TY Delegates Report 3 – 4 February 2018
The Sussex Inlet and St Georges Basin Regatta is arguable one of the best regatta of the PKSC TY sailing season, and this one was shaping up to be just as memorable and fun. There were PKSC TYs coming out of the woodwork everywhere, 12 in total of a fleet of 26 starters for the regatta.
The Sussex Inlet and Basin Yacht Club regatta organizing committee putting a lot of effort into making the event enjoyable, both on land and on the water. A big thanks must go to Lynne, Andrew, Greg and many more SIBYC members who sacrificed their valuable time to make sure us sailors were welcomed and went away feeling rewarded by the experience. Apologies for forgetting all your names.
Maybe it’s because this regatta, as well as being set in a beautiful location, is reminiscent of the PKSC events we do. The hands-on member participation creates a wonderful atmosphere. Volunteers seem to put something extra into an event to ensure things run smoothly and participants fell included.  That’s not to say we all didn’t try as hard as we could to do our best on the water. It just makes it more enjoyable when you know you are not just another boat make up the numbers.
Friday night at the RSL was full of stories of sailing friends hurting themselves doing sailing related activities. For example, getting on and off boats while under the influence of alcohol was a prominent theme of these reminiscences. I learnt something new as well. Apparently the drunker you get the funnier the stories are.
After a night of heavy rain, the weather turned on perfect sailing conditions for Saturdays around the Basin Race. Not too windy and not too sunny making it challenging enough but still ensuring everyone finished safely.
Here is something else I learnt. Did you know Smurfs could sail?  A crew of Smurfs took over Breakaway, and after a slow start on Saturday, they did surprisingly well.
The Breakaway Smurfs were not the only crew to a slow start on Saturday. Some of us were a little confused by the starting sequence and were ill prepared when the gun went. Most of us made our way around the course doing the best jibes we could, dodging big clumps of weed and trying to pick the shifts in the tricky north easterly winds. 
A similar overnight rainstorm happened Saturday night with Sunday turning out to be an equally pleasant day sail with slightly less wind.
Connor Weare, Micah Sullivan and the two Carrol boys showed us all how to sail in a borrowed Young 5.2.  They came a very credible third overall on day one and forth overall on day 2. It was exciting to see our juniors do so well.
For anyone reading this article who was unable to attend the regatta, you missed a great weekend of sailing and talking sailing crap. If we are all in a fit enough state next year we will do it all again.
I will put the Pointscore results for Saturdays race in next week’s newsletter. But here are the CBH results for your perusal.
 
Boat name                 Elapsed Time              Corrected CBH             Place CBH
Nirvana                            115:55                               88.54                                1
Froufrou                          122:29                               91:22                                2
Bluey                                152:46                               91:46                                3
Breakaway                       117:10                               93:09                                4
Rosstered Off                  118:11                               93:57                                5
Momentum                     118:51                               94:29                                6
Hasbeencounted            119:15                               94:48                                7
Hailstorm                         130:00                               96:59                                8
Whitewash                       124:30                               98:59                                9
Pipedream                       140:00                              101:30                             10
Serenity                            141:23                              102:30                             11
Magella                             148:42                              114:03                             12
 
The End Trev

​TY Delegates Report 27 January 2018
Saturday was sunny and hot and windier than predicated at about 15 plus knots more north than east.   This Saturday is not usually scheduled for a race day as people are usually recovering from the Australia Day holiday and preparing for school going back after the holidays. It was a surprised to see so many sailors turning up for today’s race and lots of junior sailors and their parents. It sure made the club feel vibrant and a happy place to be.
The three TYs starting today were Momentum with Barry, Ray John and Greg aboard, Magella with Richard Lech, Pier, Leo and Aaron aboard and Froufrou with Jess, Patrick and me aboard.
Thanks to Sam and Kevin for covering the duty boat roster and looking out for us on the water. They had a tough job today as it was windier and puffier than anticipated out on the water. Its always very deceptive looking south over the lake when the north easterly is blowing, things appear so much calmer from the comfort of the clubhouse.
As such TYs went conservative today choosing smaller working sails and with Momentum the only boat brave enough to hoist a spinnaker.  Froufrou was a little underweight today to keep us upright for the conditions, with crew of Patrick at about 35 kg and Jess at around 60kg, and me at 65 kg. What she lacked in weight she made up for in raw tallent (Ha!Ha!). 
Momentum started well on port at the pin end of the line and gained an immediate advantage over Magella and Froufrou, a very good move.  Froufrou and Magella tacked to port as soon as they were clear of the line to get clear air.
I feel it important to mentioning how beautifully Magella looked with her new sails setting perfectly held up by an immaculate rig. Everything on her appeared to be working as it should be in this wind strength and no doubt she also benefiting from the expert crew of Aaron, Leo and Pier with Richard skippering. It almost makes you want to get out and do some maintenance on your own boat to bring her up to the same standard.
The race progressed in an orderly fashion after the start with good crew work observed all round. On days like this finishing times are almost irrelevant as it’s a privilege and a pleasure to be out sailing that makes you a winner. Still there must be a first place in a sailing race, and well deserved first place it was.

Results for Pointscore 15 

Boat name        Corrected Time PBH    Place PBH    Corrected Time CBH      Place CBH
Momentum                     82.647                        2                         82.495                             1
Magella                            78.500                        1                         83.066                             2
Froufrou                          84.261                        3                         84.261                             3
 
Reminder of Upcoming events
St Georges Basin 3-4 February. Make the effort and come along to this great event. Its all about participation and giving it your best shot. We will of course be made very welcome by the St Georges Basin Sussex inlet Sailing Club.

​The End Trev
 
 
 
 

TY Delegates Report 20 January 2018
We had another good turn up of boats for today’s Championship 5 race. Hailstorm with Bob, Rob, Josh Johny, and 2 of Johny’s kids; Whitewash with Rod, Andy, Hayden and Jerry, Rosstered Off with Jim, Richard H and Shaun; Momentum with Ray and Richard L, and; Froufrou with Trev, Stephen, Jess and Alen.
Saturday was one of those typical summers days without the predicted afternoon strong north easterly we often enjoy this time of year. Good weather for tuning, sharpening crew work and getting sunburnt.
Momentum had some bad luck with one of her lowers disconnecting, having to retire before the start. At least she got wet and we hope she is back in racing trim for next Saturdays race.
After the start Rosstered Off disappeared into the distance with Whitewash hard on her heals. Whitewash continued her good performance showing improved upwind and downwind speed and chasing Rosstered off all the way round the course  
That left Froufrou and Hailstorm in a tight tussle behind the bigger boats. There was never more than a couple of hundred meters between these two boats until the final third of the race when Froufrou made the fatal rooky mistake of not covering. That allowed Hailstorm to take advantage of a wind shift to sneak past Froufrou and hold the lead to the finish line.
The Ross 780s have benefited for some time sailing against each other, but It’s the first time in a long time that we have seen two Ross 650’s sailing regularly. So, things are looking good for the smaller Ross’s to pace each other with the prospect of the competition improving their boat boats speed and teamwork over the following season.  Froufrou hopes that Hailstorm will continue to turn up for Saturday club racing and provide opportunities to experiment and sharpen your boat handling, teamwork and tactics.

Results for Championship 5 Race
BOAT NAME      Corrected time PBH    Place PBH    Corrected time CBH    Place CBH
Hailstorm                         88.783                      3                       87.195                            1
Froufrou                           88.426                      2                       88.426                            2
Rosstered Off                  90.840                     4                        88.815                            3
Whitewash                       86.986                     1                        90.63                              4
Momentum                      DNS
 
Reminder of Upcoming events
St Georges Basin 3 and 4 February 2018. I don’t have to remind you all that it’s well worth making the effort to participate in this great event.
Marley Point Overnight Race 10 and 11 March. For those of us who have a masochistic nature, this is one event not to miss.

The End Trev
 
 
 
 
 

TY Delegates Report for 13 January 2018
Not much to report this issue. We were all keen to have a sail on this the first race day after the Christmas New Year’s break(not).
I could see lots of tired faces among those seated under the veranda roof as many of the TY sailors put in a big effort over the Christmas and New Year break helping stage the Manly Junior Nationals. Adding to the general lethargy the weather picture presented a less than ideal second half of the season race start with a strong westerly turning into a strong southerly. In the end, and with a report of the Southerly coming through Gerroa at 30 knots, todays sailing event was abandoned.
As we all know sailing is usually only a small part of what you do on a Saturday race day, so without much trouble we bounced back from the disappointment of no on water action and made the best of what remained of the day by doing what we often do best, talk lots of crap, eat and drink lots from the canteen, and stare out across the lake with an empty mind or attempt to predict the weather with no complaints voiced by any sailors’ present.  
Thanks to Tony and David Zara for doing the duty roster today. As it happened their duty boat operating talents were not wasted as they were called on to assist one of our visiting sailors who’s boat decided to sail off across the lake without a skipper aboard. Apart from a degree of pride, no lives or boats were lossed.

Upcoming events
We do have a couple of TY events coming up that I hope some of us have time to participate in.
The Illawarra Yacht Club Australia Day Regatta on Friday 26 January.
The St Georges Basin and Sussex Inlet Regatta on 3 and 4 February. Always an event that generates fond memories and one not to miss.
Thee Marley Point race 10 – 11 March. With it being the 50th anniversary of the race it is attracting lots of interest from our TY sailors and looks like we will have a good TY representation this year.

Till next Saturday.

​The End Trev

TY Delegates Report for 13 January 2018
Not much to report this issue. We were all keen (not) to have a sail on this, the first race day after the Christmas New Year’s break.
I could see lots tired faces among those seated under the clubhouse veranda roof as many of the TY sailors put in a big effort over the Christmas, New Year break to help at the Manly Junior Nationals.
The weather picture presented a less than ideal second half of the season race start with strong westerly turning into a strong southerly. In the end and with a report of the Southerly coming through Gerroa at 30 knots todays sailing event was abandoned. No complaints were voiced.  
As we all know sailing is usually only a small part of what you do on a Saturday race day, so without much trouble at all we bounced back from the disappointment, making the best of what remained of the day by doing what we often do best, talk lots of crap, eat and drink lots from the canteen, and stare out across the lake with an empty mind or attempt to predict the weather. All in all a great day to spend a Saturday. 
Thanks to Tony and David Zara for doing the duty roster today. As it happened there talents were not wasted as they were called on to assist one of our visiting sailors who’s boat decided to sail off across the lake without a skipper aboard.

Upcoming events
We do have a couple of TY events coming up that I hope some of us have time to participate in.
The Illawarra Yacht Club Australia Day Regatta on Friday 26 January.
The St Georges Basin and Sussex Inlet Regatta on 3 and 4 February. Always an event that generates fond memories and one not to miss.
Thee Marley Point race 10 – 11 March. With it being the 50th anniversary of the race it is attracting lots of interest from our TY sailors and looks like we will have a good TY representation this year.
Till next Saturday.

​The End Trev

TY Delegates Report 9 December 2017 Secretary V Presidents race
Pointscore 11.
To see the rigging area filled with TYs was enough to bring an extra element of happiness to our Saturday sailing race. Ten TYs were in the rigging area preparing for the race and for the opportunity to take out as many juniors and seniors and anyone else who wanted to have a go as sailing on a TY as we could. Our PKSC equivalent of Try Sailing. And what a day it was with the sun shining and the wind blowing moderately from the NE at about 15 knots.
Paul Leaudais, Ross Fife and Norm Tomson were our duty crew for todays around the lake Secretary V Presidents course. Thanks guys for the big effort.
In my opinion these events provide us boat owners with opportunities to introduce new people, young and mature, to Trailer Yachts and, to have a bit of a knees up at the end of the day before we go about our busy holiday season activities.
Like many of the TY’s sailing today, Froufrou opted to share the skippering role. If you have not steered before or haven’t steered for some time it can be quite an intimidating responsibility, especially when the wind is up.  I learned today that I am a hard task master and have high expectations of my crew. They of course performed with great diligence and determination as is anticipated of high achievers. They did better than their best and I didn’t make it easier for them. In the end I believe they all  appreciated the experience and feel a little more confident in their sailing abilities.
I do have one objection about todays activities. And that is not being sold the winning ticket in the raffle, for yet another time. I am not suggesting for a minute that the system is rigged, but I thinks it’s about time that I shared in the raffle basket booty.  On a more serious note, these types of money raising activities don’t happen by magic. Most of the raffled goods are donated by our members, (not all of them re-gifted items I am told), and all assembled under the coordination of Glenda Curry. Very generous of them indeed in my opinion. The raffle’s benefit not just the winners as the proceeds allow the club to purchase things like a new set of binoculars and stop watches.
What’s left is to celebrate together at the end of the day and talk about the light stuff that acts as the social glue that bind us together.
I still get a pleasant feeling looking South over the lake in the soft afternoon light, hides all manner of imperfections. Just sitting looking out from the shelter of the clubhouse veranda is rejuvenating. And it’s even better if you have someone else to share it with.

Are we ready to go for the second half of the season?
The Manly Juniors States in January, St Georges Basin February, Marley Point March, and club races to end the sailing year.
​
I will be transitioning into retirement during the second half of the sailing season but would very much like to encourage as many TYs to turn up for Saturday races as possible. Club racing provides one of the best opportunities to try different things and tune boats and crews in preparation for bigger regattas.
Don’t miss out.
Hope you all have a great holiday season. See you next year.

The End Trev
 
 

 TY Delegates Report Lord Mayors Regatta Saturday Race
From rainy skies to a beautiful sailing day on Lake Illawarra it just goes to show that its usually worth making the effort to turn up at the club regardless of what the weather is you are getting at home.
We had another good role up of TYs for today’s race.  Four starters, Momentum with Barry Ray, John and Bruce aboard, Serenity with Wayne, Daniel, Richard L and Coby aboard, Rosstered Off with Jim, Richard H, Shaun and someone else who’s name I don’t have aboard, and Froufrou with Jess, Alen, Stephen and me aboard. We made up a good proportion of the Lord Mayors Regatta Saturday race fleet.
From my point of view what was encouraging to see on the water for this regatta was the return of some of the smaller TYs sailing out of the IYC. There must be many TYs falling into disrepair in back yards around the Illawarra. It’s a great shame. If I had some amazing entrepreneurial talent I would use it to encourage the owners of TYs being covered in bird poop and dust in their back yards to join our club, start using them again like they should be used and share in some rewarding on and off the water experiences.
The breeze was quite tricky swinging from north to east and gusting to around 15 knots meaning that it presented opportunities for making good choices (or not so good choices) up the works and at the jibe mark. With the shifting breeze tending east in the second half of the race made it challenging up the works and for carry a spinnaker around the jib mark. Many boats opted for a two-sail reach from the jibe mark to the upwind rounding mark. The boats brave enough to give the spinnaker a go on this leg gave us non-spinnakering boats some interesting entertainment with a couple of craft coming a cropper, notably a flattened Masrm that took a long time to get her mast vertical again. 
The shortish Saturday race Olympic Triangle course didn’t allow the quicker boats, Rosstered Off and Momentum, an opportunity to stretch their legs and get away from the rest of the fleet but they still looked like they were having a good race at the front.
Never the less it was another great day out on the water and I believe everyone that made the effort enjoyed the experience. 

BOAT NAME          CORRECTED TIME PBH     PLACE PBH     CORRECTED TIME      CBH PLACE

ROSSTERED OFF               63.880                                4                           61.719                       2
MOMENTUM                    62.747                                 3                          62.169                        3
FROU FROU                      61.408                                 1                          61.408                        1
SERENITY                          61.552                                 2                          63.280                        4


Next weekend is a big weekend for the TY’s, running the Kembla Klassic.  In advance, I would like to thank all of you TY sailors for contributing your valuable time for making this another great event for our Off the Beach sailing colleagues. Thank you.
 
The end Trev

TY Delegates Report for 14 October 2017
Starters for today’s Pointscore race were Hailstorm with Bob, Rob, Josh and Johny aboard, Serenity with Wayne, Daniel and Richard L aboard and Froufrou with Jess, Alen, Stephen and me aboard. Today's cool and windy weather may have turned a few TY sailors away but as is often the case, things calmed down and warmed up in the afternoon to provide us with very nice sailing conditions.
Thanks to Aaron and Pier for setting us a very good course in the moderate and chilly South Easterly.

I find one of the good thing about pointscore races is that they allow you to take a few risks and to try different methods of doing things to see what works best.  

The three 650 class TYs are well matched so the crew of Froufrou knew that we had to pull something special out of the bag to get out in front and stay there ahead of Serenity and Hailstorm. But alas the gods were against her. Froufrou tacked onto knocks and Hailstorm and Serenity tacked on lifts. Then on the second last spinnaker run Serenity loosed a spinnaker pole end fitting which meant no more spinnakers for the rest of the race and slower down wind speeds for her.
Some days the stars are just not aligned. That doesn’t mean that Hailstorm had all the good luck, they just sailed much better on the day and deserved to finish first.

Results for Pointscore 5
BOAT NAME    ELAPSED TIME   PBH   CORRECTED TIME PBH   PLACE     CBH     CORRECTED TIME CBH    PLACE CBH
HAILSTORM       91.783                0.746             68.589                        1           0.746              68.470                                1
FROU FROU       94.033                0.746             70.149                        2           0.746              70.149                                2
SERENITY          102.300               0.698             71.358                        3           0.724              74.168                                3

 
Coming events:
Our next big event that we all come together to run is the Kembla Klassic 25-26 November. I would very much appreciate it if you could let me know, by email, text, phone or face to face, your availability to assist with the on shore and on water duties so that our sailing club can run another successful event.
​
The end Trev

TY Delegates Report for 14 October 2017
Starters for today’s Pointscore race were Hailstorm with Bob Rob Josh and Johny aboard, Serenity with Wayne, Daniel and Richard L aboard and Froufrou with Jess, Alen, Stephen and me aboard. Today’s cool weather may have turned a few TY sailors away, but, as is often the case, things calmed down and warmed up in the afternoon to provide us with very nice sailing conditions.
Thanks to Aaron and Pier for setting us a very good course in a moderate and chilly South Easterly breeze. The good thing about Pointscore races is that they allow you to take a few risks and try different methods of doing things to see what works best.  
The two Ross 650 s and Castle 650 TYs are well matched so the crew of Froufrou knew that we had to pull something special out of the bag to get across the line in front of them.
Alas the gods were against us. Froufrou tacked onto knocks and Hailstorm and Serenity tacked on to lifts. Then on the second last spinnaker run Serenity lost a spinnaker pole end fitting which meant no more spinnakers for her. Some days the stars are just not aligned. That doesn’t mean Hailstorm had all the good luck, they just sailed much better on the day and deserved to finish first.

Results for Pointscore 5
BOAT NAME       CORRECTED TIME PBH  PLACE PBH  CORRECTED TIME CBH  PLACE CBH
HAILSTORM                  68.589                            1                           68.470                        1
FROU FROU                  70.149                            2                           70.149                         2
SERENITY                      71.358                            3                           74.168                         3
 
Coming events:
Our next big event is the Kembla Klassic 25-26 November. I would very much appreciate it if you could let me know, by email, text, phone or face to face, your availability to assist with on shore or on water duties so that our sailing club can run another successful event.

The End Trev

We haven’t had one of these TY Championship events for many years and I must admit I was a little bit concerned that we, Port Kembla Sailing Club would not be able to pull it off. Getting things like race committees, protest committees, members to do registration and results and staffing for the kitchen can be a challenge. There is always an element of doubt in my mind that everyone who says they are available will be able to show up on the day.
But I need not of worried and as such my sincere thanks go out to all of the PKSC members who gave up there valuable time to run this championship event. It is because of you that the event was such a success..
But of course, you need more than PKSC members to have a regatta, you need participants to turn up. I was very relieved to find many familiar TY people setting up in the PKSC rigging area on Friday afternoon, confirming that getting sufficient numbers for this national event would not be an issue and in the end we had 17 starters.  My thanks go out to the TY sailors who turned up to sail and support this event.
As an event and as a sailing club we were also testing the new Racing Rules of Sailing and updated ATYSB rules and handicap system.
Weather conditions could not have been more different for the two days planned for racing. With the wind gusting over 25 knots from the South West by Saturday’s first race start, Dave Morrison and crew on the starter’s boat had the difficult job of deciding what to do about running the 3 races scheduled. Dave and his starter crew made the sensible call to abandon racing for the day and, I believe without exception,  all competitors were relieved to be heading back to the sanctuary of PKSC for a post sailing catch up session (translation - talking crap, drinking and eating).
Day two found us bobbing around with little wind before the scheduled start time with next to no wind Dave and the starter boat crew making another great call to postpone the start. It was if we hadn’t informed the weather about daylight savings time change, and, right on queue one hour later the wind came in from north east at around 10 knots permitting four good races to be squeezed in.  
The race format of four short windward/leeward courses set up by Dave, the starter boat crew and the mark laying team provided participants with close racing and very good competition with seconds separated finishing times for most of the boats. I bet this  must have given the handicappers confidence that they had allocated appropriate handicaps to the classes participating.
We were privileged to have in attendance Geoff Searle an Australian Sailing National Sailing Judge and John Burges and Peter Taylor from Australian Sailing Trailer Yacht and Sports Boat Technical Committee. Geoff provided invaluable assistance to ensure that we, whether part of the organising committee or sailors or both, conducted the racing fairly for all competitors, while John and Peter assisted us with getting the handicapping correct and boat safety inspections sorted.
Saturdays regatta dinner format was also a winner. The food was good and the communal nature of cooking and eating together reinforced positive relationships among participants. What also impressed me most was the obvious camaraderie between competitors both on and off the water, something that lifted the event from a sailing race into a far more enjoyable experience.
You may argue that whenever there is more than one person in a room there will always be rivalries and some differences in ways of doing things and in what way d decision should go.  At least with everyone contributing to an optimistic and supportive environment, like I feel generally happened for this event, any minor differences could be managed more easily before they get too big.
On behalf of all TY competitors and their support crew we would like to thank  Barbara Hipsley for managing the big job of the catering, Nikki Sullivan for managing the registration and results, Beck Curry for all her work in the canteen making sure we were fed and for organising the prizes, Ross Fyfe for managing the VJ Cafe,  Jack Kroek and Rick Shorebridge for being part of the protest committee, Hugh Lewis and Rob Porter for their on water duty, Paul Leaudais and Tony Sanderson for buoy laying and on water safety duties, Jody Mathew, Sue and Oscar Souter for start boat duties and of course Dave Morrison for being our race officer. Everyone agreed that Dave and his crew did a fantastic job.  Thank you to all those club members who assisted in the canteen including Sue Nairn, Sharon Sellers, Sylvia Ledger and Marie Kropp. Thank you to Bill Ledger for cleaning up after us.  Thanks to Richard Hipsley for keeping competitors informed of what was happening and many other small but significant things he did behind the scenes to make sure everything ran smoothly. Thank you to Stephen Sullivan for getting our event webpage, the online booking site and results calculator working.
The event was a success because of you and I owe you all a debt of gratitude for your selfless contributions.
PKSC has pulled of what I believe and all the officials and competitors I spoke to felt was a very successful sailing event and one that exceeded participants expectations. I hope that the same positive vibe will carry over into next year’s ATYSB championships to be held somewhere in Victoria.

There were some sailing results as well that you will be able to find on our ATYSB Championships events page:
 
The end Trev