Wednesday 16 January, 5pm – Twilight Sailing. Looks like it will be a wonderful 16-knot NE breeze under warm, sunny skies… so join us!Saturday 19 January, 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 19 January, 2pm Start – Spring Pointscore Heats 3 & 4.Sunday 20 January, 8am Start – Boat Licence Course (for those members who have pre-registered for the course).Wednesday 23 January, 5pm – Twilight Sailing.Saturday 26 January– Australia Day. No Racing.Monday 28 January, 2pm Splash – Sprint Racing (see below).Wednesday 30 January, 5pm – Twilight Sailing.Saturday 2 February, 9am – Mandatory Competency Training for all members.Saturday 2 February, 2pm Start – Club Championship Heats 9 & 10 followed by a BBQ on the deck after racing.
Author: admin
Safety Warning – Bergman Winch Broken
One of the winches for the Bergman has broken. So please don’t attempt to move the Bergman until the winch is fixed. We are aiming to have it repaired and up and running before Saturday, but please confirm it is in working order before using. Thanks for your understanding.
2019 Racing Begins
Sunny skies and a light to moderate NE breeze greeted the fleet of 30+ for the first races of 2019. It was a lovely day for the start of the Autumn Pointsocre, though the racing was made a bit trickier by a crowded harbour, and some close calls with larger boats. Check out harrowing footage of a near miss captured by Ian Alexander here on The Top Mark.First over the line after handicap were: Standards: Steve London (heat 1) and David Newman (heat 2); Radials / 4.7s: Pippa Batchelor (heat 1) and Justin Davey (heat 2). Thanks to all last week’s volunteers for putting on a great day of racing, including PRO Nick Pellow who was assisted by Clare Alexander on the Jazzman, COTD/PhotographerOTD: Ian Alexander, and CoCOTD: Jost Stollman. As always the toasties were delicious thanks to the canteen crew of Paul, Andrea, Shirley and assisted this week by
Coming Up
See below for the special Australia Day Long Weekend Sailing Schedule. Wednesday 23 January, 5pm – Twilight Sailing. Saturday 26 January– Australia Day. No Racing.Monday 28 January, 2pm Splash – Sprint Racing. 1.30pm briefing for a 2pm splash.Wednesday 30 January, 5pm – Twilight Sailing.Saturday 2 February, 9am – Mandatory Competency Training for all members.Saturday 2 February, 2pm Start – Club Championship Heats 9 & 10followed by a BBQ on the deck after racing.
Race Report
A challenging shifty Southerly greeted a fleet of 35 boats for Autumn Pointsocre Heats 3 and 4. Sailors had to keep an eye on the ever-changing wind to make sure they picked the correct side of the course and took advantage of the lifts. First over the line after handicap were: Standards: Ashley Deacon (heat 3) and Thomas Beregi (heat 4); Radials / 4.7s: James Tudball (heat 3) and Ashton Scott (heat 4).Despite the windy conditions, the race committee provided a challenging and fun day of sailing (and even managed to save a unicorn along the way). Thanks to Christine Patton and Michael Osborne on the Jazzman, Tim Patton, Sara Brooks and Steve London on the RIBs, and Emily Ball who joined Paul, Andrea and Shirley in the canteen. Steve also took some great photos and videos of the day, a few are below… many more on The Top Mark.
Laser State Masters South Lake Macquarie March 2nd & 3rd
The block buster State Masters Championship is coming up 2nd and 3rd March. This one will be at South Lake Macquarie Amateur Sailing Club at Sunshine – always a great venue. We have 20 DBSC members signed up to participate… if you haven’t done so already, and want to join us, please let us know HERE. This is your last chance to join our armada headed North. The Notice of Race for the event is HERE and you can enter online HERE. SLMASC have arranged with the Lake Macquarie Council to allow us to camp (tent only – no caravans) on Friday and Saturday nights on Sunshine Park at the club. Camping fee is $30 per night (with funds going to the Council). The clubhouse toilets and showers will be available 24 hours. Please contact Diana Charlton by email at treasurer@slmasc.org if you want to book a camping spot. On Saturday night the club is putting
Brett Beyer Programs
We will be running another instalment of the BBSP and BBTP, commencing shortly. If you are interested in these programs, can you please click on the following links and purchase tickets ASAP. Closing date for purchase is in one week — Tuesday, 29 January.For BBSP, click HERE. For BBTP, click HERE. BBSP details:The Brett Beyer Saturday Program (BBSP) will run for 7 sessions as follows: 2 Feb, 9 Feb, 23 Feb, 9 Mar, 23 Mar, 30 Mar, 27 Apr.* You can sign up for the BBSP HERE. There will be two categories: B = $315, A = $630 (plus merchant fees).* Everyone is invited to join the post-race briefing on the deck.“B” participants receive (a) a video of the start with voice-over commentary, (b) a video of the “real time” GPS tracks of the fleet, (c) a leg by leg analysis of the performance of the fleet including individual speed and angle statistics vs the fleet,
Coming Up
Wednesday 30 January, 5pm – Twilight Sailing.Saturday 2 February, 9am – Competency Training for all members. (see above for details) Saturday 2 February, 2pm Start – Club Championship Heats 9 & 10 followed by a BBQ on the deck after racing. Sunday 3 February, 2pm Start– Big Boat Racing.
Competency Training – This Saturday 9am
Our first ever competency training course will be held this Saturday, 2 February, commencing at 9am at the club. We have only 35 people signed up, out of our 120 members.This is an event we are asking all our members to attend as a commitment to your fellow members and to the standards of racing and safety to which we aspire. The reason we are doing this is that we are consistently short of people who are competent to set courses, run races, record results, launch and drive our boats, rescue lasers, use the radios and deal with life-threatening emergencies. This is a big problem for the club and we need to fix it by increasing the competency of all members.The topics covered will be course setting, mark laying and mark moving, race management and weather monitoring, RIB launch and operation, Jazzman launch and operation, radio usage, incident management plan and emergency response,
BBSP Needs YOU
The Brett Beyer Saturday Program (BBSP) will commence this coming Saturday, 2 February, which is a club championship.We currently have five participants signed up – 2 full rigs and 3 radials. We need many more people to make this viable – like 10 in each class.If you are interested, can you please purchase your tickets HERE ASAP in the next two days?The Brett Beyer Twilight Program (BBTP) is fully subscribed with 10 people. Twilight sailing is on tonight with Brett Beyer and all are welcome to attend. Let’s maintain the momentum last year, when we got a record number of 22 sailors on a Wednesday evening in December.