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 Monday) Commodore Phill Robbins 0466668541 Club Newsletter Vice Commodore Jonathan Horsley 28/1/2021 0412798505 Rear Commodore Chris Hallett 0414866998 Message from the Commodore Secretary 1. With the current wet Summer weather the grass is growing fast at the club. Nola Hallett We need it mowed every two weeks while this growing season lasts. Can we 0414866999 please have a group of people volunteer to share mowing so we don't have to Treasurer create a roster, or expect Chris and Jonathan to do it all? Please let me know Col Woodbry which of the following Fridays you are available. If we have enough people then you may only have to do it a couple of times. Class Reps Gennakers – Michael Wiley th th th th th Catamarans – Michael Cocks Proposed dates: Friday 29 Jan; Feb 12 and 26 ; March 12 and 26 . If you are Trailers – Paul Morris available on Saturdays instead of Fridays then let me know. We need two people Monos – Graham Hams for each session, so boats can be moved and whipper snipper also used. Rowing Officer Graham Hams 2. Please be very conscientious about always closing the club gates when you go out sailing during the week or simply leave. Website Admin 3. It is a Government requirement that the club collect accurate personal Publicity Officer/Newsletter information for all attendees and keep an electronic record. Can everyone please Trent Morgan get the Service NSW App for their phone and use it for Covid logins at the club. It is quick and easy, once you have the app and a Service NSW account. Training team Club Committee 4. Cat sailors must look ahead over their shoulder at what is ahead and up ALL EMAIL wind, and boats with gennakers or spinnakers need to constantly be aware of CORRESPONDENCE TO: what is approaching from downwind of them, especially heading to their blind [email protected] spot. CONTENTS 1. Message from the 5. Reminder that boats stored in the club are expected to be sailed regularly, Commodore or else a boat that is regularly sailed could be given their spot. If you have a boat 2. Congratulations Clare! that you are not racing, then please consider moving it out of the club before you 3. Gennaker Report 6. Catamaran Report are asked to. 8. Monohulls 9. Trailer Sailors 6. Finally, thanks to Tara for donating four new life jackets to the club as a 12. Club Shirts memorial gesture for Mark Pierce. A most useful memorial. 13. Crew Available/Wanted 13. Idle Gossip 13. For Sale/Wanted Phill 17. Sail Repairs in Town Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Congratulations Clare! Clare Southwell, the owner and skipper of the Formula Fifteen was awarded the Ballina Shire Australia Day Sporting Achievement of the year Award at a ceremony held at the Lennox Head Cultural Centre on Australia Day. Nominated by Michael Wiley, Clare earned her award principally through her achievement as one of the crew of the 18ft skiff that won the Queensland State Titles for that powerful class. The achievement was all the greater because it made her one of only two women in Australia and three worldwide who sailed the class. And while we couldn’t check it enough to make it part of the nomination, very likely the first woman in the 120 year history of the class to be part of a title winning crew. Her participation in the Sydney Hobart race was icing on the cake of a significant year of achievements for Clare. The award was all the more meaningful for Clare because the ceremony was live streamed and her parents back in the UK were able to watch the announcement of her as the winner and the presentation of the award. Clare as sheet hand on the winning 18 foot skiff 2 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Race Reports for 24/1/21 Gennaker Report (Michael Wiley) Many thanks to Ian Bowles for photos from the tower 3 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 The January long weekend (and a repair of 's mast) reduced the gennaker fleet to four 15's, the FX and four RS100's. That exciting feeling on the beach – just before launching 4 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 It was a good line, but the outgoing tide made it hard to time the distance to the start properly, with several boats having to gybe away and circle back in the last 15 seconds, making for a ragged start. The gennakers jockey at the start with the Monos and Trailers gathering for theirs But it made little difference to the positions by half way up the first leg. Dealing with the variables of getting the best of the tide, lifts and wind strength was somewhat of a lottery requiring pragmatism and luck more than an application of dogged principles and no-one was able to hold onto a lead for long; at least until the fleet settled down enough that the lead boat had a reasonable chance of applying a loose cover on the fleet. By the first rounding of the top mark, Liam and Ewan in the FX had worked through to the lead with Michael and Tara in being the first Fifteen, closely followed by the rest of the Fifteens. You Only Live Once finding a gust Barry and Anna used a combination of their light weight and bringing through a gust to catch on the next run, making for a close rounding of the bottom mark. Some good tactical decisions gave 5 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 a narrow lead up the next work until disaster struck in the form of the port side trapeze lines giving way at the hounds, dumping both Barry and Ann in the tide and leaving the boat on its side. A lengthy in water repair job to make fast the trapeze wires and effect a makeshift repair to the broken tiller extension left them well behind and out of contention with back as the lead Fifteen. On the next run, Clare and Rick in came through to challenge with a close and exciting twin wire downwind speed dual resulting as , sitting on s windward transom, tried to take its wind and sail through it. That game came to an end when a cat snuck up under both boats unseen. As its bow appeared just in front of 's, Clare was forced into an emergency bear away, causing a capsize to windward. , with an extra boat length of warning managed a more controlled, if still alarming, bear away to squeeze between the mast tip of and the transom of the cat to continue on its way. In the mean time, Daniel and Pip in , until then dicing with the other leading Fifteens, had suffered the exquisite torture of finding their own private wind hole and could only watch as the other boats raced ahead and closed the gap from behind. At least 's capsize let catch up and a close tussle resulted between and for the rest of the race, with coming out on top. But the last half of the race was something of a procession, with the FX crossing the line first and being the first Fifteen and Bill in being the first RS100, closely followed by Garry in . The conditions on the day favoured the RS100's for handicap results with taking overall honours, followed by Vince in and being the first Fifteen in third place overall. Catamaran Report (Jonathan Horsley) Sunday morning was light southeast to east breeze and the intermediate sailing had a good session. Before briefing the wind died completely and one of our cats out for a practice sail had to get a tow in from a friendly trailer sailor who had also got caught in the no wind situation. The situation started to improve with a light 6 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 easterly starting and the course was set based on the predicted easterly breeze. As the start time approached the wind settled into a highly variable 5 -10 knots from the ENE. The Cat fleet numbered seven. The fleet included , , , , , and . It was good to see back on the water after last weekend’s incident. The start line was set off the bottom buoy. Most cats opted for a starboard Start. The start was badly impacted when a gennaker arrived at the port end just as the fleet was to start and destroyed the port end starters options, also a trailer interrupted the starboard end at the same time. This left to lead the fleet with a carefully timed run dodging the interfering boats. Both and had their starts totally disrupted by the non-starting boats. The first work showed the advantage of being able to point high as pulled away from the fleet, reaching the top buoy with a clear lead. The incoming tide continued to run and made the first work slow for some. Once off the wind continued to ease away from the fleet.