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Port Kembla Sailing Club Newsletter 27th February 2016

LONG RANGE WEATHER FORECAST - Saturday 27th February 2016

General Outlook – Possible Shower Temperature – 21 - 24 degrees Wind Speed – 20-23 km/h Chance of rain - 90% (5-10mm) Wind Direction – SE Humidity – 75% and UV Extreme Sunrise - 6.40am & Sunset at 19.39pm First Light – 6.14am & Last Light – 20.05pm.

Don’t forget to bring you sun cream and hats and slip, slop & slap as always.

COMING EVENTS 27-28th February Youth Regatta – IYC 5-6th March Katagatta Regatta – PKSC 12-13th March Marlay Point Overnight Race – Wallagant LBC 19-20th March Junior Sailing Camp 20th March End of Junior To Sail Season 26th March Easter

PRESIDENT’S REPORT Unfortunately we were unable to hold club racing last weekend due to a problem with the new outboard motor on “Wal Curry”. As the duty crew were in the process of putting out the marks, the motor developed a miss-fire. After stopping the boat to investigate the issue, the motor refused to restart. Thanks to “Momentum” for towing the stranded boat back into the harbour. Some sailors have asked why “Puffa” was not available as a back-up boat. The reason was that “Puffa” was at Avalon in the role of an official safety boat for the Flying 11 state titles, representing PKSC and supporting our juniors competing in the event. “Puffa” was purchased by the club so that we had a suitable boat for supporting the juniors both on Lake Illawarra and at away events. It was just unfortunate that the other boat had a problem on the same weekend as “Puffa” was away. We had no other choice than to abandon official racing as we had no way of setting the course, starting the race or providing a response boat. Some of us did go out for a recreational sail and enjoyed some great south easterly conditions. Congratulations to our Flying 11 sailors. Sailing in a fleet of 69 boats, Connor & Riley finished 5th in the series, whilst Emmett & Erin finished a creditable 31st. The Sharpies were also away for their States and the PKSC sailors finished with very good results. Details are yet to be published.

Port Kembla Sailing Club Newsport Weekly Newsletter

PO Box 388 FIGTREE 2525 Ph: 4271-1325 Website: www.pksc.com.au E-mail : [email protected]

For Saturday 27th February 2016

Pointscore:- 18 Championship 6 for Monos and Cats

Response Boats Keith & Crew

Kanteen KP Week 4 Kylie, Sharyn, Hayley & Glenda

http://www.pksc.com.au/


Lastly, a final call for helpers for the Kembla Katagatta on the weekend of the 5/6th March. We will be confirming this Saturday who can help on the water and in the canteen the following weekend. This is our inaugural cats’ only regatta, and we want it to be successful, so please make yourself available to help if possible.

Good sailing, Richard

FROM THE EDITORS DESK

Nothing from me this week.

Gail Newsport Editor

DELEGATES WEEKLY REPORTS

TRAILER YACHTS Report for 20 February 2016 Today’s race was a bit of an anticlimax. Not only were quite a few of the regular starters unable to sail, but also the fickle finger of fate played a part in shaping the outcome of today’s activities. As far as our regular TY fleet goes, Grey Fox is taking an enforced rest break, Frou Frou is temporarily out of action with a broken mainsheet traveller and Rosstered Off was floating around St Georges Basin and was unable to make it back in time for the race. That left Serenity with Wayne, Richard Lech and Richard Hipsley aboard and Momentum, with Barry, Ray, John and Greg aboard as the only starters for today’s event. You only need two boats for a good race though. Thanks to Steve for giving up his time for us today as duty crew. The wind was consistent at between 15 - 20 knots from the South East when Steve and I headed out to lay the buoys. Things were going very well until we started motoring out into the middle of the lake to position the top and wing marks. The duty boat motor decided to play up. We stopped to check whether something was caught around the propeller. All OK except we could not get the motor started again. It was great having someone like Steve aboard in moments like this. Steve knows stuff about boats and motors, but even his expertise could not get us started again leaving us no option but to call ashore for help. Both Serenity and Momentum came to our rescue and Momentum was able to throw us a line and tow the “Wal Curry” back to the safety of the launching ramp. Not the easiest thing to do when there is a boisterous southerly wind whipping up waves and making life bumpy. And this in my opinion is another great thing about TYs. TYs are self sufficient. If something goes wrong aboard a TY you can usually get back to safety without the need of outside assistance and without the added risk of putting other boats and crew in danger.

Delegates Reports for Saturday 20th February 2016


Thanks also to the skipper and crew of Momentum for picking up the buoys already laid and Richard H for organising and flying the race abandonment flags ashore. Unexpected things happen in life, so that was the end of our race day, but just because the race was cancelled didn’t mean sailing was cancelled. Momentum and Serenity took this opportunity to go out and do some fine tuning and, despite the fickle finger of fate stuffing up the race, the crews aboard Momentum and Serenity ended up having a great day on the water. And that’s how it should be. Upcoming events Just a reminder that the Marley Point Overnight Race is on 12-13 March. Also the St Georges Basin Sussex Inlet Sailing Club, Basin Chase is on 19 March again this year. It’s a wonderful event and if the majority of TYs participate we can discuss using the results of the race for one of our scheduled club Pointscores/Championship race results.

SMALL CATS Report for 20th February 2016 A warm cloudy day around 26 degrees Celsius with 11-16 knot breeze via Billy Ledger’s wind meter – BOM Albion Park advising up to 20 knot gusts. Looked like it would provide great sailing conditions. Twelve (12) catamarans came down for a sail. With all the boats rigged up Steve and Trevor took on response boat and course setting duties. The plan was for course A this week. Response boat went out and the catamaran folks finished setting up. Whilst rigging, Les discovered his sailing day was over. The main traveller was about to tear off its mounting point at the rear beam. It was noticed that the response boat had laid the 1st mark and was sitting behind it between the clubhouse and Gooseberry Island. As time went on it became obvious that there was something wrong with the response boat as it had not moved. Radio contact with the response boat confirmed that they had engine troubles and one of the TY’s would tow them back to the marina. Even after the best efforts of those involved the boat was not able to be started. Hence without a response boat (backup boat Puffa away with Flying 11 juniors) the day’s racing was abandoned. There was obvious disappointment but I think it was better to be safe than sorry. Also we had no means of setting the course etc. So, Kurt and Bruce went out for a quick blast on their Nacra 5.8 Clewless and returned later with big grins saying the wind was perfect – solid and consistent. I had a chat to Tony Z looking at boat setup and when comparing to some of the other Windrushes found that my mast was raked back significantly more than some of my fellow sailors (close to 250mm – 300mm). Hence we made some adjustments raking it forward, stiffening rig tension a little and making it the same as Tony S’s mast rake. Slightly more forward than Jack and Ralf. At this point I decided to test this adjustment and Jack joined me. We did a big reach straight offshore out towards the other side of the lake. Going past what looked like 4 Paper Tigers sailing out of Koonawarra. Wind strength was perfect to trapeze, lighter than last week so was pretty much able to use full wind power most of the time. The southerly breeze pushing up some steep waves at times making the boat falter occasionally when punching through a particularly steep wave. Once over towards the other side of the lake we tacked over towards Windang bridge and the shallows (water much flatter over this way). Following Jack at this point the rake adjustment appeared favourable in helping pointing ability. Next week should be a good test. From here we had a nice broad reach back to shore. When we returned to shore Tony S made the suggestion that we should have sailed over to the Paper Tigers and may have been able to join them (hindsight is a wonderful thing!). After packing up it was a refreshing cold shower as the hot water had tripped out.

The end Trev


Regards Hugh

General:

1. Kembla Kats Regatta Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th of March 2016. This is only 2 weeks away.

2. Please be advised that Club Championship 6 (cancelled this week due to race abandonment) for Large and Small cats to be rescheduled to next week Saturday 27th February 2016.

3. Reminder that Large Cats Club Championship 3 has already been rescheduled for 9th April 2016

SMALL MONOS 2016 Flying 11 State Titles Wrap Up Well the Flying 11 Nationals and State Tiles are over for 2016. Pressure is off and now it’s time for some fun. “Snot Rocket” (Emmett and Erin) and “Panther” (Connor and Riley) represented PKSC at Rnd 1 at Cronulla and Rnd 2 at Avalon. Both venues provided different sailing challenges with Cronulla dishing up ocean swells and strong breezes and Avalon frustrating light breezes and tidal effects. The difficult conditions provided a great learning experience and both boats took away some valuable lessons to help them deal with similar conditions in the future. Team PKSC were becoming more comfortable jostling for position among the 70 boats on the start line. Very different to our 2 boat fleet in club races ! I would love to see our sailors practice boat handling skills and claim their position on the line instead of blasting up and down the line with 5 minutes to go. There were only a couple of general recalls and the threat of disqualification from a black flag saw all boats eventually start fairly. Racing was very very close. No matter if you were in the top ten, mid fleet or tail end, there was always a battle to be fought with another boat nearby. This was partly due to smallish Olympic courses and one design racing, but also due to the very high standard of sailors. I remember hearing Col Chidgey saying over the radio that “these flying 11 kids are the best sailors in the world” ! It gives me great pleasure knowing that our PKSC kids are part of it. Both “Snot Rocket” and “Panther” worked hard and improved on their National Title results from January. 42nd up to 31st, and 7th up to 5th respectively. 2016 Flying 11 State Title results for PKSC, 5th “Panther” - Connor and Riley. 31st “Snot Rocket” – Emmett and Erin . Well done to our sailors for overcoming some difficult conditions, equipment failures and some decisions that didn’t pay off as well as expected. You are all congratulated on your determination, sportsmanship and improved results.

Junior Training & Junior Racing Racing


It definitely looks like PKSC will go from strength to strength in the F11 class in the near future. We have some great sailors paving the way and some very keen MJ kids ready to move up into this exciting class. I’m really looking forward to growing our F11 fleet and helping everyone get the most out of their sailing. I’ll be emailing out some info this week to those attending our “Try a Flying 11 Day” The 2016 Combined High Schools Regatta is on at Belmont, Lake Macquarie, 12-16 April. Its open to all High School aged sailors on any type of boat. Let’s get a PKSC team organised soon. Send me an email or give me a call for info.

Cheers, Aza “good things come in small packages”


JUNIOR REPORT MJ Sailing Sat 20th February 2016 With the A-Team away with a Sharpie Regatta, it was the B-Team that took over the duties of running the MJ fleet in a 12+ knot swinging south west-south east breeze. With Puffer away, the start boat was also the rescue boat, so we set the kids a different course of triangle, sausage, work back to the top, out to the wing, then a long reach to the X Mark, and then back to the cherry set in line with the flag pole in front of the club. We had 6 boats on the start line, with Beat It pulling out prior to the start with rudder issues. Despite me sitting on the siren with 9 seconds to go to the start, all the boats managed to get away without an issue. As I said, B-Team... Quack quickly took up the front running from Squawk and Spindrift, then The Bandit, Skedaddle & Dynamite. There wasn't a lot of change in the positions mid race, but it was great to see a few boats not just following the leaders in an attempt to make ground on them, with Squawk & Skedaddle faring well in their second work. All boats found some difficulty at different stages of the race, but the kids should all be proud of themselves the way they didn't panic and worked through their minor issues. The gap from 1st to last was only 5 minutes, so that shows all the kids have performed very well. Quack led the way home, from Squawk, Spindrift, Skedaddle, The Bandit & Dynamite. Thank you to Steven & Martin for assisting me on the start boat, and Leo & Pierre for their work on shore recording the finishes and assisting the kids out of the water. And thanks as well to the canteen staff for putting on a great feed again for all the hungry kids & adults.

Cheers Brendan


Photo by Brendan


LEARN TO SAIL REPORT Report for 20th February 2016 This week 7 hardy kids came to pit their skills against the conditions. A nice warm day around 26 degrees Celsius with around 6 – 8 knot southerly breeze was the order for the day. After some discussion around sailing in moderate wind conditions, ie - to stop the boat tipping focus on leaning and mainsheet control - letting the rope out in a controlled manner when starting to tip. Also focus on controlling the boat by keeping hold of the tiller and main sheet. This week the little rubber duckie was manned by 2 of the parents and a triangle course was set. This week Trevor myself and 1 or 2 parents stood in the water to direct traffic. As the wind appeared to strengthen slightly as we set out we ended up sticking to a reach across the shore and turning by pushing (if facing the sail correctly turned the young sailors into the wind avoiding a jibe and possible bump on head in the strengthening wind conditions). James settling in to the conditions very quickly leading the way. After seeing how well he was going, a number of the other kids ended up settling down and set off in hot pursuit. The learn to sail year is approaching an end. There are only 3 more learn to sail sessions. Remaining Learn To Sail is planned as follows:

Saturday 27th Feb 2016 – Junior sailing is on. o Note: Youth Regatta is also on at IYC – let me know if

interested in participating and I can give you further information.

Saturday 5th of March 2016 – NO LEARN TO SAIL. Catamaran Regatta at PKSC “Katagatta”

Saturday 12th March 2016 – Junior Learn to sail

Saturday 19th March 2016 – Last learn to sail for season. o Note: This is also sailing camp – goes into afternoon

and sleep over at the clubhouse and then Sunday morning. Next week will bring along some flyers and attendance forms.

Regards Hugh Junior Learn to Sail Instructor


NEXT DUTY WEEK 5th & 6th March 2016 Katagatta Regatta

Response Boat Duty:- Volunteers Canteen Duty:- Week 1 plus volunteers

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Insight, plus hindsight, equals foresight.

-RUSSELL MURPHY

Till next Newsletter

Gail Your Newsport Editor

[email protected]

PKSC News Desk

mailto:[email protected]

po box 388 port kembla sailing club figtree 2525 ph: 4271 ......newsport editor delegates weekly...

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