Greenwich Flying Squadron

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there will be no racing in the combined club’s West Harbour Winter Series until after the 9^th of July. Balmain Sailing Club will remain closed and the BSC’s Friday Afternoon Series is also postponed.

Sailing Australia has updated their NSW COVID-19 Information Page and will continue to update the information as new information is published by the NSW Government – https://www.sailingresources.org.au/covid-19/nsw/

 The following restrictions now apply and must be adhered to by all community sport and recreation groups across Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour:

Face Masks

The following rules and restrictions now apply regarding the wearing of face masks –

a)  A person must wear a fitted face covering over both their nose and mouth while in any indoor area of non-residential premises; and

b)  A person must wear a fitted face covering over both their nose and mouth while attending a COVID-safe outdoor gathering or controlled outdoor public gathering.

This applies to all persons in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour, as well as any persons who were in any of these Greater Sydney areas in the previous 14 days.

Removing Face Masks:

a)  A person may remove a face mask if the person is engaging in strenuous physical activity.

b)  The person must resume wearing the face mask as soon as practical after the strenuous physical activity ends.

Capacity limits:

An occupier of a premises must ensure the number of persons on the premises does not exceed the greater of;

• 1 person per 4 square metres of space or
• 25 persons

A reminder to all members that Membership renewals are due by 30 June. This is particularly important for skippers and crew actively racing in our winter racing series. Australian Sailing top-up personal injury insurance coverage lapses as at 1 July.  Additionally, yachts sailing with unfinancial crew may be subject to disqualification if involved in a protest. It is also important for all full members who may wish to exercise their voting rights at the upcoming July 13 Annual General Meeting, during which ratification of a new Constitution for the Club will be voted on. Current voting entitlements lapse as at July 1 when the new season fees fall due. A direct link to the renewals page is here https://members.gfs.org.au/ .

During renewal, some members may get a browser message advising the site connection is not secure. We’re working on a fix but for the moment please disregard this warning and proceed.  It results from our system using a valid security module but one whose age is too old for FireFox/Chrome to consider current.

We are in the process of rebuilding our membership system so that more recent versions of the security module are compatible with it, but it was not ready in time for us to use during this season’s renewal period.

If you remain disinclined to accept this risk, please give Chris Gaskell (mob 0432018081) a call and he will make alternate arrangements to accept your CC transaction over the phone.

New Racing Rules of Sailing apply from January 1, 2021. Every year, at the Conference of World Sailing, improvements and amendments are made to the racing rules. They are re-published every 4 years.

If you are new to racing, comparing what the rules were to what they are now will be of little interest. Simply download the new rule book and either purchase a book or visit a website which explains the rules.

Download – 2021-2024 Racing Rules of Sailing ‘Blue Book’ with Australian Sailing Prescriptions –   https://www.sailingresources.org.au/class-assoc/racing-rules/

The following link is to a listing of important changes in the order they appear in the ‘new’ rule book with the more significant in red. The attachment is more relevant for sailors who have been racing for a while. Download – RRS Changes

As usual there are many small changes aimed at making the rules easier to understand or less ambiguous. There are also some changes that affect the way we play the game of sailing.

The International Sailing Federation has changed its name again and is now known as ‘World Sailing’.

Please save the date – Saturday May 29.

The prize presentation will be held at the clubhouse from 1430 hrs.

Finger food will be provided.

Race 1 of the West Harbour Winter Series is this Sunday May 9 (for those of you lucky enough to escape Mothers’ Day duties).

The number of entrants in the 2021 West Harbour Winter Series is currently an impressive 65.

After much consideration, there will be  four relatively large divisions with the aim being to create competitive racing amongst boats with closely related performance characteristics.

Performance Handicapping will be the default system, however for those wishing to compete on a measurement basis, we will be processing results for those boats with an ORC Certificate.

Please see the List of Competitors by Division for Race 1 of the West Harbour Winter Series.

If you intend racing and your boat is not on the list, please Enter Now.

The Sailing Instructions and Course Maps are now online.

Please enjoy this 9^th edition of the West Harbour Winter Series and sail safely.

Congratulations to Peter Hamilton and crew with Red Williams’ first place in the Sail Port Stephens Commodores Cup series non-spinnaker division.

Red William

Also congratulations to Rob Hale and crew on Jackpot – 1st in Performance Cruising Division 1 and John Veale and crew on Hasta La Vista 3rd in Performance Cruising Division 3. Koko were unlucky to be relegated to 4th in Division 2 Performance Cruising on a count back.

Well done also to the Tana crew for first place in Division 3 Performance Cruising Race 3.

Check the GFS Facebook page for some excellent pictures of GFS participants in the event.

Once again the West Harbour Winter Series is being organised by Balmain Sailing Club.

Please note that dates published in the GFS program have been changed and are now –

9 May

23 May

6 June

20 June

4  July

18 July

1 August

Details and entry is via the links below –

Notice of Race for the 2021 West Harbour Winter Series

The dates have been updated since my previous email so that there will be no sailing on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

Please see the link to the current list of entrants.

If you intend racing and your boat is not on the list, please Enter Now.

The Sail Port Stephens 2021 Regatta is scheduled for 19-25 April and several GFS yachts have entered the series.

The event website is https://www.sailportstephens.com.au/ where you can keep up with results in the various races.

GFS entries are –

We wish them luck in their various races

Down Harbour Race 8 results have now been adjusted to reflect the actual finish times. This may have also affected the final standings.

We thank Joe Walsh Rigging for the ongoing support of this series.

Winners were; Blue – Koko, White – Adrenaline and Red – Joka. Well done.

Conditions look positive for Twilight Autumn Race 9 tonight.

Click to enlarge

Sandra, wife of Brian Carrick a long standing GFS member recently passed away after a long battle with Scleroderma.

Sandra’s funeral service will be held at the Camellia Chapel, Macquarie Park Crematorium on Thursdat April 1 at 10.30am.

This week we are posting a report written by Colin Wiley, who sails Naughty Call in Gold division:

Gold, Gold, Gold to the Gold division with it regular strong fleet numbers and very competitive racing.   Last Wednesday race was a great example, with not even the very wet and cool conditions deterring entries, 14 yachts lined up for the start and the manoeuvring behind the start line at the start is not for the faint hearted with the combinations of the heavier Robertson 950, the lighter Young 88, Sydney 32 and the nimble Etchells, Adams 10 and Fareast 28.

The first 5 boats finished within a minute of each other with the rest of the fleet close behind. Humbug was it usual cruel self with the lead and lower places changes.  The fleet is fairly equally balanced across a wide range of wind conditions, with anyone getting a clean start likely to hold their place up front of the pack for the race.   But one bad tack, or miss read of the wind shift or tide can quickly see you looking at an increase in the number the transom in front of you.

The Division has developed a strong friendly and competitive atmosphere during and after racing.   There have also been some great photos on Facebook of the fleet in actions. – many thanks to those who upload the photos.

Thanks Colin.  As usual we wish to thank our Course Setters, Geoff Lucas and David Edmiston, and our Starters, Hugh Vaughan and James Curr.  

Keep sailing and stay safe!

Nick Murphy

We would like to thank all our sponsors, Yachtworks, Sydney 4×4, Back Vintage Wines, Helly Hansen, Joe Walsh Rigging, Doyle-MacDiarmid Sails, Robert Oatley Wines and Zjoosh.   Please support them and mention GFS when you make a purchase.  

Sunday March 21 a new skill.

With conditions predicted to worsen this afternoon the decision was made to abandon today’s race.

Stay safe