Second Women’s Laser Regatta an Unmitigated Success

Written by Di Pearson

Last weekend’s Women’s Laser Regatta, hosted by Double Bay Sailing Club, was an unmitigated success, attended and coached by some of Australia’s highest profile sailors, mixed in with keen young sailors on their way up.

Photo by @darciecollington.

The Hon. Gabrielle Upton MP, Member for Vaucluse, and Andrew Cox, Commodore of Double Bay Sailing Club officially opened the regatta, while Mayor of Woollahra Municipal Council, Susan Wynne, presided over the prize presentation. 

Run, coached and competed in by women and girls on Sydney Harbour, the intention of the regatta is to encourage greater female participation in the Laser class. DBSC’s ethos is based on volunteering, and this came through with many members involved in supporting the event.

In only its second year, co-organisers, Clare Alexander, Christine Patton, and Christine Linhart were thrilled by the number of those wanting to attend. 

Patton commented, “We were over-subscribed this year. When we started the event last year, we couldn’t have guessed how popular it would become so quickly.”   

Photo by @darciecollington.

Eminent coaches included Karyn Gojnich, a triple Olympian; Krystal Weir, a double Olympian, and Katie Spithill, a multiple international and national Women’s Match Racing champion from youth to adulthood. Spithill also finished second overall in the 2018 Rolex Sydney Hobart as tactician on Wild Oats X. 

The trio was joined by DBSC’s Marlena Berzins, a former Australian Sailing Squad member in the Laser Radial, and Charlotte Alexander, an up-and-coming match racer with wins to her name. Louise Davis, an experienced International Race Officer from Brisbane, flew in to preside as Race Officer. 

The two-day event comprised yoga each morning; an on and off the water coaching clinic; debrief and Q&A; dinner at DBSC; racing all Sunday and the prize giving. 

Among the entries was Australian Sailing Team member and Tokyo Olympic Games campaigner in the Laser Radial class, Mara Stransky. The 20 year-old Queenslander won the event, although it was not all about winning. 

“I thought I’d come down and see how the younger girls are progressing and share some insights with them,” Stransky said. 

“I’m impressed by the younger girls (the majority were from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and DBSC). They have a good work ethic and they’re disciplined.”

Karyn Gojnich, from RSYS herself, responded: “They’ve been training all winter under the guidance of Marlena (Berzins) and Mike Leigh (an Olympian). I think our girls gave Mara a run for her money. 

“It was an amazing weekend. The organisers did a fabulous job in bringing it together; a small club like this putting on such a big event.” 

Photo by @darciecollington.

Katie Spithill agreed. “Everyone seemed to love it and already there has been discussion about next year. We had five coaches for 50 boats, so each coach looked after 10 sailors. Krystal (Weir) likened it to a gym circuit – everyone got to see every coach in rotation. Today, on the water, we again looked after 10 sailors each. It was successful,” she said. 

Fifth placegetter for the racing component was 2016 Grand Masters Laser Radial Open world champion and newly crowned Women’s Grand Masters world champion, Vanessa Dudley, who is also an ocean racer with 23 Sydney Hobarts behind her, including last year with Spithill on Wild Oats X.   

“Today was a great day’s sailing and coaching yesterday was just as good. It’s been a worthwhile weekend,” Dudley said. “I found the girls from the Squaddy (RSYS) were very good and it was great to have Mara (Stransky) here. The effort that the Club put into it was really good.”

Photo by @darciecollington.

Entrants came from NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and ACT, with Cleo Boydflying in from New Zealand.  

Special thanks go to Woollahra Council and NSW Laser Association (assistance with coaching costs); Musto (donation of regatta tee-shirts); NB Sailsports, major supplier to the dinghy or off-the-beach racing classes in Australia(sponsorship of regatta bibs and their Laser truck onsite). 

For full results of the regatta please click HERE. Check out the international coverage HERE and HERE.

Photo by @darciecollington.

PRO Training from a Pro

Those who volunteered at the Women’s Laser Regatta were very privileged to receive a PRO training session on Saturday afternoon from renowned International Race Officer, Louise Davis.

Thanks to Louise for running the session and to Kirk Marcolina for filming it. You can check out her presentation HERE (password DBSC2019).

This is a fantastic resource for us as we continue with our major strategic priority of improving the quality of our racing.

We strongly encourage every member to watch this – it will benefit you immensely, both as a sailor and as an aspiring PRO.

There were a few points during the session where there was confusion among the people present –highlighting how important it is that everyone watches the video.  The points of confusion were:

1.     There was some debate about when to use the AP to postpone during a start sequence – the club’s position is that, if any error is made in a start sequence (even by one second), the AP must be put up and the start sequence re-commenced

2.     There was some discussion about when the orange “on station” flag should go up – our PRO guide is clear on this, namely that it must be at least 4 minutes before the start sequence commences 

3.     There was a suggestion that we do not move marks when the wind shifts – while that has generally been our practice, because the wind usually does not shift materially during a race, it is not necessarily the case.  If there is a big enough wind shift, we will change the course (see the PRO guide)

4.     There was a suggestion that only the last three digits on a sail need to be recorded – in our fleet it is critical that the last four digits are recorded because the last three digits are duplicated and result in confusion in our fleet

5.     There was a technical discussion on sailing rules around a finish (including penalty turns and buoy room) – ignore this as it is out of the intended scope for the session and should not be relied upon

International Race Officer, Louise Davis.

Top Tip

This week we have a member looking for advice. Wet Foot Freddie writes, “I want to know how people successfully dry their hiking boots. Or does everyone’s boots take days to dry as well?!?!” If you have the answer, email the Newsletter Editor HERE. Responses will be published in next week’s edition. 

Up Next at DBSC

Saturday, 5 October, 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 HERE if you are planning on attending.

Saturday, 5 October, 2pm Start – Sprints (due to the October Long Weekend)

Wednesday, 9 October, 5pm Splash – Twilight Sailing

Saturday, 12 October, 2pm Start – Sprints (due to Oceania and Coasts)

Sunday, 13 October, 2pm Start – Big Boat Race

Wednesday, 16 October, 5pm Splash – Twilight Sailing

Saturday, 19 October, 9am – Learn to Race. 

Saturday, 19 October, 2pm Start – Club Championship, Heats 3 & 4 AND Spring Pointscore, Heats 5 & 6.  Followed by a BBQ

Race Report

It was another blustery September day for Spring Pointscore heats 3 and 4. Big waves and a gradient N/NE 22 knot breeze challenged the 30 + sailors that competed. In between dips in the water the fleet managed some great sailing – with incredible boat speeds on the reaches and runs.

At the end of an exhilarating day, the winners were (after handicap): Standards: Michael Osborne (Heat 3) and Steve London (Heat 4); Radials / 4.7s: Sylvie Stannage (Heat 3) and Kirk Marcolina (Heat 4). 

Thanks to this week’s race volunteers — Mark Bethwaite (PRO) assisted by Clare Alexander, Geoff Boscoe (LTRaR), Tim Patton and Christine Patton (COTD), Julian Van Aalst (CoCOTD), and Tim Heath and Christine Linhart in the canteen.

Only 3 Sleeps till the Women’s Laser Regatta

After many weeks of preparation, the Second Annual Women’s Laser Regatta hosted by DBSC is almost here. Check out the full schedule below. To entice you to get there bright and early we have a pop up coffee sponsor The Little Marionette onsite both mornings from 7:30 for fresh coffee! They are heading on down to the DBSC clubhouse, setting up a pop up shop and making a brew with the finest beans, creating full-bodied and crowd-pleasing blends with small-batch single origins. It will get you charged up for the Opening Ceremony with the Hon. Gabrielle Upton at 8:30am Saturday!

Thanks to Christine Patton, Christine Linhart, Clare Alexander and the many other volunteers who have spent countless hours putting together a world class event. With over 50 sailors set to attend it’s sure to be a great weekend of women’s sailing!

Brett Beyer Twilight Program

With daylight saving just around the corner, one of our favourite club activities will be resuming – twilight sailing!  The first of these will occur in two weeks, on Wednesday, 9 July with splash at 5pm (or whenever you can get there) for sailing from 5.30-7.30pm.

And with this comes another instalment of the fantastic Brett Beyer Twilight Program.  This program is capped at 10 participants (on a first in basis), who benefit from direct on-water coaching from Brett, and access to ask follow-up questions during the week.

The Brett Beyer Twilight Program (BBTP) will run for 9 sessions as follows: 16 Oct, 23 Oct, 30 Oct, 6 Nov, 13 Nov, 20 Nov, 27 Nov, 4 Dec, 18 Dec.  The cost of the program is $270 (plus merchant fees) per person.

If you want to participate in the BBTP, please apply and pay here. Terms and conditions are included in the payment link.

All sailors are welcome to participate in twilight sailing, whether or not participants in the BBTP.  Everyone benefits from the races and drills that Brett coordinates.  Last season we had 15-25 boats every week – let’s build on that this season!

Private Dollies

We published an article a few weeks ago asking people to identify and claim their personal dollies, otherwise those dollies would be deemed donated to the club.  We did not receive many responses!

We have attached again the private dolly register HERE and ask that people review this and confirm to the Dolly Auditor, Mark Gray, by email here if any dollies in the register are theirs.  Note there are four private stackable dollies in one image labelled 18A-18D – please review these too.

We have also not received communication from the owner of the heavy dolly made from steel pipe shown at item 15.  This dolly needs to be removed from the club as it is incompatible with the racks.  We have another member who has volunteered to remove it and, if we do not hear from its owner, it will be deemed abandoned and will be removed by that other member.

There are several people whose dollies have been reported missing.  This is an unfortunate reality of storing private dollies at the club.  There is a very high probability, based on experience, that any private dolly stored in the club will eventually go missing.  We are sorry that this has happened to those people.  The club’s dolly policy is as follows: 

Our policy is to encourage members not to store personal dollies in the club.  If you elect to store a personal dolly in the clubhouse, you will be deemed to have donated that dolly to the club, unless you submit photographs with unique identifiers that are accepted by the Dolly Auditor AND your name and those photographs are recorded in the Private Dolly Register.  The club bears no liability for failure to record or retain details of your dolly in the Dolly Register, even where such details were provided to and accepted by the Dolly Auditor.  If you store your dolly at the club, you do so at your own risk, and the club bears no liability for loss of your dolly, even as a result of negligence or of a wilful decision by the club to scrap it, which the club reserves the right to do at any time without notification to you.  Members should be aware that numerous private dollies have been lost and/or scrapped over the years, and you have no right of claim, including no right to an alternate dolly, should that occur to yours.  You are not entitled at any time, including upon selling your boat and/or ceasing to be a member of the club, to remove a dolly from the clubhouse or surrounds except with the specific approval of a Flag Officer or the Dolly Auditor and then only when the dolly you propose to take is recorded as yours in the Dolly Register.  By storing your personal dolly in the clubhouse, you agree to these terms.

World Championships - Entries Open

Entries for the 2020 ILCA Laser Masters World Championships in Geelong have opened.  The regatta is scheduled to run from 19-28 March, immediately following the National Masters Championships from 13-18 March.

The advice is to get entries in early and MOST IMPORTANTLY to book your accommodation NOW (for both Nationals and Worlds) – accommodation is already extremely tight, with only a few places left! 

You can enter the Masters Nationals here and the Masters Worlds here.

Entries have also opened for the Standard Men’s World Championship from 9-16 February, the Radial Men’s and Women’s World Championships 21-28 February, the Radial Men’s World Championship.  The full list of World Championship events in Australia in 2020 is here.

We want to get a huge DBSC contingent there for both the Nationals and the Worlds, so sign up now and don’t miss out!

Top Tip - Quick Rigging Vang and Down Haul

What you need:

• Oversized shackle (some use quick pin, but I learned that a shackle is more secure)

• Spring Clip

• Loop spliced into Downhaul 

Once set up, You’ll be quick to rig and unrig and you never unrig your down haul. 

To rig:

1. stand mast, 

2. attach boom to mast and sail

3. shackle vang to mast tang

4. Connect vang to boom

5. Pass downhaul line through sail, clip in your loop

6. Presto!!!!

Opposite to unrig, be sure that you don’t untie your downhaul, and leave the system on your cockpit

Disclaimer.....This will make it simpler and faster to rig and unrig. Unfortunately doesn’t make you faster on the course.