Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Newsletter Items, Idle Gossip, etc to Mark Pierce [email protected] (deadline midnight Tuesday) Commodore Phill Robbins 0466668541 Club Newsletter 20/11/19 Vice Commodore Jonathan Horsley 0412798505 HARWOOD “BRIDGE TO BREAKERS” Rear Commodore Chris Hallett REGATTA NEXT WEEKEND 0414866998 Secretary – No Racing at our Club 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 ALL EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE TO: [email protected] CONTENTS Above is multi world-champ 2. Club News 2. Quiz Andy Landenberger, seconds 2. Idle Gossip before breaking a VERY 3. From Trent EXPENSIVE A-class Cat mast, 4. Col’s Column 5. Race Reports at a recent “Bridge to Breakers” 24. Upcoming Away Events Regatta. 25. Marketplace If you’re new to the club, and like camping out, camaraderie and good, country-style hospitality – this is a great Regatta. Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 CLUB NEWS QUIZ (Please send any good Quiz questions to Mark [email protected]) What’s this, and what sail boat does it belong to? Hint: it’s usually made of 1-2mm stainless Matt answered “I reckon it holds the keel down in one of the trailer sailers” I’m awarding the Quiz to Matt, because his was the closest answer. The device is a plate-retaining key. The metal Corsair centre-plate has a “slot” that drops down over an axle (bolt) in the plate case The u-shaped end of the key hooks around, and under, the bolt. The other end shackles to the top of the centreplate. The plate can still swing up and down, but if the boat goes over, the key prevents the plate from falling out (and sinking!). New Quiz Name the class of each boat (at a recent Harwood Regatta), with a visible sail or hull number. You need to send a list of boats, numbers and classes IDLE GOSSIP (Please send anything interesting sailing or club related to Mark ([email protected]) No goss this week 2 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 FROM TRENT: Just noticed yesterday there’s an auction this Saturday for 272 River Street. This is next door to the recently completed massive building which helps to stuff us up in the Northerlies. At the moment there is a lovely little old fashioned three bedroom house on the block. The advertising is pushing the prospect of large commercial development on the block – multi level etc. Everything we don’t want. I know the council are aware of our situation now but that is no guarantee (as Phill said) that nothing enormous will go up in the future. Just an out-there suggestion: If there are any cashed up members who wanted to combine forces to buy the property it might ensure nothing large going there. Even if a whole lot of us banded to put in an offer. It could even potentially be turned into a slightly more up river annexe of the club? It has river frontage with a jetty currently. Here’s the link to the house. https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-ballina-132222790 Many regards, Trent (Contact Trent, if you’re interested – Ed) 3 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Col’s Column – No 2 (thanks Col H ;-) -Ed) The Issue this week is on correct tiller placement. The conventional way removes one hand from the equation, even with the “Laser Roll”. Ok some use teeth as a third hand, but that has been superseded by this un-named boat, who prefers to use a different asset. Lock It In - It’s there for a reason – tho it does require careful tiller selection. 4 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 Gennakers 17 Nov 2019 (thanks Duncan) Two RS100’s and five F15’s got to the up-river start line in good time on the incoming tide. Note to Committee: the tide was still slack by race end around 3pm – we could have sailed down-river. The wind looked like it would swing north but remained east for the race. Strength was about 12 knots, rising in a squall towards 20 with raindrops, and then easing to about 15 for the remainder. The line was biased to the starboard ‘pin’ end. Duncan got away on time, comfortably crossing the rest of the fleet who were on port and 5 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 possibly dreaming they were sailing catamarans. The two RS100’s sailed very different races: Vince his usual steady performance and Duncan a series of flying runs and multiple capsizes. But Vince lead the RS100 duel where it counts, over the finish line. He now leads the Gennaker Championship point-score by a good margin. The F15’s likewise had a duel for the front with two very different approaches to the race. Barry & Anna sailed their usual best but Tom & Brendan were faster. They were Toxic while B&A kept their weapon Secret, only unleashing it on the last lap by sailing the correct course. T&B suffered a lapse in counting and sadly a DNF. B&A took the race on yardstick, with Vince second and Duncan third. 6 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 The rest of the F15 fleet sailed well with Justin & Clare second home. Michael & Tara didn’t have their usual spark, we know not why. Possibly Michael was thinking too far ahead, on how to get three F15’s on a trailer to Harwood next weekend. Laura & Francine proved their tenacity and humour again, coming home saturated but happy. MONO RACE REPORT 17/11/19 – (thanks Graham Hams – Ed) Still smokey, but the wind forecasts were for lighter breeze to give the firies and the light air racers a possible chance. A reduced fleet of six boats came to the up-river Championship start in an 8 to 12 knot NE breeze, the line heavily skewed to the starboard (pin) end for a port tack take-off for the brave or foolhardy. Alter Ego got the best of it with Trent and Daisy in Graeme Garden (GG) in hot pursuit and Retro close behind. Half way up the first beat, G3 in Alter Ego was just in front of G2 in Retro; followed by Dave in the Laser Abedare, GG and Des and Paul in their Impulses. With G3 just clear there seemed to be some pretty intense duels for second to fourth spot. Down the run G3 managed to clear out a little and have a look now and then at the fighting behind (that's the way boys and girls, just keep slowing each other down....). 7 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 In the mind spin of 5 circuits of the course a thunderstorm crackelled overhead that caused the breeze to first die and then to come racing back in at 20 to 25 knots, far in excess of the leader's wind range. GG, at that stage in 2nd spot after gear problems on Retro, stormed back into striking range when Alter Ego opted for survival on the last gybe mark by heading into the shoreline wind shadow to make the gybe. With more crew weight, GG made the best of the final beat to go into the lead until near the mud island a failed tack saw her capsize and become one of the "mast impaled". G3 took the opportunity to go into survival/limp-home mode to get to the finish first, and the knucle chewing wait to see where the Laser and Impulses were going to end up. After the yardsticks were applied Alter Ego had survived to score its' first seaon win by just 36 seconds from Abedare; then came Paul and Des in the Impulses (Paul having snuck past Des only on the last beat) and then G2 in Retro (suffering from that yardstick correction) and GG (suffering from "black sail top" syndrome. Only 5 minutes in it for the first 5 boats after 90 odd minutes sailing; this is going to be a very tight season! Rescue Rick, and helper Sarah, with their RAIN-COATS on!! Yes, we had a few spits of RAIN during the race ☺ 8 Richmond River Sailing and Rowing Club website: www.rrsrc.com.au P.O. Box 963 Ballina 2478 TRAILERABLES REPORT 17/11/19 – Thanks Matt With the forecast suggesting a fresh nor easter to arrive and a big run out tide the race committee opted for us to sail downriver west of the RSL club on the normal course consisting of a windward return. It was decided at the briefing that the trailer sailers would complete 5 laps around the bottom mark. The competitors for this Club Championship and Champ Day Handicap series were; eX, Bella, Run Rabbit Run, Treasure Island and Spudgun. With John in Adelaide Spudgun was lucky to have the highly experienced Charlie Pearce on board. It was good to see Treasure Island sorting out the kite prior to the first downwind leg instead to losing time during the race.