Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Commodore Phill Robbins Club Newsletter 0466668541 Vice Commodore 26/3/19 Jonathan Horsley 0412798505 Rear Commodore Chris Hallett 0414866998 Secretary Nola Hallett 0414866999 Treasurer Norm Hunt 66291366 Class Reps Gennakers – Duncan Dey Catamarans – Col Woodbry Trailers – Ian Michie Monos – Graham Hams Rowing Officer Trailer Sailor Report (Colin Hinwood) Gerald Anderson Webmaster Really hot .. like when does Summer end ?? When do we see Autumn Mark Pierce breezes, - at least BOM’s 15 to 20knots NNE [as in hot and gusty] didn’t happen. Breeze started off light and East, gradually swinging more North, Training team and about 10knots with odd 14knot gusts .. not too gusty for the dinghies. Graeme Turner Run out tide so .. up the other end. ALL EMAIL Hangin out for a nice Nor Easter down to Missingham … CORRESPONDENCE TO: [email protected] A good Start Line by Roland, spread the fleet nicely along the Line, with starting well & deciding on a righty to the extra pressure,, and starting CONTENTS well the other end for a lefty to better [but weak] tide.… and the answer first 1. Trailer Sailor report 2. Catamaran report cross .. by a boat length. Nice to see some “normal” sailing in our river. 3. Gennaker report Cool. 5. Monohull report 7. Get to know a club member , , the 550s, .. ,.. then and 12. Harwood Regatta race report the RLs. 13. Seniors race postponed Check the Results .. the handicapping is now leaving only seconds between 14. Changes of courses 14. NS14 Training Weekend the boats, so worth trying for an edge. 15. Rowers Content 16. Race Fee Changes 16. Club Weather Station 17. raceQ’s 19. Use of club tractor 19. Club Shirts 20. Idle Gossip 21. Upcoming away events 22. Wotif Offer to the club 22. Crew available/crew wanted 23/24. For sale/wanted/free 1 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 The whole fleet finished within a minute on corrected time, even would ve ..but disagreed with the Course, so added the little dinghy leg at the bottom Mark, or Marks in ’s case. Everyone else did a Windward Return, 3 times bottom then home, slightly delayed with it’s addition to the Course…. each time … First lap, the wind was a bit light down there, and Patchy, but as it built a tad, and swung a bit North, the 2 Spiders got going and away from the fleet. The Course is all right under 20knots, but getting a flogging and maybe a bit tired. We know that track too well. It’s a challenge for the Race Committee to create a “different” [didn’t say better] Course on Pointscore days, for 4 different fleets on such a tiny river, but .. let’s see …no whingeing tho if it is too tricky for some ….. drew away from , and and stayed close all race long, very evenly matched for speed in these moderate conditions. prevailed in the end to cross the Line 43 seconds ahead of , but the winner on Corrected. First lap, it was , and bunched up, and racing well together, until found its feet and ran away. Cleaner Mark roundings from 2 sail against 3 sail with a poled kite, made all the difference in the light winds and adverse tide … then it was a reach to the Finish with ahead and same speed as so .. gotcha .. Of major concern on was to moderate liquid consumption in the heat, as a night afloat was planned. The thought of running out of liquids before passing out that night, would have been very stressful. Nice little sail .. CC next Sunday hopefully with full fleet. Catamaran Report (Nola and Chris Hallet) Left the beach in a light wind with 30 slow minutes to get to the start line and what a relief to see the Trailer flag flying! A few tacks here and there and away we went with 8 cats through the start. Leading was Michael in the class followed closely by , , , , , and all trying to find the best wind. Most of the fleet followed the north side to get the tide advantage with choosing the south side to get cleaner air to be 2nd around the 1st mark. The tussles continued throughout the race with & very close and interchanging positions while the class stayed in the lead. Mmm who put that marker buoy in that position with no wind and raging current ??? Oh well, had to slowly manoeuvre around two monos who were struggling near that dreaded buoy and let most of the cat fleet pass by while we were basically going backwards with a smirk from Col. After that, wind picked up and got their act together and gained ground to come a close 2nd to Michael over the line, then and then , and within 3 seconds of each other followed by and . Unfortunately Norm retired before the race and he thanks everyone involved with packing up his boat. Thanks to Roland and duty officers. 2 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 c Gennaker Report (Michael Wiley and Duncan Dey) A strong fleet of four 15’s and three RS100’s fronted the starter for the gennaker division. The strong outgoing tide, large fleet of combined monos and gennakers and light winds made for a very challenging start. To their credit (although accidental if you believe them), Laura and Francine in pretty well got the best of it down the port end while everyone else fought for the starboard end advantage. Most of the gennakers got away well, except maybe for Michael and Tara in who were a tad second rank. However, with their superior speed all four fifteens quickly managed to pull away into clear air from the chaos of the combined fleet with the RS100’s not far behind them. It was a difficult task to pick the optimum path to the first mark. The tide suggested you go left, but the boats going right often found better wind and and a Northerly lift and came out ahead. By going right Garry in soon found himself leading the RS100 trio. Out front, and Barry and Anna in settled down to their usual very close race with many changes of lead as close covering and gybing duals became the order of the day. Initially Daniel and Steffen in kept up with the leading pair, but soon fell back into a comfortable third spot, while found itself dicing with the RS100’s. As the race progressed Duncan in managed to work his way back to the front of the RS100 pack. The dramas increased on the third and last run where a couple of powerful gusts drove and into the shallows inside the red channel markers. lost a lot of time needing to douse its kite and reach up to go outside the mark while lost even more time capsizing on it as it struggled to claw it way around it with the kite up. ’s problems should have seen get a commanding lead. Instead it found itself rounding the last bottom mark hot on the tail of . It was then a drag race to the finish, with every gust, lift and knock producing subtle changes in the boats’ relative positions. The finale to a nail biting finish occurred when was forced low as it traversed the Ramada wind shadows leaving it needing to tack into the finish, while managed to stay higher for a direct line to the buoy. In the end, managed to tack across the bows of and take the gun by a few seconds. 3 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 also managed to claw its way back to the front of the RS100 contingent on the long last work, but not by enough to recover its handicap position, leaving to take the overall first place on handicap. Further back had a more difficult time traversing the unpredictable winds of the Ramada wind shadow, resulting in several capsizes and difficult recoveries. To their credit, Laura and Francine persisted to still score a fourth on handicap. Thanks to those laying the marks for keeping the windward buoy 100m away from the Services Club building. How about also keeping it 200m away from the despicable new even-taller waterfront building on Kerr Street. And how about the Club lobbies Council to prevent the next tall waterfront building? 4 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Would racing be feasible on this stretch of the river in Northerly and Easterly courses if the shoreline fills with these large buildings? Monohull Report (Dave Scott) Note from Newsletter editor: Many thanks to Dave Scott who jumped in to write this report with no knowledge of this prior to sailing the race. Newsletter editor was unable to race due to riding out the storm of an unwelcome stomach bug. Dave Scott: Lovely day but not much wind so a bit of a mission to get to the start, which was way up the river towards the ferry. Oh for a spinnaker! - although even the F15’s weren’t making a lot of headway! The Trailer Sailors got away and then it was the mono’s turn – but hang on, the flag on the rescue boat was a C!! I assumed the starting order had been changed and I just hadn’t heard about it, but a couple of other mono sailors asked me what was going on, so who knows.