Author Archive
Henry Larkings and Miles Davey have become National Champions in the 29er Class after a count-back beating current World Champion Tom Crockett and World Women’s Champion Annabelle Davies who were 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The 2017 29er Championships were held at the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron between January 2 and 8. Henry and Miles sailing DAMO finished the 16 race series on equal points with Crockett and 13 ahead of third place.
Miles first learned to sail 7 years ago as a GFS Sabot junior as did his sister Andrea and older brother James. Miles father Brian is a regular Twilight competitor with his Beneteau First 27.7, Amateau.
Henry was a previous State Sabot Champion representing Lane Cove Sailing Club.
Henry and Miles with their 29er National Champions trophy.
The State and National titles for Endeavour 24, 26 and 27 yachts will be held on Saturday January 21 and Sunday 22 January.
The titles will be hosted by Drummoyne Sailing club on courses which will possibly impact on our courses for Saturday Summer Race 5.
As a welcome to 2017, the strong Saturday winds continued.
The course (60) chosen to avoid contact with the tanker started from the deck and proved successful as only the tail-enders had to avoid the tanker as it departed from Gore Cove.
Welcome to Eisen Laing and crew in Clovelly Pacific and apologies that the results placed them in the incorrect division. These will be adjusted.
In Blue Division 1 the Etchells Eggshells (pictured) and Foxy had a great day on the water fending off Irukandji despite their best efforts with a huge overpowered asymmetrical kite. At the finish the three were separated by less than a minute. Spinnaker runs were a challenge with both Irukandji and Blue Chip spearing off in a variety of directions. Generally the fleet were close on the water all finishing within about 7 minutes. Jester sailed well in the strong wind to be third on handicap behind Eggshells and Foxy.
In Green Division 2 a depleted fleet kept relatively close all afternoon. Clovelly Pacific led for most of the race grabbing the lead soon after the start. Paca and StarElan battled closely on the water and Dreamer wound up to return back behind Clovelly Pacific. StarElan broke away from Paca to finish third. Provisional handicap results to Flair from StarElan and Paca.
Passion sailors Kevin Phillips and David Edmiston finished 1st (Kevin) and 3rd (David) in the Laser National Championships in the Great Grand Master Division.
The nationals were sailed at Adelaide Sailing Club between December 31 and January 4. The Laser Nationals Event Website is here.
Ausreo (Caliban II) is also a competitor in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race this year.
GFS member Ian Creak in Calliban II has contested 2 previous races (2013 and 2014).
The crew includes Jim Lelliott as sailing master, Brett Haywood and ‘Balmain local’ David Stenhouse.
We wish them fair winds and good luck in the race.
Previous GFS Commodore Martin Sheppard who races with his brother Derek on their Beneteau 45, in a pre race interview stated that their yacht ‘Black Sheep, hasn’t thrown in the towel yet. There are lots of variables. You have to keep the crew together, the boat together. We’re still a long way out. I still feel like a kid before Christmas.’
Derek Sheppard, Martin Sheppard, Matt Allen (President Sailing Australia) and Paul Clitheroe iterviewed at the CYCA
Follow the race here
I believe Ralph Pickering and his son Angus are also sailing on Ariel a Beneteau First 40.
The planned GFS cruise to Echo Point in Middle Harbour has been moved from the Christmas New Year break until Easter Saturday and Sunday of the New Year.
The restaurant at the marina is closed between Christmas and New Year but will be open at Easter.
More details will be posted nearer to the event.
After the preceding wet Friday Summer Race 3 was sailed in warm sunny conditions albeit with a failing breeze and huge run-out tide. A shortened course saved the pain of having to negotiate Humbug against the torrent on the way to the finish.
Jackpot (pictured) is sailing in the Sydney- Hobart race and was at the club doing their final inventory, preparation, man overboard drill and crew briefing. Ausreo (Calliban II) representing GFS is also contesting the race. We wish them both a safe and speedy race.
In Blue Division 1 Chloe led the way in the shifty conditions winning on the water and handicap by a considerable margin. Forte Forever finished ahead of Blue Chip on the race through the computer to grab the minor places.
In Green Division 2 Flair made a fabulous start led at the Compass mark held on to the leaders at Goat and were then swallowed by the tide. Hasta La Vista took the lead after catching up to the early leaders – Velocity and Speedwell. Paca again sailed an excellent race to be up with the leaders and finish second on the water ahead of Velocity. Handicap results to Hasta from Paca and Speedwell.
I wish all Saturday competitors a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday break and look forward to resuming the Summer Series on January 7, 2017.
Again the wind prediction was off the mark with the expected light winds developing into stronger guts which occasionally reached 20 knots. Wind shifts added to the challenge.
Irukandji powered away from the fleet in Blue Division 1, leaving the rest of the fleet in its wake. The Etchells, Chloe and Foxy were able to gain the upper hand through the computer to overtake Irukandji on handicap.
In Green Division 2 the fleet powered away from Flair with Paca firstly challenging Hasta La Vista and then Gwhizz took up the challenge. Umzimkulu II sailed an excellent race to finish ahead of Paca and Hasta La Vista on handicap.
Again, I need to remind all competitors that the area between the Red Channel Marker (Beacon Buoy) and Spectacle Island is a prohibited area – see Sailing Instruction 25 n for an explanation.
A great day on the water albeit with short courses which were called as a result of the BOMs wind prediction for Sydney with 10kts and falling breeze. Sadly the actual conditions didn’t comply. As it was it took around 2 hours for most boats in Blue and White Divisions to complete the race.
The arrival of the tanker also presented an unknown as to when it would make it through the congested harbour after its scheduled arrival time at the Heads. Fortunately, Red Division remained ahead of it and the remainder of the fleet followed it through the narrows to its berth at Gore Cove.
Thanks to Harvey Porter for manning the start, recording the finish and entering the results with the regular starters competing in the Greenwich Games.
It seemed to be fairly close on the water in all divisions with handicap results in Blue to Hasta La Vista from Blue Chip (pictured) and StarElan. In White the Etchells had the upper hand with Chloe on the water and handicap from Eggshells and Forte Forever. In Red Wind Charmer powered away to be back ahead and with Paca shared the placings on handicap.
Roads and Maritime Services are running flare disposal days at various venues in January 2017.
The program for Sydney area is below.
Details are available on the RMS website or here.
There is a commercial enterprise called Spot A Yacht which takes photos of yachts. You can search on your sail number and purchase the image if you wish.
The link is https://www.spotayacht.com.au/
Sunny skies and a busy day on the water with the regular Laser and Flying 11s from Lane Cove, Hartley TS16s from Drummoyne and added to this the MHYC 7 Islands Race and heats of the NSW State Cherub Titles from DSC. If this was not enough in the windy conditions a tanker arrived to berth in Gore Cove.
For Course 18, I had the starters move the Goat Buoy mark over towards Ballast Point as I was aware of the arrival of the tanker. Please be aware that this location may be used again in the future.
Also, please understand that there are some areas which are deemed prohibited areas for GFS races – all skippers should be aware of these – read SI 25 (n). If you do not comply you have not sailed the course and should not be recorded as a finisher. It is up to the integrity of the skipper and crew to sail fairly within the Racing Rules of Sailing and the modifications imposed by our Sailing Instructions.
The handicaps for the Summer Series were recalculated and based on averages calculated from actual performance during the Spring Series. With blended divisions this season handicapping has proved difficult.
Standout performances in Summer Race 1 were Solitude (pictured) and StarElan both of which mastered the windy conditions, congestion and other GFS competitors to be back first in their respective divisions.
Even though the Sailing Program had Spring Race 8 on November 19 only 6 races were sailed in the series which resulted in the final point score only dropping one race. In both divisions the series results were closely contested.
Spring Race 8 was sailed in cloudy conditions with occasional bursts of sunshine. The wind was flukey and shifted from dead south to east-southeast and maybe reached 12 knots.
Course 26 made for an interesting decision just after the start as to which way to pass Cockatoo Island on the way to Snapper.
In Blue Division 1 Irukandji powered away on the water and were chased all the way by Blue Chip and Chloe. Spinnaker runs were again difficult. Handicap result was Chloe, Blue Chip and Irukandji. Series a well-deserved win to Blue Chip from Chloe and Foxy.
In Green Division 2 Velocity and Dreamer escaped early and sailed in the wrong division. Flair made a good start and soon were swamped by the rest of the fleet. Gwhizz took the low side of Cockatoo and led the fleet from Snapper to the finish. Speedwell, Umzimkulu II and Paca were close and swapped positions. StarElan left early leaving Flair to discover parts of the course which had no wind whatsoever. Umzimkulu recorded a good win in the race and in the series from Paca.
As a result of the Extreme Sailing Regatta from December 8 to 11 GFS Down Harbour Race 4 has been moved to Saturday December 3.
Saturday Summer Race 2 will consequently now be on Saturday December 10.
Although the Extreme sailing event has been moved to the northern side of the harbour in the vicinity of RSYS, the expected spectator fleet may restrict our race.
The following week December 15 to 18 is the Sail Sydney Regatta with various classes contesting events on several harbour locations.
For details regarding Extreme Sailing follow this link https://www.extremesailingseries.com/events/view/australia
and for Sail Sydney https://websites.sportstg.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-9990-0-0-0
Contrary to the weather report the race was sailed in sunny conditions with a wind around 15kts from a variety of directions E, ENE, N, NE and finally W (after most had finished).The changing wind direction kept crews alert especially on the spinnaker run home.
Although the fleet was somewhat depleted in all divisions the racing was keenly contested. In Blue Division 1 the results at this stage are provisional depending on the outcome of a protest over an incident at the start. However, Flashback and Irukandji had a good on water tussle and it was only at the end of the run home that Flashback was able to establish a good margin, Tana sailed a good race to be back third. Hasta La Vista has now been added as they were initially missed in the results. Tana took the handicap result from Hasta La Vista and then Monkey Business (revised).
In White Division 2 Solitude stole a march on the others and with Jester led the Etchells, although Eggshells was only a few seconds behind Jester at the end. It seemed a good day to have an asymmetrical kite. Handicap result to Eggshells from Foxy and Solitude.
In Red Division 3 Wind Charmer led from the start and established a good lead on the way to and from Shark. Umzimkulu and Joka had a good race trading places before Joka pulled away to finish behind Wind Charmer and ahead of Umzimkulu which also was the handicap result.
