Vaucluse Challenge – This Saturday

The second leg of the 2017-18 Vaucluse Challenge will take place this Saturday, and all DBSC members are encouraged to take part. It will be a 2pm start at Vaucluse. The forecast is for a light NE breeze, so it might be a long sail to get there.  Briefing will be at 12noon (an hour earlier than usual), with a splash no later than 1pm.

We will be offering a tribute to Carolyn Bethwaite on the day.  All DBSC boats will fly a black ribbon at the top of their masts – ribbons will be provided at the clubhouse on the day.  The post-race BBQ will be held at DBSC.  We encourage all members to attend in remembrance of Carolyn and in support of Mark.

The format of the racing will be as follows:

• 2 x ~45min races, with the first counting towards the Vaucluse Challenge, and the second just for pride
• course and sequence to be advised
• standards will start first (not radials/4.7s)
• port or starboard roundings to be advised (look for the red or green coloured flag on the start boat)
• usual 5min start sequence
• I-flag instead of P-flag (this means that a boat over the line during the 1-min before the start must sail around the end of the line to the pre-start side before re-crossing to start)

Scoring will be as follows:

• the first n boats from each club in each of the radial/4.7 and standard fleets will score (with n to be advised based on fleet sizes on the day)
• the first (n-1) boats from each club in each fleet will be allocated a score of 1 through 2 x (n-1) in their order of finishing, regardless of their actual position in the fleet
• the nth boat from each club in each fleet will be allocated a score based on its actual position in the fleet
• the scores for each club from each fleet will be added together to determine the winner of the 2nd leg of the Vaucluse Challenge
• these scores will be added to the scores from the 1st leg of the Vaucluse Challenge to determine the overall winner of the Vaucluse Challenge for 2017/18

Scoring example:

• say it is decided that 5 boats from each club in each fleet will score
• then the first 4 boats from DBSC and the first 4 boats from VYC in each fleet, will be allocated scores 1-8, even if their actual position in the fleet was worse than that
• the 5th boat from DBSC and the 5th boat from VYC in each fleet will be allocated a score based on its actual position in the fleet
• in this example, the objective for us in each fleet is to have as many DBSC boats as possible ahead of the 5th VYC boat (and also to have our first 4 DBSC boats beat the first 4 VYC boats)

The score from the first leg of the Vaucluse Challenge was DBSC 35 to VYC 84. We’re looking forward to a fun and competitive day of racing at VYC!

Family Day Fun

DBSC’s first annual Family Day was a huge success. A beautifully warm day and gentle breeze greeted the families and friends who came to enjoy the afternoon of fun. There were perfect conditions to give the little ones a chance to helm a laser for the first time. The light breeze allowed a rounding of Clark Island, with some close-up viewing of the huge submarine that was anchored in the harbour. Back on shore the jumping castle got a good workout and the delicious BBQ complete with gummy worms and party pies went down a treat. To round out the evening four double passes to see the new sailing flick, The Mercy, were randomly drawn and won.

A rare sight in Sydney Harbour -- 3 lasers, 6 sailers, 1 sub.

A huge thank you to Kirk Marcolina for conceiving and organizing the day, to Simon Stone and Justin Davey for driving the RIBs and taking out the younger kids, as well to Paul Adam for the delicious catering, and Peter Collie for manning the BBQ.  

Jumping fun at Family Day.

Saturday Sprints

Whilst some of the fleet was away at the Metros, a nearly 30-strong contingent of sailors practiced their skills in a series of sprint races. The light breeze gave the advantage to those who have been watching their waistlines. Thanks to PRO David Murphy and COTD Jen Wells for running a great afternoon of sailing.

After the racing was over the fleet was in for a big surprise – brand new hoses, hose nozzles and self-winding hose rollers. It made cleaning our boats a joy! Well maybe not a joy, but it was a welcome change to the tattered leaking hose system they replaced.  Thanks to Pat Levy for the awesome new setup. Let’s make sure we keep the new rig in good working order by taking care when pulling the hoses out and around the roller door and by making sure to guide the hose back in to the roller and making sure it doesn’t get snagged by the roller door. 

The Wait is Finally Over

We know you’ve been counting the moments ever since the articles about invoices appeared in the past two week’s newsletters… well the wait is finally over. Check your inboxes, you should have received your invoice for the 2018/19 season last night!  But in all seriousness, we would appreciate you paying your dues as quickly as possible, as there are heaps of expenses over the winter months. Our goal is to have 100% of dues paid before 30 April, so we don’t have to have volunteers chase people to pay. Thanks for your help with this. 

Metros Race Report

Reported in part by laser.asn.au

The NSW & ACT Metropolitan Championships were held over the weekend of 17-18th March at Drummoyne Sailing Club. There were 77 entries for the event over the three fleets – 4.7 – 20 entries, Radial – 33 entries, Standard – 24 entries.

The regatta was in two parts with a gentle 9-12 knot easterly on Saturday followed by a boisterous 18 gusting to 30 knot north westerly on Sunday.

RO Col Chidgey set the sailors some challenges. Considering the tight race track defined by the west harbour islands and the many moored craft Col opted for journey courses rather than our normal trapezoid (essentially windward and return courses). There were two days of starboard rounding courses. This combined with restrictions on sailing inside moorings (including very many with little more than a small red float to mark them) lead sailors to refresh their knowledge of RRS rules which we seldom need to consider in our events. Some sailors managed the new situations and environment better than others.

Five races, of the scheduled six, were completed – two on Saturday and three on Sunday.

DBSC’s  4.7 fleet dominated with Daniel Costandi, Jack Ferguson, Sylvie Stannage, Brooke Wilson, Mina Ferguson, and Ryan Littlechild taking home 1st to 6th place in that order. The other highest placed DBSC boats were Jack Littlechild who was 4th in the Radials and Hadrien Bouvely who was 8th in the Full Rigs. Congrats to all who participated. 

DBSC member and Metro 4.7 winner, Daniel Costandi

Winter Series

With just over a month left in our regular season, some may be going into an early winter, lack of sailing funk… But cheer up, because the winter of 2018 will be unlike any other in DBSC’s history. For the first time, we will be running an official winter series.  

The intention will be to have races every second Sunday, starting 6 May. The first warning signal will be at 8.30am, so splash by 8am. There will be three ~30min races (wind permitting).  The start sequence will be advised pre-season based on the number of boats expressing interest. There will be a PRO/COTD roster for those participating.

Please email Ian Alexander at ianalexander1@optusnet.com.au if you are intending to sail (if you intend to sail more than once, please also be willing commit to being PRO / COTD once).  If you are only going to sail once, there is no need to volunteer – we welcome one-off casuals.

Save the Dates

Two important dates to note in your calendar:

• End of Season BBQ – Saturday, 28 April
• AGM and Dinner – Friday, 25 May

Autumn Pointscore Race Report

We had nearly 40 boats turn up last Saturday for heats 11 and 12 of the Autumn Pointscore. It was a beautiful, sunny day with an unsettled 5-12 knot E - NE breeze. The light breeze, a reach behind Shark Island and a big fleet of 18’s gave us some tricky racing – as our PRO, Mark Bethwaite put it, it was a thinking sailor’s course. The winners, and smartest racers (after handicapping) were: Full Rigs: Ian Alexander (heat 11), Hadrien Bourely (heat 12); Radials: Julian Van Aalst (heat 11), Zac West (heat 12). Thanks to last week’s volunteers for putting on a great day of racing: PRO Mark Bethwaite, assisted by Clare Alexander, COTD Candice Cushway, CoCOTD Josh Pearl, and Canteen Assistant Geoff Boscoe. 

Thanks to Nick Pellow and Ashley Deacon for pointing out some great footage of our fleet as captured by the JJ's race coverage. To see how crowded it was on the harbour you can check it out here.

Close encounters with the 18s.

The Week Ahead

Wednesday 14 March, 5pm – Twilight Sailing. Sign up here if you’re coming. Only three weeks to go before we lose daylight saving!  In the last three weeks, we have practiced drills – starts, then mark rounding, then tacks and gybes.  This week we are having a series of short races to put all these skills into practice – Brett will record the results.  Come and join our large fleet of Wednesday sailors, and make the most of the last of summer!

Saturday 17 March – Sunday 18 March – Metros at Drummoyne Sailing Club. Mike Dunne is coordinating transport and all other needs associated with the Metros this weekend.  If you need assistance (or have spare space on your trailer and can assist someone else), please contact Mike at mikedunne070@gmail.com or on 0407 016 125.

Saturday 17 March, 9am – Learn to Race. Come along if you want to learn more about Laser boat handling, balance, boat posture, trim, starts, tacks, gybes, boat set-up and any other race management fundamentals. Please email Martin White at mwhite@universalmagazines.com.au if you are planning on attending.

Saturday 17 March, 2pm – Sprint Races. While some of the fleet is sailing in the Metros the rest of us will be practicing with a series of short sprint races near DBSC.

Saturday 17 March, 4:30pm – Family Day BBQ – All welcome. See details below. 

Family Day BBQ - This Saturday

Following this Saturday’s Sprint Racing we’ll be hosting a Family Day. Please plan to attend, even if you don’t have kids or a loved one to bring along – we’ll have plenty to go around! After a few short sprint races for the kids, we’ll have a family friendly BBQ with sausages, party pies and jelly snakes. Plus, there will be a jumping castle to tire out the little ones and a special drawing for free movie tickets.

A jumping castle will play centre stage at the Family BBQ. 

Thanks to Palace Cinemas, we have a limited number of tickets for The Mercy.  Based on the incredible true story that captivated the world, The Mercy follows Donald Crowhurst’s extraordinary journey in his attempt to win the first solo non-stop round-the-world yacht race. We will have a random draw of four double passes at our Family Day BBQ.  So, come to Family Day to have your shot at free tickets to see this brilliant new sailing movie.

Tickets to The Mercy will be won at Family Day.