Big Boat Sailing Report

Written by Jonathan Stone

Five boats presented on a sparkling afternoon. The harbour was largely empty, the day spring-warm. The unusual thing about it was a powerful northeasterly, running 18 knots and gusting to 25 knots. Somebody said there was a ‘blizzard in the mountains’ sucking air to the south. Anyway, it was very northerly and very steady, a good heavy sailing wind. But probably not a sea-breeze.

Our start line isn’t easy in a northerly; much of our manoeuvring area is in the lee of Clarke Island; it easy to be trapped. You sail in there to fix some rigging problem, and you can’t get out in time. As we planned our approaches, and Amelia prepared to sound the horn, Corinna was caught in the lee, and others took a cautious approach, staying in the wind further south. T&T made the best of it by sailing on the course side of the line 30 seconds before the start, ducking back along the line, which was windy, and tacking to cross - keeping clear of the lee.

Corinna was not far behind however and we rounded the first mark, at Point Piper, we were on even terms. Calypso Magic had however sailed over the top of us both; she is a fast boat and sailed away from us all. From Point Piper to Taylor’s Bay was a soldier’s work, on starboard; and from Taylor’s Bay to Sow’n Pigs a full work. Calypso Magic continued to move away, and Corinna edged away from T&T. Smitten and Chenonceau chased the smaller boats to the top mark, at Sow’n Pigs, which had to be judged by us all. With the luxury of a good lead, Corinna over stood the mark and made turn with ease. On T&T, trying to close that lead, we tacked earlier and for once got it right, rounding with a small margin to spare. Smitten ducked and weaved and had a conversation with the mark.

And then we all headed straight downwind, to Shark Island, with 20 knots of breeze behind us. Only Calypso Magic flew a kite; there were some minor dramas with her spinnaker, but her lead survived. The wind showed sufficient variation that even without spinnakers we had to manage carefully - to run by the lee (and risk an unintended gybe) or veer left and right, clear Steele Point and hope it added up to the direction you wanted.

In the event, we all managed the run, gybed at the Shark Island mark (or before) and had an easy reach to the finish.

It was heavy weather sailing, but fun.

Across the line:

Calypso Magic
Corinna
Time & Tide
Smitten
Chenonceau

Drinks in the Clubhouse after the race heard the usual chatter about the afternoon, and talk of the upcoming Laser Worlds, in Croatia. Smitten’s skipper, Simon, together with Martin, were packing for the trip.

We race next in October, on the 8th of October (not the 1st, to avoid the long weekend).

This Week's Snapshot

With the official start to the 2017-18 Season on Saturday, this week’s newsletter is chockers. So, we thought it would be helpful to provide a brief snapshot of everything that’s going on. Read the list below, then scroll down for more details on everything. Looking forward to seeing you out on the water this weekend!  

1. Working bee this Friday at 2pm. We need 6 people to help with concrete formwork in advance of rigging area re-turfing. Please email property@dbsc.com.au to volunteer. 

2. Save the date for the Season Opening Sailors Dinner at RPEYC at 7pm on Friday, 22 September. All club volunteers and non-sailing members welcome too!

3. Please indicate interest ASAP in the Brett Beyer Saturday Sailing Program by emailing name, rig size, price point and bib size to training@dbsc.com.au.

4. Club Championship this Saturday at 2pm (briefing 1pm) and Sunday Sprints splash at 8am.

5. New sailing instructions published with a few changes. The most important is this: one turn outside the zone, two turns inside the zone (hitting a mark remains one turn).

6. We need your details, especially sail numbers, so we can record your results!  Please fill in the form here before Saturday.

7. Survey results first instalment – the exciting details are below.

8. Successful dolly working bee last Saturday. Thanks to everyone who participated, and to Mark Bethwaite for the initiative and Pat Levy for organizing.

9. Big Boats set to sail this Sunday at 1pm. Let Jonathan Stone know if you can make it: jonathanston@gmail.com. 

Working Bee this Friday at 2pm

We are delighted to announce that Woollahra Council will be re-levelling and re-turfing our rigging area (and the rest of the park) starting 25 September. We will include more info on this in subsequent newsletters. 

In the meantime, we have permission to raise the concrete semicircle in front of the club to match the level of the clubhouse entrance. Given the timeframes, this work is urgent. 

Geoff Kirk, Mark Bethwaite and Rod Barnes have been planning this work and have generously donated their time to install the formwork and reinforcement this Friday, commencing at 2pm. 

There are a few hours of work in this and we really need volunteers to assist. If you can help, please email Geoff Kirk at property@dbsc.com.au to confirm attendance.

Season Opening Sailors Dinner

This year, we are reinstating one of the great traditions of the club, namely the DBSC Season Opening Sailors Dinner. 

In times past, the great community of sailors at DBSC, donned their dinner suits and cocktail dresses (or, in the case of management, their full ceremonial regalia), and got together once a year to toast the year of fierce competition to come.

A photo from DBSC's 2001 dinner. 

We are excited to renew this tradition with a dinner at Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club at 7pm for 7.30pm on Friday, 22 September. Please save the date. 

This is a dinner for those within the club community, so all club volunteers and non-sailing members are also very welcome. (A family day will be held a little later in the year, to bring together all those others who are significant to us).

Brett Beyer Saturday Sailing Program

We are very honoured to partner with the Brett Beyer Saturday Sailing Program at DBSC this year. 

Over 40 people indicated interest in this program, but only 7 have provided their details so far. We need more than that to make this happen. And Brett needs to order GPS equipment urgently. (Please note that, due to technical difficulties, if you signed up prior to last Saturday we did not receive your email, so please re-send your details.)

If you are interested in this training opportunity, can you please email your details to training@dbsc.com.au ASAP.  Send your name, rig size, price point and bib size. 

The price points are (a) $900 for individual GPS report, (b) $500 for group GPS report, (c) $300 for general race report. Includes on-water tips, post-race debrief and individual feedback on technique where available.  Please see last week's newsletter for more details and sample reports. 

Let The Games Begin...

Our formal sailing season kicks off this weekend with the first two races of the 2017/2018 Club Championship. 

It promises to be an exciting season, with several new sailors vying with our seasoned youth in the 4.7s, the strong prospect of a new champion in the radials and the annual assault from hopeful young lions in the standards. 

The briefing will be at 1pm, with the first warning signal to follow at 2pm. Note the new sailing instructions (see below). 

Sunday Sprints will also continue this week, with splash at 8am. We had a good turnout last week for a brisk training session with our many times world champion, Mark Bethwaite. Thanks to Craig Sheers who volunteered as race officer.

New Sailing Instructions and the Rules

Written by: Michael Osborne

As a club DBSC makes a huge effort to make sure that every Saturday afternoon we host well organised races for large and competitive laser fleets. It’s the top of our priority list, and one of the central things that defines us as a club.
 
To that end it’s important all competitors are familiar with the Sailing Instructions. The Sailing Instructions have been revised for the current season. They are published on the web site and can be accessed here.
 
The most significant change is to the penalty system at paragraph 17. If you infringe a rule it’s now one turn rather than two, unless you’re in the zone (the area around a mark with a distance of three hull lengths) in which case it is two turns. However, if you hit a mark, it is one turn. This is the same revised penalty system that the NSW Laser Association often adopts for interclub and state events.
 
One of the main reasons we’ve adopted this rule is to encourage sailors to take their penalty if they infringe.  We strive to maintain a friendly collegiate atmosphere within the Club. However, you can’t have great competitive racing on Saturday afternoons unless we’re all familiar with the basic rules and we all adhere to them. It’s a fundamental requirement of good sportsmanship.
 
So please, make sure you understand the basics, and do your turn(s) if you infringe.
 
Other changes to the Sailing Instructions are:

• Paragraph  9.2 to 9.5 now makes it clear there will be three starts (i.e. standards, radials and 4.7s) at the discretion of the race officer.   Normally that discretion will be exercised where there are more than 6 or more 4.7s but the race officer can take into account other factors (like time and conditions).
• 15.3 is the new rule about shortening the course by just taking out one leg.
• 18.4, the Race officer now has a discretion to finish stragglers early for club championships.
• There is no longer an alternative windward mark 1A for the 4.7s.

We Need Your Details

Written by: Clare Alexander

We are FAST approaching the beginning of the 2017/18 DBSC Sailing Season. It's going to be an amazing season of racing and fun at the club. We have already had lots of boats out sailing during the winter, whether it be for Worlds’ training, Sprint racing or just a good fun sail!

If you want your results counted this season, please fill in this form: http://www.dbsc.com.au/membership-form

We especially NEED:
•    Updated Emergency contact details
•    Sail numbers
•    Email addresses and phone contact details
•    Basically - just fill in the entire form - please!

It takes 2 minutes to fill in, so if we could have everyone complete this prior to this Saturday 2nd September that would be wonderful and most appreciated. 

As you know, we are volunteer run club so we don't want to have to chase anyone up.

Thank you for your assistance and Happy Sailing!

Survey Results – First Instalment

Thank you to everyone who participated in the inaugural DBSC Laser Sailors’ Survey. 

The results were hugely helpful as we think about how best to preserve and build upon the great club and outstanding culture we all enjoy. 

We had a participation rate of 92% of laser sailing members, which is outstanding. 91% of those members are satisfied or very satisfied, with 74% very satisfied. Next week we will publish all of the suggestions we received to improve the club, as well as what we propose to do in response. 

We asked what is most important to people's satisfaction. It was a somewhat tricky question that required some mental gymnastics to allocate the 100 points available. And here's what it told us. 

The most important aspects of the club are fleet competitiveness, friendships / club community, and fleet size. These three items accounted for 40% of all points allocated, with an average of 978 points each. 

The next three items were club facilities and equipment, race management and rack position, which together accounted for another 26% of points allocated, with an average of 634 points. 

And the top 10 was rounded out with volunteer culture, canteen offering and value, social functions and BBQs, and Learn to Race, together accounting for a further 21% of points, with an average of 396 points. 

So, we know where we need to focus and that's what we plan to do. More on this next week. 

We also asked about sailing frequency. For Saturdays, 55% said they would sail more than last year and 40% said they would sail the same. And for Wednesdays, 8 people said they would sail most weeks, with another 26 sailing sometimes, which is a big improvement on last year. So, it promises to be a great year on the water. Unsurprisingly, the biggest constraint was time, but there were several other comments we will address – see next week's instalment. 

The Brett Beyer Sailing Programs received a very enthusiastic response, with 42 people expressing interest for Saturdays, and 20 subscribers and 28 casuals expressing interest for Wednesdays. For Saturdays, 17 were at $900, 15 were at $500 and 10 were at $300 (note, for people who indicated multiple options, we have reported only their highest choice here). 

As noted above, only 7 people have provided their details for the Saturday Sailing Program. We still hope to hear from the remaining 35!  We'll keep you posted on this. 

We are thinking about a formal winter competition. 19 people are interested in a formal fortnightly winter series on Sunday mornings. So, hopefully we can lock that in. 

And finally, volunteering. 15 people said they would like to increase their volunteer contributions and 7 of those provided their names. Thank you very much to those members -- we will contact you over the next couple of weeks. We would love to hear from the other 8 of you too!  Could you please email commodore@dbsc.com.au.

So, thanks again to everyone who participated in the survey. More details to come next week and, in the meantime, we are happy to discuss the results with anyone who is interested.

New Look Dollies

Next time you're down at the club (which of course will be this Saturday!), check out the revamped club dollies. 

We had a small and dedicated group of volunteers who formed a very efficient production line, pimping our rides. Your club dolly now sports a colourful boat protector on the axle, a soft plastic tube on each of the boat supports and a lanyard on the front. Happy boats. 

Thanks to Mark Bethwaite for the initiative and Pat Levy for coordinating all the equipment. And particular thanks to all those who donated their time to make this happen for us all to enjoy.