Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Newsletter Items, Idle Gossip, etc to [email protected] (deadline midnight Tuesday) Commodore Phill Robbins 0466668541 Club Newsletter Vice Commodore Jonathan Horsley 26/9/19 0412798505 Rear Commodore Chris Hallett 0414866998 Secretary Nola Hallett 0414866999 Treasurer Col Woodbury Class Reps Gennakers – Michael Wiley Catamarans – Michael Cocks Trailers – Paul Morris Monos – Graham Hams Rowing Officer Graham Hams Website Admin Mark Pierce Publicity Officer Trent Morgan Training Club Committee From Col Hinwood “Plenty of carnage on course with Gennakers and ALL EMAIL the odd cat over .. the Rescue boat was flat-out .. and even Zac CORRESPONDENCE TO: [email protected] had to park his RS100 on the sand spit and rescue a skiff, the girls too exhausted to sail it home .. he sailed the skiff back, hitched a CONTENTS 2. Club News ride back on the Rescue Boat to the bemused crowd on the beach .. 2. Race Reports gathered round the RS100 like a beached whale thingo – then sailed 8. Quiz 8. Upcoming Away Events his RS home. Cute…. best story of the day by far.” 9. Marketplace 11. Interview with Brendan CLUB NEWS 1. Intermediate sailing starts next Sunday morning; 10am til 11.30am. All welcome; choice of boats; supervised sailing practice etc Will be run by Laura Stoltenberg. Ideal for new learners and ongoing learners; kids or adults. Will continue on following Sundays. 2. A thankyou from Chris for all those placing empty cans in our recycle tub. This has collected $100 for the club. Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 CLUB NEWS (cont’d) 3. Trent has heaps of photos of capsizes. Contact him if you’d like any of your boat. [email protected] DRONE FOOTAGE FROM LAST SUNDAY: Mixed Fleet Gennakers RACE REPORTS 22/9/19 CATS A fleet of six cats faced the starter for the second race of the club Championship. At the start a gusty north to North easterly breeze of 12 knots with gusts over 20 knots had the fleet spread out with Finely Tuned and Shore Thing jostling for position at the Starboard end with several boats opting for a port start on the well laid start line. Michael on “A” getting the best of the start on port and lead the fleet down river followed by Ozspray. Shore Thing looked likely to force Finely Tuned above the start mark but an issue with his main sheet made this impossible. First Strike had a good start with 2 FOOT Extra last across the start. Line honours for Chris and Seamus The cats which carried the starboard across the river had the best of the work once on port and even though 2 FOOT Extra gave the fleet more than 30 seconds at the start it rounded the top mark not far behind “A”. But a misreading of the mark rounding dropped 2 FOOT Extra back. The run from the top mark back to the gate was fun leg with cats catching waves and not having to jybe down wind. The fleet had varying results as some carried more wind and others found holes. At the bottom mark “A” lead followed by 2 FOOT Extra and Finely Tuned closing the gap. Shore Thing, First Strike and Ozspray swapped places numerous times. The second work had “A” continuing to lead with 2 FOOT Extra closing followed by Finely Tuned. Issues with a trailer sailor at the top mark had 2 FOOT Extra hit the mark and lose ground after doing a penalty turn. 2 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 The second work saw plenty of gusts with the lighter cats struggling in the breeze. Ozspray nose dived on the initial downwind and lost several places. Phill was seen catapulted off the back of his boat. Ozspray was then furling its jib before the bareaways and pulling it out again once out of the “killing zone” near Missingham. The third downwind leg saw “A” and 2 FOOT Extra in close quarters until both were slammed by a bullet about a third of the way from the sand point to the gate, which capsized 2 FOOT Extra and almost took out “A” as well. The cheers could be heard from the following cats as they watched the capsize. 2 FOOT Extra managed to right itself and after assessing the broken battens in the mainsail returned to the beach. The race continued with Finely Tuned closing on “A” which was being sailed conservatively due to the conditions. On the last downwind Finely Tuned managed to pass “A” and was first across the line. Well done to Chris and Seamus. Shore Thing was third across the line and won on club yardstick from Finely Carnage? What carnage? A relaxed Tony slipped around the course without incident ☺ Tuned and Ozspray. Early indications are the club championship is going to have a different result this year, with last year’s top 2 having early troubles (capsizes), go Shore Thing! First Strike had a good race with no capsizes; well done Tony on a day that tested all the crews. Many thanks to the club members who volunteered to do the duty so the rest of us could go racing on a beautiful spring day with a challenging breeze. 3 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 TRAILERABLES Trailables CC 220919 (thanks Col H) Windy … windy.. windy .. always windy this part of the Season. Nothing excessive, just always a baseline of 15 knots with another 5knots or so added in parts. Gets us ready for the 25+ knot Harwood Regatta. With Treasure Isle on duty, MIA was Incy, Bella, Bad Blood and Shades from the fleet. Reg, Spudgun, Rabbit Serendipity the race fleet, with a cameo appearance of Wil and Mum on the Masrm 720 – Masmerised - in one-sail upwind/2 sail downwind mode. Course was the standard North/in tide, like to the North Wall, but the wind stubbornly stayed North, making it a one- tack- Jack for us Trailer boats. Same as the run, which was only square for the first bit, then gradually shy’d until we were watching very closely approaching the Bottom Mark, for the gust that would stuff up the drop. Spudgun – before and after bullet ☺ The work was actually pretty easy, like .. get over to the sand spit with the tide on the right side of the nose, then head for the 2 clearance Top Marks with tide still on right side of nose …, and even the wind at the Marks was not as twitchy as usual. Don’t go to sleep tho, as the cats and some others, somehow had to tack, so always looking under the boom for surprise visits. 4 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Funny also, as cats and dinghies always went thru the gate so .. always heading down via the Point, while we were heading up via the Point, so plenty of social contact. Not sure that would work if all the fleets were at full strength? Plenty of carnage on course with Gennakers and the odd cat over .. the Rescue boat was flat-out .. and even Zac had to park his RS100 on the sand spit and rescue a skiff, the girls too exhausted to sail it home .. he sailed the skiff back, hitched a ride back on the Rescue Boat to the bemused crowd on the beach .. gathered round the RS100 like a beached whale thingo – then sailed his RS home. Cute…. best story of the day by far. The racing was spaced out according to speed rankings, so each boat could only guess as to who was in front on CT, ..4 times around Top Mark and home .. could have been more but .. I think that pretty well cooked the goose .. we had a nice day, but to keep going round without boat on boat battles .. a bit … pointless… and we all had visitors on board, so good enough time on the water… almost 100 mins for the slower boats. Wil’s Mum is more used to trap and kite on a cat, so …just a nice chance for a little chat with her little Wil ..ok maybe not so little. Pretty standard racing for this time of year, hoping fleet will be at full strength next CC on 6rd October. 5 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 GENNAKERS (thanks Michael and Duncan) The live wind readings from most of the race time this week suggest an “average wind” of around 15 to 16 knots. But we all know averages can hide a myriad of data that paints an entirely different picture. And so it was this week. Gary, like all the RS100s, got around the course without capsizing – well done! 6 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 The race started during one of the only ‘lull’ periods of the day; maybe around 13 knots. The line was long and moderately fair, giving a good level start to the majority of the six F15’s and four RS100’s that started. In the F15’s a pack consisting of Second Wind (Michael and Tara), Secret (Barry and Anna), Toxic (Tom and Brendan) and Magic Formula (Justin and Clare) quickly broke away as front runners to the whole fleet.