Port Kembla Sailing Club
  • Home
    • Juniors >
      • Junior Sailing Reports
    • Small Cats >
      • Small Cat Reports
    • Large Cats >
      • Large Cat Reports
    • Monohulls >
      • Monohull Reports
    • Trailer Yachts >
      • Trailer Reports
  • Learn to Sail
  • Visitors
    • Accommodation
    • Things to Do
    • Club Facilities >
      • Learn to Sail
    • Local Businesses
    • Merchandise
    • Crew Positions
  • Events
    • Kembla Klassic
    • Light Weight Sharpie NSW States
    • Presentation Night
  • Members
    • Calendar
    • Race Reports
    • Weather
    • Member Forum
    • Crew Positions
    • Forms and Checklists
    • Racing Rules
    • Links
  • Results
    • Trailer Yacht and Sportsboat Championship 2017
    • Kembla Katagatta 2016
    • Kembla Klassic
    • Catamaran Results
    • Monohull Results
    • Junior Results
    • Trailer Yacht Results
  • Gallery
    • Photo Albums
    • Video Channel
    • Facebook Photos
    • FACEBOOK Kembla Klassic
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Our History
    • Newsletters
    • Merchandise
    • What's Happening on Social
    • Honour Roll
  • Members

24th Sept 2016 - Pointscore 3

25/9/2016

1 Comment

 
I thought it was funny how Hugh Lewis said in his last blog that he would be envious of us sailing in his absence - he's in Europe for around 5 weeks. That says something about him. He must really LOVE his sailing!

Well, I'll endeavour to cover both the Small and Large Cats this week in his stead although it will not be easy to fill his shoes. They're probably size 16's(!!) - sorry Hugh if you're reading this (lol).

The AGM was held at 11am in the clubhouse with Club President Richard Hipsley convening.  After Tony Sanderson presented the financial report this year's directors and officers were voted in. Most choosing to continue their role - although Jody graciously accepted the position of club secretary after Teresa Marzano decided to have a break.  Hugh and I remain the small and large cat delegates. And Tony Sanderson continues as the Treasurer.

Well, the weather was very kind to us, sending warm temperatures and clear skies but the south easterly breeze was a little on  the light side. We had better numbers in the large fleet than the previous week - but still a few missing persons - hopefully they will all be back on deck soon. In all, 5 large cats and 4 small cats came to sail.

It was really great to see the return of Ross Fyfe on Yabby after his knee replacement - and it was fortunate the day was a gentle one for his first foray on the water after missing out on the last half of last season. I had the impression he was very glad to be back on the water again.

Unfortunately, there was a nasty accident for Paul English while he was fashioning a spacer for his hounds shackle. He was cutting through a nylon fitting with a sharp serrated knife and it slipped and deeply cut the back of his left thumb. He very calmly turned to me and said, "I've just cut myself very badly, its going to need stitches for sure." He applied pressure whilst we organised for Lois to take him to the surgery at Warrawong Plaza.   He returned later with stitches and bandage. The doctor said he shouldn't do anything with it for a month as the tendon had been partially severed.  What a shame for Paul to miss out on another ding-dong battle with Kurt Griffiths on the 16sq's. 

Tony Sanderson and Jack Kroek were officers on duty and set a port course with the start to the south of Gooseberry Island, the windward mark towards the  IYC channel and the wing mark almost halfway between Gooseberry and the clubhouse. The small cats got away on starboard tack with Bill Ledger on Billyo (Nacra 14Sq) showing great speed in the light trapezing conditions and Paul Leaudais, Ross Fyfe and Jody Mathews giving chase on their Windrush Super Sloops. They all chose the left hand side for the first work where there was good pressure.

The large cats, all sporting square top mains,  gave chase 5 minutes later with the A Class Symphony  leading from Bob and Johnny Porter on the Phantom Menace (Nacra 5.8NA),  Rob Porter sailing one-up on  Shark Bait (Taipan) and Kurt Griffiths on Wreckless (Nacra 16sq). Symphony badly overlayed the top mark allowing Phantom to recover lost ground.

The large cats caught up with the second placed Paul Leaudais on the first reach but BillyO was still holding on up front. Phantom passed underneath Symphony on the second reach back to the bottom mark - the Nacra 5.8 was sailing deep and fast.  Rob Porter caught up on the reaches, too. On the second work, Rob had the Taipan sailing very high and fast - and found better pressure - managing to take over the lead by the top mark.  Kurt Griffith sailed the same line as Rob and thus kept in touch on his Nacra 16sq.

On the downwind leg, Rob sailed into some light patches allowing Phantom and Symphony to slip past again. The lead swapped between the Nacra 5.8 and A class a couple more times.

The finish was tricky for everyone with the wind changing and shifting quite unpredictably on the short work from the X Mark to the finish line.

In the end, the large cats were led home by Symphony, closely followed by Phantom Menace, Shark Bait and Wreckless. BillyO led the small cats home by a good margin, next was Silver Fox Paul Leaudais, Ross Fyfe on Yabby and Jody Mathews on Blue Tongue not at all aided by the dying breeze.

Overall, it was an enjoyable day on the water - some would prefer more wind I'd imagine - but it was a very pleasant day nonetheless - apart from Paul English's rigging mishap of course.

The Small and Large Cat results can be found here.

Just a quick reminder:
1. Jervis Bay regatta at Callala Bay is being held next week (Labour day long weekend). Tony Sanderson has booked accommodation and has plenty of room. Anyone interested in going down, advise either Tony Sanderson or Paul Leaudais and they can fill you in with the details. This is a great regatta with a multiple short race format.

Have a great long weekend everyone!  Get well Paul!!

Regards, Ross Boyd
1 Comment

17th Sept 2016 Club Championship 1 - Pointscore 2

25/9/2016

0 Comments

 
Earlier in the week, the forecast had predicted a fresh nor'easter but this changed to a gentle 7 knot easterly by Friday. It was an easy day for sailing.

Unfortunately, the large cat fleet was down on numbers for various reasons, so it was only three boats who would contest the first race of the Club Championship. We had Paul English on Playtime (Nacra 16 Sq), Kurt Griffith on Wreckless (Nacra 16 sq) and me on Symphony 2 (A Class).

The racing was going to be hotly contested. It was the first outing for Kurt Griffith on his newly acquired boat - and a day that Paul English has been looking forward to. Hopefully this will be the first of many epic battles between these two.

Kurt elected to sail with the pin-head main - the same as Paul - there would be nothing between them.

Trevor Dunn set the course and the large Cats all got away cleanly on starboard tack in hot pursuit of the small cat fleet who started 5 minutes earlier. Both Nacras then chose to head for the right side of the course hoping for the typical advantage found towards the shallows. It seems though the pressure was to be found in the middle of the course. This scenario set the stage for some strategic sailing and great match racing between the two Nacras.

Kurt's boat was struggling for height against Paul upwind but still managed to stay in touch in the light breeze. Downwind Kurt may have been a little faster. The wind was a little patchy and made it difficult for either to break away. 

The A Class reveled in these light trapezing conditions and gradually consolidated a good lead to finish the race about 21 minutes ahead - greatly assisted by the dying breeze. Kurt managed to bring home Wreckless with a two minute lead over Paul after Paul was unfortunately required to perform a 360 after brushing a rounding mark in the heat of the moment.

It was great to be racing again. I'm certain next week will bring a bigger fleet. In fact, I'm 100% sure  about this because this blog is being written quite belatedly on the day after Pointscore 3. (hah!)
Better late than never!

Happy sailing and be safe everyone until next week!
Ross Boyd
0 Comments

Large Cats Report 10th Sept 2016

10/9/2016

0 Comments

 
It felt like winter would never end but here we are at last, the spring has finally sprung.

Welcome to the long awaited start to the 2016-2017 season!

Earlier in the week the forecast was for a light westerly. Unfortunately, that forecast was a little over-optimistic and it was a gusty nor' westerly that greeted us on the day. For the uninitiated, it may have appeared innocuous enough when viewed from the sheltered shoreline but the Primbee green stick with its newly fitted Holfuy weather station told a different story with gusts of 29 knots recorded during the day.

So, with the racing officially abandoned, the day became a great opportunity to converse and catch up with all the off-season news and scuttlebutt...

Off-season Clubhouse News

The canteen has been completely refitted and refurbished.  Indeed, during the briefing our club president Richard Hipsley extended a hearty thank you to all those who devoted their valuable time and energy to this major off-season project.  It looks amazing and is certainly a welcome improvement to the club facilities.

The boat storage area has much improved racks for the storage of dinghies and the two water hoses are now wall-mounted on retractable reels. Great job and many thanks to Hayden Sellers and co for doing all of this.   

Off-season Scuttlebutt

Kurt Griffiths has a newly adopted Nacra 16 sq.  Many of us checked it out on Saturday, including Paul English,  who has been eagerly looking forward to some close competition this season.

It has also been confirmed by Bob Porter (senior) that Bob Porter (junior) will be sporting a flat top  mainsail on the Nacra 5.8 Phantom Menace this season. Not only that, Bob and Johnny have shed about 20kgs between them during the winter. Good job guys! They'll be very hard to catch this season!

In other news, during the recent NSW storms a large tree limb fell on Symphony's carbon mast  - narrowly missing the hulls. I managed to obtain a rusty old RSJ and cunningly painted it to look just like a brand new carbon mast. Luckily its not as stiff as the old one. (ha ha)

At the Olympics, the Australian Sailing team were extremely successful again. However, one of the  remarkable stories of the Games was that of Santiago Lange, a likeable Argentinian sailor, competing in the mixed Nacra 17s class. He was diagnosed with lung cancer last year - which required removal of a lung. Although physically weakened, he managed to overcome all odds. In the medal race, he incurred two penalties and yet managed to claw his way back to 6th place to win the gold by a single point from the Australians. Amazing!  Below is a very moving post-race interview with Santi and his crew. 

Upcoming Events
  • Next week is Club Championship Round 1 and Pointscore Race 2!!
  • Yarrawonga Open Regatta - October 22nd and 23rd - Les and I plan to attend if anyone's interested in coming along.

Windward Returns vs Triangles Discussion

A few sailors have voiced interest in the Large Cats sailing Windward Returns because this is the course sailed when attending regattas. Obviously, a Windward Return course will favour some cat classes above others, so I have a suggestion to maintain fairness. We could make half the races Windward Returns and half the races Triangles by simply assigning all 'odd' Pointscore races as Windward Returns and all 'even' races as Triangle races.

For example, PS1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 would be Windward Returns and PS2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 etc would be Triangles.

Let me know your thoughts/objections - if everyone's agreeable we could easily adopt this for the rest of the season.

Well, that's all for this week -see you all next weekend and here's hoping the winds are more favourable.

Regards, Ross Boyd
0 Comments

    Author

    Race reports are provided by Large Cat delegate Paul English

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    September 2018
    August 2018
    September 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016

    RSS Feed

We Would Love to Have You Visit Soon!


Hours

Saturday 9am to 5pm

Telephone

(02) 4271 1325

COMMITTEE EMAIL

secretary@pksc.com.au

WEBSITE EMAIL

website@pksc.com.au
  • Home
    • Juniors >
      • Junior Sailing Reports
    • Small Cats >
      • Small Cat Reports
    • Large Cats >
      • Large Cat Reports
    • Monohulls >
      • Monohull Reports
    • Trailer Yachts >
      • Trailer Reports
  • Learn to Sail
  • Visitors
    • Accommodation
    • Things to Do
    • Club Facilities >
      • Learn to Sail
    • Local Businesses
    • Merchandise
    • Crew Positions
  • Events
    • Kembla Klassic
    • Light Weight Sharpie NSW States
    • Presentation Night
  • Members
    • Calendar
    • Race Reports
    • Weather
    • Member Forum
    • Crew Positions
    • Forms and Checklists
    • Racing Rules
    • Links
  • Results
    • Trailer Yacht and Sportsboat Championship 2017
    • Kembla Katagatta 2016
    • Kembla Klassic
    • Catamaran Results
    • Monohull Results
    • Junior Results
    • Trailer Yacht Results
  • Gallery
    • Photo Albums
    • Video Channel
    • Facebook Photos
    • FACEBOOK Kembla Klassic
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Our History
    • Newsletters
    • Merchandise
    • What's Happening on Social
    • Honour Roll
  • Members