Hi Everyone , Yes its certainly getting a bit chilly these days early in the morning but as the sun comes up the days are just perfect with blue skies light to moderate winds . Ok the water is a bit on the cool side as all the 8.30 Juniors keep telling me but as I always say if you just jump in your boat instead of standing there complaining about how cold the water is you will be fine !
8.30 am Sunday Juniors ;
As it usually is nearly every Sunday we had a few new sailors trying out for the first time and trying to figure out what all these other kids are doing . With the help of Dallas , Casey and Charlie both sailing and crewing the safety boats we set of with a group of 17 sailors in w/n/w winds around 4/6 knots . It was perfect conditions to set a long course across the water in front of the club so that everyone could get a long stretch to both steer and crew . Even the first timers had a go under the watchful eye of their Instructors even if it was only for a short burst .
Generally everyone performed well even when the wind lifted to around 5/8 knots and became a bit gusty , it is truly amazing seeing people like Taine , Charlie , Mason , Ava , Addy and Hado just quickly adjusting to the change in conditions and start ripping around the course .
10.30 am Sunday Juniors ;
With the winds building from the west with the occassional south then north shift at around 8 knots with gusts up to 15 knots which at times were quite vicious our group of Bic and Laser sailors really did excell themselves starting with Cody who despite 6 capsizes ( in board shorts !!!) kept getting his laser up and going again , I have to say great effort mate 
Hado being so small just didnt have the weight or strength and Dallas jumped in and sailed the Bic to shore , Kaled had the same difficulties and finally went back in after about 45 minutes but Jonah and Alex just revelled in the conditions with plenty of hiking out and speed reaches . There were definitely a couple of grinning boys back on shore at the end how just had a great time Alex even let the main sheet out faster resulting in a lot more control and speed right Alex?
Open Racing 1.30 pm ;
With only a small group of sailors mainly our 4.7 sailors plus Ben who was having a loan of my laser and winds out of the N/E at around 8/10 KNOTS with an outgoing tide it was still a hotly contested start with both Charlie and Dallas over early and having to dip back but Casey and Brendan and Ben getting a clear start . It was soon evident that First place would be between Casey and Dallas who swapped the lead and generally chased each other around the course which was both in our channel and the soverign channel with Dallas just pipping Casey at the finish with Ben third in a radila followed by Charlie the Brendan who continues to improve each week well except for sailing straight onto the sand back and then falling out twice ! at least it was after the finish.
Volunteers ; Thanks again to Trina and Loraine for running the canteen without you generous donation of your time we wouldnt be able to offer those jam danish,s and coffee  and apparently the apple juice poppers were a great hit as well 
Are we still looking for volunteers ? HELL YES so if you can spare an hour or so just let the girls in the canteen know .
Club Membership ; Great to see all the applications for Junior associate members of the club being presented on Sunday it really does show support for your sailing club .

CU on the water
​John Murphy

Hi Everyone , Int the middle of winter supposedly ? but have you seen the days absolutely great even if the last couple of nights with the S/Westerly have been a bit cool . My nephew rang from Victoria to tell me that when he left for work at 7 am it was minus 4 degrees now thats cold .
8.30 Sunday Juniors ;
With actually a mild morning and blue skies it was shaping up to a great day on the water and with our usual dozen hardy sailors rocking up including a couple of newbies we set everyone off in around 3/5 knots . Where was the wind coming from ? well the group decided it was from the N/W so we launched the boats and of course it went S/E which meant the bridge came into play as people forgot to tack ! at the bridge mark so Casey and I had  a bit of under bridge towing practice and also instruction on how to sail out from under the bridge . All in all it was a great sailing session with everyone getting practice in tacks and gybes in the near perfect conditions , now all we need is a few more knots wind .
10.30 Sunday Juniors ;
Unfortunately the group in this session has dropped off of late ? we arent sure why maybe its the cold weather . The only hardy sailor was Abbey who was keen to go out on her Laser and learn more so we set her radial yes radial sail nice and stiff and sent her off in about 5 knots where she promptly capsized and then had a lesson on Laser capsize recovery which took a big effort but she struggled a bit with the radial . We set off again and this time in the gusts she let off the main and stayed upright . Good work Abs under that tough instructor .
Open Racing 1.30 pm :
With the winds settling in from the S/E at around ten knots i set a combination of two windward leeward and two triangles set quite long . It was great to watch as John T Peter F and Tom battled for the lead through the 1.5 hr race with John just coming out on top after a couple of short changes of lead during the race . At the end you could have virtually thrown a blanket of them they were so close to each other .
 Casey held the flag in the youth as the rest of her group apparently couldnt be bothered sailing in perfect conditions which didnt go down too well with the coach !!!
There is also a rumour that Ollie,s dad Ben might be racing lasers this weekend !
Upcoming ;
We will be having a maintenance day soon so if you can paint , nail lift and generally clean up let us know .
Our annual Try Sailing Day which includes a fund raiser for the Gold Coast Uni Hospital is on in early december then a week later we will be holding our annual Xmas Party at a venue to be decided . 
WHERE,S THE YEAR GONE ?

CU on the water
​John Murphy

Hi Everyone , It seems that more people are starting to read our news letter as I am getting a lot more comments from everyone on Sundays which is great with more people wanting to catch up with whats been happening and whats is happening in the future .
8.30 am Sunday Juniors ;
With beautiful blue skies it was a great start to Sunday but unfortunately mother nature was a bit light on the wind with only around 1/3 knots variable for when the kids hit the water . With a couple of new sailors having their first go ( thanks Dallas and Casey ) and the rest just keen to get more sailing time we set everyone off out the front with 1 knot of wind and an outgoing tide . Tain had his first solo sail and we just couldnt get the grin off his face and Charlie and Ava sailed together with Ava helping Charlie learning how to steer ( great work Ava!!! ) Mason and Ollie did a lot of drifting and joined in in a couple of the drifting collisions but still managed to get some slow sailing in and finally hado and Addy just cruised around in the Bics which being lighter than the Teras struggled less than the Teras in gaining some boat speed .
10.30 am Suunday Juniors :
With Abby having her boat already rigged and with a bit of prompting from Dad and me she set of out the front of the club with Casey in hot persuit in Rescue 1 just in case she needed a tow in the average 1 knot conditions which as you guessed it finally died away to virtually nothing but Abbey did managed to sail to shore I think with a bit of coaching from Casey . What did everyone else do ? well they stayed home !
Open Racing 1.30 pm ;
With at first no wind then around 12.15 a slight breeze coming in from the e/s/e Aidan ( yes Aidan remember him he used too race and also run racing until life got too busy ! ) and I decided on just setting a windward leeward from the canal to runners as we thought with all the holes in the light breeze taht we would probably end up shortening the course and towing everyone home but you guessed it the wind build to around 4/5 knots so first boat home was in 45minutes being Peter Fell with Tom and Roger taking the placings . In 4.7 Dallas came in first with Casey after and bad start second . Brendan has swapped to Radial as the 4.7 was just to slow for his size and he is now definitely sailing better with a bit more power to suit his size .
Bunnings Barbeque 8th july ;
Thank you to Glen , Tish, Addy , Brendan ,Trisha  ,Adriian and Kerry for your awesome effort guys we couldnt have had such a great result financially with out your help . How much did we raise on the day ? $1.270 .00 which goes to more safety gear for our sailors and volunteers .

CU on the water
​J Murphy

Hi Everyone , With winter settling in generating brisk mornings but generally mild days its why we can sail all year round on the Gold Coast so how lucky are we all we have to do now is convince more people to learn to sail and enjoy the lifestyle .
8.30 Sunday Juniors :
With the Gold Coast marathon closing our road access on Sunday morning we only had a small group of 9 keen sailors signing up for the lesson . As usual Addy was the first to arrive and once her Bic was rigged of she went to help elsewhere , great effort Addy! We set a simple course as the wind was light and variable but I have to say everyone managed to addapt to the changing wind conditions and me and Charlie constantly moving the buoys around ! Ava and Charlie just cruised with lots of smiling and laughter while the rest of the crew followed along . There was not a lot of excitement mainly because the wind didnt get past 3/5 knots so even Tain didnt fall out !
10.30 Sunday Juniors :
With Abby busting to try out her laser and the wind settling to the S/E around 4/6 knots we sent everyone of to practice roll tacks and Gybes . There were a few concerned faces at first with me telling everyone when to change sides which is much later than they are used too but as I explained first this manouvre is to help generate speed in light winds by moving the sail through a greater area of wind so we generate more speed ( just too clever right !!!) I have to say that it definitely helped Abby as both her tacking and gybing was much smoother by the end of the session .We rounded of the session by doing a run down to the yellow canal buoy and back a few times with everyone definitely getting s better grip on upwind sailing and went to tack out of a lull right Alex?
Open Racing :
With Peter away Simone can out to help with racing and we set a triangle course consisting of a couple of windward leewards and a couple of triangles in around 6 knots of breeze . With only nine boats at the line it should have been relatively simple but you guessed it we had a general recall but the second time around everyone got away well . With Roger tacking out to the east we thought he would just streak away but as Simone calls him the dark horse in light winds Steve Pudney managed to overtake both Tom and Roger and finish well in front . Dallas got away well and was never really challenged by Casey or Pat but the biggest improvement was for Brendan who is now in a radial which definitely suits his size better and he finished in front of Charlie only just but it was a definite improvement . His Mum and I enjoyed his sailing as well as we got to yell advise to him everytime he rounded the bottom mark .

Upcoming Event:
Bunnings Barbeque this Saturday the 8th of July at Bunnings Arundel . We still need a few volunteers mainly during the middle of the day so if you can spare an hour or so let us know and we will find a spot for you. All the money raised goes to new equipment for our club so its a worthwile cause to get behind .

CU on the water
​J Murphy