Race Report – Sat 20 February

Sydney Harbour presented a beautiful sunny day for Champagne sailing. However, the breeze proved tricky for setting a course and really tested the sailors’ ability to pick the shifts and come out on top. For the wind obsessed, the easterly that started the morning with a lot of north in it threatened to waft in initially from the south east at 2pm, then moved continuously left during the course of the afternoon as the day warmed and the breeze strengthened.

In the Radial fleet, we were fortunate to have representatives from the Australian Sailing Team and Australian Sailing Squad race with us. Mara Stransky, Zoe Thompson, Elyse Ainsworth, Casey Imenro, along with visiting NSWIS sailor, Paige Caldecott, and a guest reappearance from Otto Henry – all providing great competition for DBSC’s NSWIS sailors who raced on the day, Evie Saunders, Brooke Wilson, and Daniel Costandi. Zoe Thompson was first across the line in both races. Winners of the DBSC Autumn Pointscore races were Kirk Marcolina and one of our new members Rob Vann. The Standard fleet has grown recently with a few ex-Radial sailors moving over as they were getting frustrated with the lighter sailors outperforming them on the light breeze days. Winners of the races were Nick Alexander and Murray Stone.

Thanks to all the volunteers this week: Andrew Cox, David Newman, John Chesterman, James Leaver, Vic Whitby, Andrew Dixon, Shirley Roach, and Paul Adam.

Photo by Andrew Cox

Metros – 6 & 7 March

The Metropolitan Championships will be held 6-7th March at Hunters Hill Sailing Club. This is a great opportunity to sail on a different part of the harbour and test yourself in a competitive fleet.

If you are interested in attending please email Rod Barnes so we can coordinate transport. We are also looking at the option to launch from DBSC on each day then towed to the race area by RIBs. If you would like to spend the day watching from a RIB and are able to tow some Lasers to and from the event please email Rod. You are also welcome to sail from DBSC to HHSC if the conditions are favourable.

The Notice of Race, Online Entry, Sailing Instructions, Venue Information & Logistics, Electronic Sign On/Off, and Results are all available via the NSW/ACT Laser Association website and Australian Laser App [HERE]

Clean Up Australia Day – 6 & 7 March

If you are sailing on the Saturday either in club Sprints or Metros, please consider coming in earlier and contributing to the litter pick-up at low tide around the club. If that doesn’t suit, then Sunday morning is also an option. Please email Kate McHugh to let her know.

First Aid Training – 18 April

Do you know what to do if someone is unconscious or bleeding or stung by a marine creature? First Aid is an essential skill to have either in or out of the water. Just like sailing, if you don’t practice regularly, you will forget what to do when something unexpected happens. Even if you have had training in the past, it is recommended that you do a refresher every 1-2 years. DBSC will cover the cost of the training to be held on Sunday 18 April. Please register [HERE]

Volunteering

DBSC is managed and run entirely by volunteers and that spirit is what makes it such a great place to sail and hang out. Aside from running races and making toasties, so much more happens behind the scenes such as RIB maintenance, electrical wiring, unblocking drains, finances, teaching, video & photography, grocery shopping, newsletter posts, and many more – all made possible by volunteers. There are always jobs to be filled, so if you are interested in volunteering, please email Andrew Cox and let him know. Not only fulfilling, volunteering will also help your boat move down the racks faster (as well as sailing regularly).

History Corner

The canteen has come a long way! Here’s an extract from the May 1958 news-sheet: “One of our members thought it a good idea to serve the lads a hot drink after the race each Sunday. A band of three or four women rallied forth never missing a Sunday, led by Mrs Slight, and the delicious cup of rich Cocoa together with biscuits was prepared for each member with a small charge of 6d, which goes towards Club Funds.”

60 seconds with Richard Au

1. How old were you when you first stepped on a boat? Around 16 or 17 – a friend of mine took me out in his Swanson Dart, a sweet sailing 22’ keel boat.

2. If money (and sailing ability) were no limit, what boat would you buy? A new Laser would be nice. A cruising yacht would also be nice but I don’t have time for that, my little speedboat is already not being used enough.

3. What is your ultimate sailing goal? Sailing faster! I’m a beginner in dinghies so tacking more efficiently and getting better at sailing by the lee.

4. Tell us the story behind the name of your Laser? The friends of the previous owner of my boat thought he was a bit stuck up, a toff, so as a joke he named his first Laser “Toff".  This boat was his second Laser so it was called “Toftu". Being vegetarian I thought “Tofu" was a good name so I removed the t.

5. If you could add any ingredient to DBSC's world’s best toasties – what would it be? More mushrooms like portobello or porcini or shiitake.

6. What are your second/third favourite hobbies (assuming sailing is #1)? I’ve got too many hobbies so I rotate them. The constants though are reading fiction and non-fiction, music and photography. To facilitate music reproduction I’ve been into restoring and tweaking high fidelity equipment since I was a kid. It’s surprisingly difficult to make both Mahler symphonies and the Rolling Stones sound good on the same system. So when tuning I err towards Mahler, Davis and Coltrane. I don’t shoot so much these days but when I do I concentrate on light and composition which I also look for and really appreciate in other people’s photographs.

7. Describe what you do for work in less than five words? Develop apps on Apple iOS, Swift, Xcode.

8. What is the first international destination you will travel to (once we're allowed) and why? Not sure because it's unlikely all destinations will be open at the same time but Hong Kong and Taiwan would be nice.

9. What is your favourite TV show, movie, and/or book? I don’t have favourites, there’s too many of them. Of the recent releases I liked the 2018-19 mini-series Das Boot and movie Interstellar. War and Peace might be the greatest work of fiction. I’m not kidding, I’ve read it twice and highly recommend it. For non-fiction, I’ve just finished (DBSC member) Finn Kirk’s dad’s book “The Genes that Make Us”, an excellent read.

10. Tell us something interesting about yourself that members of the club don’t know? I like to build and/or fix things. Recent projects include restoring a ~120 year old German violin, refitting and rewiring an old Cruise Craft runabout with Johnson 70hp outboard, rebuilding two sets of QUAD amplifiers and FM tuners for Morgan and myself. In my 20s I liked working on classic sports cars.

I’m with my brother Derek (left) and friend David in his then new Northshore 38 (circa 1986)

Coming Up

Wednesday 24 Feb - Twilight Sprints, Brett Beyer Twilight Program 5/10, and State Masters Debrief presented by Brett Beyer (8pm)

Saturday 27 Feb - Club Championship 11 & 12

Wednesday 3 Mar - Twilight Sprints, Brett Beyer Twilight Program 6/10

Saturday 6 Mar - Learn To Race, Clean Up Australia Day 1/2, Metropolitan Championships at HHSC 1/2, DBSC Sprints

Sunday 7 Mar - Clean Up Australia Day 2/2, Metropolitan Championships at HHSC 2/2

NSW/ACT ILCA Laser Master Championships

The largest ever contingent of DBSC sailors travelled to Jervis Bay over the weekend for the State Masters, and for many the first time competing in a regatta. It was certainly a test of fitness and skill with 3 hours of intense sailing and 30kms covered each day in moderate to fresh southerlies, with some consistent waves to surf downwind.

There were a total of 143 entries and DBSC filled almost a quarter of the spots with 15 of 77 Radials, 17 of 64 Standards, and 2 of the 9 females. Congratulations to all the sailors that attended and those that excelled in their divisions: Radial - James Tudball overall winner and 1st Apprentice, Gavin Blake 3rd overall and 2nd Apprentice, Andrew Cox 1st Master / Standard - David Newman 2nd Apprentice, Brett Beyer 2nd overall and 1st Master, Luke Parker 3rd Master, Ashley Deacon 1st Great Grand Master. Full results [HERE].

A few more highlights include: Tuddy Jnr competing in and winning his first Masters with Tuddy Snr in the same fleet; Gavin Blake’s farewell Laser regatta as he moves up to the Moth class; all the Masters newbies including Nick Pellow, Steve London, Conor Roche, Diana Chen, David Murphy, David Airey, Ian Tudball, and James Tudball. Diana should have received a prize for possibly the most downwind capsizes and still getting the job done to finish all 6 races – not a bad effort for a rookie.

The weekend was filled with amazing memories, many “YeeHa” moments, and maybe some held-back tears. It was a great event for our club and we hope that more members will join us for the next away regatta. Thanks to Jervis Bay Sailing Club for hosting!

Some great photos from the weekend by Jon West available for purchase [HERE]

Race Debrief presented by Brett Beyer

Brett will be offering a State Masters race debrief and Q&A at the club on Wednesday 24th Feb at 8:00pm. All members are welcome (even if you didn’t go to the States) to come and listen to his strategy, tips, tricks, and advice. Cost is $20pp - click [HERE] to book your spot.