Australian National Optimist Team and compete in the 2019 World Optimist Championships in Antigua. Keizo’s consistent and improving results and commitment throughout the year as an NSC and State Youth Team member led him to have an outstanding World Championship regatta. Qualifying for the Gold Fleet Division and eventually finishing 38th out of the 255 entries and the 2nd best of the Australian Team.

Sara Bruce was also another highlight of the Northbridge Sailors. In her first National Open Fleet regatta, she just missed out in qualifying for the Gold Fleet division but her results were good enough for her to be invited to join the Australian Female Youth Development Team for U12yo sailors. Sara has shown an incredible development of her sailing skills this season, considering she entered the Green Fleet Class in the 2018 Nationals. She has subsequently progressed to participating in interstate Youth Development Team Training programs and international competition.

Sailaway One of the final events of the Junior Fleets Calendar is the annual Sailaway Day. This year was a very pleasant and not predictable venture to Clontarf Beach. Stunning weather, favourable breezes and tides made for an exceptional day. With pizza and ice cream for lunch and the obligatory sail across to Chinaman’s Beach some 20 Junior sailors and their accompanying parents thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Future Plans. The 2019/20 season will be seeing some changes. An ambition I identified a season or two earlier was the initiation of a Development Squad for those junior sailors keen to pursue a more competitive sailing pathway. The 2019/20 season will see the implementation of this as a regular event on Sunday afternoons following the standard Sunday morning program. Hopefully this will continue the cycle of NSC generating exceptional sailing talent that is then able to return and provide experience Optimist specific coaching.

Simon Goh Junior Captain

Flying 11 Report Season 2018/19

Two seasons ago there were no Flying 11s at Nationals from NSC. It was in Tasmania, not an easy location logistically, but our “fleet” was very small and developing, not really prepared for such endeavors. A year later we had 4 boats at Nationals, hosted by Manly, and mostly blasted by ferocious southerlies. But they survived and the experience provided a platform towards the future. This season we had 7 boats participate at the event in Port Stephens, so it has been quite a renaissance for the club and things look set to continue in the same fashion into 2019-20. Will be interesting to see how many boats make the more significant commitment to attend the next Nationals in Brisbane in January, early signs remain encouraging.

To start at the ending, as post-season descended upon us in May, we had a class briefing at the club one evening - the theme of the presentation was increased focus on open fleet training, and the desire of the club to promote youth sailing, beyond age 15, which has been a challenge in terms of retention in recent years. Engagement in the discussions was strong, with new advanced training initiatives being introduced, far more time on Sundays for practice (including self- development), and the MG/NS14 boat class as the youth pathway. Again, the tone of dialogue was encouraging among the 25 attending parents and sailors.

And there are some positive leading indicators. Bezi & Lauren have been sailing an MG at St Georges River in recent months. Rose has participated in both NS14 National and State Championships in 2019. Sarah Bartels dipped her toe in the water again, Ciara having had a soft spot for NS14 club racing in the past. And Samantha (under Hugh Tait’s tutelage) sacrificed her State Title for a National Championship, at the 50th Anniversary event held at the Illawarra SC over the new year. Perhaps the heritage and pedigree in this sailing class can find a new lease of life at its spiritual home.

Back to F11s. The Sydney Harbour Championships (SHC) has become cemented into the club calendar. It has morphed into an inter-club competition between MH16SC and NSC. There were six race days this season, the courses shared evenly between open water (The Sound) and “river” conditions (Sailors Bay). On many weekends there were 12+ boats on the start line; this is 20% of the active F11 fleet in NSW, so it really has become an activity worth maintaining and enhancing. Seems that 8Chilling at Port Stephens the NSC boats have voted with their feet (flippers?, foils?) with a tremendous resolve by several boats to sail the last round of the competition in early April despite a day of monsoonal conditions hovering over Sydney, but thankfully abating as racing began for the drowned crews.

MH16SC boats dominated the final placings, with a few excellent flourishes from Flying Llama and then consistency rewarding Predator with 3rd Place (scratch). However, the race within races was always interesting with many individual rivalries developing. In the season ahead MH16SC will be hosting Round 1 of the State Championships, so we have a great opportunity to use this event as a springboard to improved results on the bigger stage.

In recent seasons the club racing has been dominated by one or two boats. By mid- season this year the Club Championships was a 3-horse race with only a few points separating the top boats, more later. The Willoughby Shield began in much the same vein with multiple boats achieving line honours. The Punchbowl Pennant victory spoils were carried by Daringyan skippered by Keizo, talking a breather from Opti glories, with his brother Shuhei as able crew. By the end of the season 5 different boats would win at least one of the club competitions. The President’s Plate at the end of the season highlighted this new competitive spirit best of all, with podium finishes over the 3-race series being dominated by boats with completely new crew combinations, such as Lauren/Jack & Grace/Rose, even though the experience of Flying Llama, Bezi/Taylor, ultimately prevailed.

Round 1 NSW States was held at Vaucluse, a regular hunting ground for NSC in recent seasons with SHC racing. It is an amazing venue; really makes you pinch yourself on a beautiful sunny day. Our boats started to enjoy mid-fleet status, Bezi & Taylor having a bright start and finishing regularly in the top half of the fleet. Ciara and Grace showed signs of matching them, but then had a catastrophic rigging failure and had to retire from racing on the second day. Samantha & Lauren kept threatening to join the party too, but rounding the windward mark with the top of the fleet is treacherous (no quarter given) and they gave up great starts on more than one occasion throughout the series. The main point here is that we had 4 all girl crews who were really motivated, even Cindy & Hannah as the more junior crew just never gave up, constantly improving.

Nationals was the peak of the season. 7 boats, 14 families, and 5 nights of the 7 being enjoyed as a true community at each others’ holiday accommodation. Port Stephens really turned it on, even if the winds (sucked in by the heatwave) did make conditions challenging for the sailors in the late afternoons. On the water, Keizo & Shuhei got a top 10 finish in one race, placing 26th overall, while Ciara & Grace were very consistent and placed 35th overall (out of 70 boats total). But possibly the highlight for perseverance and bravery was Rose & Hanako on The Ritual. Despite bringing up the rear of the fleet overall, on the last race on the second last day of racing, when they survived the worst of conditions and finished before timing out (despite then getting an OCS), they went onto elevate themselves to 50th in the first race the next day. Well done, real Olympic spirit being shown by them both. As too with Cindy & Hannah in the Transition Fleet, being pipped to second place in the last race, by virtue of the dropped race, but being the only boat to consistently use their spinnaker in all conditions, maybe to their detriment in one race. Awards to the Morrows (Indian night) and the Tomishimas (Lake Front night) for great family evenings, and to all for flying the club flag with pride.

Round 2 States was more or less a repeat of Round 1, same boats, same trends. Ciara topped the results, getting 30th place overall, our first boat in the top half of the fleet at NSW States for several years. The heavier air was to prove challenging for Flying Llama, but a rebound was just around the corner ….

As the season wound down, there was time for a fun weekend on 18ft Skiffs, thanks to Richard Westwood for getting NSC an invitation. It was a well-deserved breather after a busy regatta circuit. But time was also invested over several weekends to identify the best crew combinations for the following season. Only one boat will remain unchanged next year, all the rest have new crew or new skippers or, in some cases, both! The Sunday after Nationals & Live In saw this process begin with a total of 10 boats on the water, in a 3-race series, with the crew scrambled up at the start of each race. Another more relaxed day after lots of more serious competition. Thanks particularly to Lauren, Grace, Cindy, Samantha & Tom for their unselfish efforts in helping new crews get established throughout the season.

…. back to the Club Championships. Going into the last day of racing just 2 points still separated Flying Llama, Predator and Echo. Samantha had reduced her chances by sailing the Laser Course the previous round (but still recovering to almost pinch 3rd). Then on the second last race Predator jumped to a very impressive lead. Suddenly all bets were off. But as the winds declined, the long 3 lap course allowed Flying Llama to

sneak past on the last leg, and then confidently go on to claim the last race. It was a very good effort under pressure. So the old guard took out the podium positions but, next season, assuming a mix of sailing conditions, there will be 6 real contenders, maybe more.

And so to Winter 2019. We have already had 3 training sessions with up to 9 boats participating. There are 4 more planned in August, split between the more advanced boats (John Dransfield) and the newly established crews (Alex Chittenden). Another weekend saw every boat get a total wakeup call with Baz (from TruFlo Sails) auditing them and then, more importantly, helping tune and set up boats so we can start next season from a much-improved foundation. And with options for all crews to remain active at NSC in the seasons to follow, with the MG as a new Class at the club.

Last but not least, we should welcome new boats and crew into the class. Lauren on Wave Away (1330) and Sophie on (the return of) Redback (1250). And then there is Angus MacKinnon, Monique Wacher, Sheri Lynch – all new to the club. Last but not least, Jack Muller, James Liu & Sean Kim emerging from the Opti fleet. In most cases, their entry into the class was greatly facilitated by the availability of the “new” club trainer, the much beloved Slartybartfast, generously donated to NSC by the McLeay Family. Thankyou!

James Radford Flying 11 Captain

Moth Report

Andrew, Ian and Jim enjoyed a pleasant season mainly by avoiding uncomfortable winds. Comfort at Seaforth has been considerably improved this season by the involvement of all hands in the installation of a warm shower for after sailing. We are again waiting for those who “will get their boats out soon” to actually turn up. Off season maintenance is including Ian’s long delayed repairs and we trust that he will be leading us up the steps next season.

Jim Beeston Captain

Laser Report 2018-2019

Another interesting season of Laser sailing at Northbridge Sailing Club comes to a close and after 30 races throughout the season in wind conditions ranging from very light airs in a few early races in the season up to 20 knots during some of the summer series races the club averaged around 6-10 boats per race over the season and with a best turnout of around 12 boats.

The overall boat numbers and participation are down on previous years and I hope we can attract some new Laser sailors to the club in the coming season to bolster and retain the Laser fleet with more robust numbers.

There are 15 Laser sailors registered with the club with ages of sailors ranging from around 50 years of age up to over 70 years of age with many mature sailors having been sailing Lasers for well over 25 years.

We are sorry to lose Gary Byrne from the Laser fleet and after many seasons sailing Gary has decided to call it quits and I’m happy to say the sale of Gary’s Laser has been to a younger member of the club.

Club Lasers

The club had five Lasers available throughout the season and at least two or three have been consistently used every weekend throughout the season in the adult and junior learn to sail program and generally enjoyed by club members and instructors on various occasions and extensively used during the live in.

One of the older Lasers will be sold at the start of next season with the four remaining club lasers to be all stored together in one location at the club allowing the existing Laser bay to be utilised exclusively by club members boats only.

Seasons Race Results

The overall race results for the season for the afternoon annual point score for the Laser Full Rig was 1st place Ian McGregor (Catch My Drift) 2nd Place Ian Clare (Endless Friction) and 3rd place John Smidmore (Rust Never Sleeps)

The overall race results for the season for the afternoon annual point score for the Rig was 1st place Cameron McDonald (Una) 2nd Place Richard Monckton (Flash As A Rat) and 3rd place Sandy Kiernan (Fluffies Luffer)

Regattas

A record number of eight Laser sailors from Northbridge attended the Laser state masters regatta at South Lake Macquarie on the 2nd and 3rd March.

John Smidmore, Tim Alexander, Ian Clare, Richard Monckton, Stephen Penny and Sandy Kiernan all sailed in the Laser Radial division with Tony Stephens and Stephen McCulloch sailing in the division.

This regatta sailed was over two days in bright sunny conditions and a blustery 16 knots of north easterly wind for both days sailing was attended by 56 Laser Radial sailors and 72 Standard Laser sailors with separate starts for each fleet.

The start line for each days racing was a wonderful 20 minute reach from the club out to the open waters to the south west side of the lake with the large area of the lake creating a lot more wave action than Northbridge sailors are used to and made for some wonderful long wave-assisted reaches and runs around the course.

The top three Radial Lasers sailors from Northbridge were Tim Alexander (14th), Ian Clare (20th) and Steve Penny (28th) a great result considering the extremely Competitive fleet of sailors.

In the standard division Tony Stephens finished 63rd and Stephen McCulloch 70th.

Laser State Masters Radial Division Start Line (Day One)

Laser State Masters Radial Division Start Line (Day Two)

Race Format

I understand that the new season will bring some major changes to the afternoon race format which proposes two shorter races along the ‘M’ course lines or shorter versions of the traditional courses or a mixture of both run on three or four laps depending on the wind strength and allowing around 45 minutes for each race.

The other major change is the idea of counting your place in the whole fleet and not separating the places for the full and radial rigs. This makes the competition more interesting with every one being in the mix. The places for each division are then determined by your place overall.

Interesting times ahead for us in the upcoming season!

Richard Monckton Laser Captain

Tasar Season Report

Whether the weather be fine Or whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold Or whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather Whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not.

My recollection of last season is one of several wild Sundays and the sad reality that after more than five seasons sailing with Maz Sorensen, I got her hair wet more than once.

With an efficiency that comes naturally to a very focused skipper such as Hugh Tait, he sailed six races with his lovely wife Anna, winning all six and thus the Club Championship. How boring is that? I think the time will soon be coming to put Zac aboard and make it bit more interesting for the rest of us and give Mike and Rae more time to focus on granddaughter Mila.

Ric Day took another approach. He sailed seven Club Championship heats with six different crews (Kim Woollams (last year’s intrepid crew who was less intrepid this season), Jenny Sorensen (poached after the Bethwaite Trophy), Liz Lindberg (Ric’s daughter who claimed she had never sailed with Ric), Maz Sorensen (I think she was bribed), mate Mal (Malcolm Boyd – perhaps Ric met him at the bus stop?) and Peter van Roekel (perhaps Peter was confused – why was Ric at the stern?) – and Ric came second!

Meanwhile Maz and I raced six races, with Anne Muller helping me out when Maz was off at 16 foot State Champs for a third in the Club Champs. There’s always next season…

Consistent with the blowy conditions, the Willoughby Shield was a bit of a survival event which saw Maz and I winning due to courage (or stupidity?).

Malcolm Handel with Bea Calvete had a relatively quiet season at Northbridge due to the extent of Malcolm’s overseas travel but sailing in plenty of Association events has seen consistent improvements, including a mid fleet finish in the State Championships and 2nd in the Super Grand Masters with Jenny Sorensen (I leave it to more curious readers to look up the combined age of the crew to make this division).

Malcolm also led the way by organising a weekend away which enabled Mrs Burman (aka Tara McCall, a long time NSC sailor) and I to sail on beautiful JB as part of the Callala Bay regatta and connect up with many of the regular NSW Tasar Association sailors.

With a young family setting much of the agenda, Hugh and Anna did squeeze in a trip to the States (a commendable 6th) but the front running has more often been James and Tara Burman who even won the Nationals this season.

This season also saw NSC host the Bethwaite Trophy which was also one of the Tasar Association Travelling Trophy series – bringing a big fleet back home to the place where Frank Bethwaite first conceived and prototyped the Tasar. This event even saw a few Laser sailors try their hand and while your correspondent showed promise early, we faded.

The event was won by James and Tara with prizes presented by Julian Bethwaite, Frank’s son and the designer of the and (and an NS14 skipper in his youth…)

Looking ahead, Malcolm Handel is heading the Tasar World’s in the UK in a few weeks with Jenny Sorensen as crew with Hugh and Anna joining them. I’m told James Burman and Tara are heading to the World’s too so NSC (or links to NSC) will be well- represented at the event.

Maz and I cleaned up the Annual Point Score by sheer persistence from Malcolm and Bea, and Peter van Roekel and Jenny Sheridan.

We hope next season to see more of the “occasional” sailors Hugh Morrow and his son Max (now they have mastered sailing in 10-15knots) as well perhaps Stephen and Andrew Kevans – new sailors to NSC.

Tony Stephens Tasar Class Captain

What it’s not like at Northbridge

A rigging deck that you don’t often see

Picture perfect start

Mr and Mrs Burman (aka Tara McCall), winners of the Bethwaite Trophy with Julian Bethwaite. While nominally sailing out of Illawarra Yacht Club – we’ll still claim Tara for Northbridge!

NS14 Report

Ahoy there, me hearties! Everything above board and ship shape? Yarr! No jokes, instead we are playing Nautical Bingo.

Before you are taken aback, the rules are simple - spot a maritime word or phrase, score a point. Tally your points at the end. So hoist those sails, the burgee, raise the yardarm and anchors aweigh! You'll have it done in a trice.

Having avoided the doghouse by spending holiday time with family during Autumn's Indian Summer, Brass Monkey weather did finally arrive and your correspondent’s planned boat overhaul during shore leave will be done with icy fingers, or ignored until the glass falls signaling the first sou'wester of Spring. Without any brightwork, fibreglass is relatively low maintenance, fortunately, with lines and running rigging resolved by a quick trip to the chandler at Crows Nest.

The fleet (all four of us) are heartened by the Club's decision to promote the NS/MG combo as the next step-up dinghy class, and competition is a good thing. While the MG is undeniably faster on a beam reach, it will be interesting to see whether the spinnaker carrying MG will beat the goosewinged NS on a dead run on the downwind leg, or even upwind when close-hauled.

Speaking of competition David and Anne's plan to snatch the Club Championship from Malcolm via the newer and (sometimes) faster String Theory went by the board and was thwart-ed by Carol Brown. I won't be a tattle tale, you'll have come to the Presentation, but beating Malcolm was touch and go and turned out to be the least of his problems with that new go-fast boat joining us.

By and large, even with our small fleet it was an eventful season. Mike Tait (generously sharing Carbon Neutral with Hugh) went about spending more time with grandchildren, yet still made a few guest appearances. One of those was at the Single- Handers Championship, where his lack of crew was a convenient pre-requisite for unassisted sailing.

David nabbed the Handicap prize (for the second time) while Chipping Norton local David Cox won on scratch. Unlike previous seasons, while skippering right forward to trim the boat and reduce wake, none of us explored the vanishing angle and went turtling.

Malcolm missed out on the podium, unfairly so as he sailed really well - but not fast enough for the scratch prize and too fast for the handicap spot. Rather than feeling under the weather during that two-month hiatus known as "replacing the stairs" Malcolm in Samba Pa Ti encouraged a few of us to voyage to Bayview rather than remain shackled to an inaccessible Northbridge.

BYRA also has a small fleet so they welcomed us with a triangle course, sunny skies, little set, open water and fair winds - a nice change from being dead in the water in a drifter up near the powder hulk mark. Even before this, club racing attendance was a bit intermittent this year, with family, travel, work, OOD duty and holiday commitments meaning someone's helm or crew was away fairly regularly.

While we were not between wind and water some boats spent as much time ashore as afloat, lacking a full ship's complement. Not missing a trick, Northbridge boats also attended the 50th Nationals at Lake Illawarra and the States at Mannering Park on Lake Macquarie. Both events were ably run under the stewardship of Steph Sheridan, Malcolm's crew, who has just stepped down as NS14 President.

In the Nationals, Hugh Tait and Sam Radford in Carbon Neutral raced consistently through the series, and really well on the last day, to win the series. Monty and Ollie Lang, in Carol Brown, enjoyed the initial light winds and could work their way through the fleet to finish well, but suffered in the last day's 20 knot breezes (including one knockdown) to finish 3rd on countback.

David couldn't get enough speed and finished the series in 20th, after breaking his boom vang (aka kicking strap) in the penultimate race, and had a great time with guest crew Rose Boyce. At the States Monty and Olly were in the money again until the last couple of races, when their light weather advantage reduced in inverse proportion to the increase in scale numbers, finishing fourth (just!).

Malcolm was down the list a bit, but as happened last year his crew had a second job running the regatta. It was good to see Sarah Bartels and Rose Boyce crewing for other skippers, increasing the Northbridge presence and spreading the word. Dandy results from a club with 3.5 actively sailed NS14s! One thing is clear, we all start next season with a clean slate. Until then, come to at the AGM and, once the sun is over the yardarm, join us for a drink at the presentation, but don't get three sheets to the wind in the process.

Head to the June 27 newsletter to see how you did.

420 Blog-o-matic

The recent news of the 420 Youth Championship brought back a fair bit of nostalgia for your correspondent. Who will immediately show his age by admitting to have attended the 2nd IYRU Youth Championships event in 1972 at Travemunde, on the German Baltic coast! "Surely not", you say! Or, perhaps "He must have been very young!".

Sadly, due to a quirk of the entry date being just before his birthday, he was actually older than the stated age limit, which makes him very old indeed! But, importantly at the time, old enough to drink German beer, which made the regatta all the more fun, going to the local bars and getting bratwurst sausages on the way home in what passed for summer, but felt a lot like winter to us. Just don't mention the schnapps, my crew Graham held a record of sorts!

In 1972 the 420 was not the world wide class it is now, and it was one thing to enter, another to find one to practice with. We needed a two-man and spinnaker boat, and what was handy was what both of us already sailed, the 505. So off to we went, a couple of strapping teenagers, capable of handling a 505 in 20 knots, to find the 420 was a bit of a toy boat and severely underpowered by comparison. We were racing against kids who seemed to have cars and boats and had spent the summer holidays going from regatta to regatta, and who were really quite good sailors.

The regatta itself was extremely well run, most races were in light weather, we had really no idea what to do with 66 boats on the start line, and so we ended up in the back half of the fleet most races. We'd never started with more than about 10 boats before and were a bit on the heavy side.

What was memorable was the third race, with a very strong front making the Baltic Sea feel even colder than it already was - no wetsuits back then! Finally enough breeze for us, though in the short chop and full stretch on the trapeze we felt we were still lacking in power. But for once we were is a respectable position at the top mark, and as we bore away for the spinnaker reach, we noticed a lot of capsized boats. No worries, up with the , out on trapeze, bear away on the first wave and off we go. For about one minute, when suddenly the tiller feels like there is no rudder attached,

and we too join the ranks of the capsized! Righting the boat, we discover the problem - no rudder! More correctly, the rudder has snapped at the bottom of the casing, and is held on by a few strands of wood.

Rescuing the damaged rudder as evidence, we drop the main and run for home under spinnaker, using the pole as a makeshift rudder. Looking around, we notice many others doing the same thing, and back at the club we discover over a third of the fleet has exactly the same problem as we have, a broken rudder. A bright spark gets the idea of hoisting the rescued blades up a mast so everyone can see it wasn't just one or two sailors being rough on their boats. A few boats were towed in almost sunk.

To my surprise, I checked and the results are on the World Sailing website. We finished an ordinary 36th, and 27 boats (out of 66) were given redress for broken rudders. Did I say it was a well-run regatta? Indeed. Before the next race we all had new rudder blades. I have no idea where they came from, but no-one carried a DNS as a result.

Like my younger contemporaries, all I really remember is that it was a great deal of fun! Especially with Mum and Dad half a world away!