Hi Everyone,
Only 1 month until Christmas and the club is busily working its way to a well deserved break from the 22nd of December until Saturday the 4th of January. During this period members will be able to gain access to their boats by notifying me what day and time they expect to be at the club and I will organise with Phil the caretaker to make sure the club is open and the alarm is off.

There will be no Sunday Juniors on the 29th of December due to the Christmas break.
Dont forget the club Christmas Party that will start after the
Try sailing activities , probably around 2.00 pm .

 
8.30 am Juniors:
Sunday dawned very humid and sunny with light winds of around 6-9 knots from the west and with 7 boats on the water it made for some exciting sailing amongst the learners with near misses and minor collisions the order of the day. There were a few times where some of our newest captains got a bit lost out there (Abbey forgot where the pizza was?) and did the usual sail in circles but even they managed to steer in straight lines. The stand out on the day was Jasmine (yes another one) who had her first go on her own and did very well I think she has the making of a great sailor.

Lastly thanks to Andrew how took over rescue boat duties due to Aidan not being available and Pieter Verstoep driving the Rescue 1 crewed by Charlie B.

10.30 am Juniors:
Again a good rollup for the second session with more race course practice and then 4 lap racing. The standouts on the day were Dallas, India, Callum, Corey, Luka & Xavier who won his first race and it was also his birthday so great timing Xavier (tasty cupcakes too !). The conditions were slightly stronger in this session but still N/W with the gusts catching a few people out at the Gybe mark especially for those who let go of the steering. Jonah has decided that he shouldn’t get up at 4am to play games because it makes you tired at sailing and yawning and gybing at the same time result in a swim!

Open Bic:
By the time we got on the water the weather conditions were starting to look decidedly stormy but we still managed to get a few races in from the club to the canal south of the club. There was a new challenge for everyone on Sunday and that was to sail out to a buoy and touch the buoy with the bow of their boat then sail away. This is always a challenge as you guessed it the buoy is in the middle of the now sail zone , but hats off to Charlie B who went straight out and touched the buoy and then waited for everyone else to do the same. These manoeuvres are part of boat control at the start line (stopping and starting). They down side of the session was Dylan (CT) and Sienna trying to sing again! still no harmony guys you even scared the dolphins away.

Open Racing;
With a few of the boys back from Manly there was a fleet of 12 boats at the start line with winds around 12 knots but variable due to the ever encroaching storm clouds which made for good racing as you had to be careful where you went as there were holes out there. As usual the broadwater power boat section was out there with some doing the right thing but others not! not sure what goes on there as the rules are the same for everyone no matter how big their boat is.

The race finished as the worst of the storm approached with thunder and lightning just starting as everyone finished. The of course once we finished and everyone got off the water the sun came back out go figure must be summer!

Finish order:
1 Peter F
2 Maurie M
3 Andrew T

Cu on the water

John Murphy

President/Sailing manager

Paradise Point Sailing Club

Gold Coast Qld 4216

Mob 0407 145397

Hi Everyone,
Another week closer to Christmas I hope everyone is gearing up for a good break.

The sailing committee had its first meeting with the Pan Pac Games people yesterday with a combined sport meeting also taking place next Friday with all the sports involved in the 2014 games. It will be great for the team to meet other groups who have organised their sports in past games just to give the team hopefully some handy hints. You should see sailing entered on the games website within the next two weeks. We are still looking for volunteers who have some spare time to perhaps take up one of the many roles for next year as we also have our Junior racing program including the mid winter cup and the laser states, just give us a shout as all help will be appreciated.

Sunday Juniors 8.30 am:
Well as usual we had a good turnout for the early session with 12 kids turning up for sailing and again with a few new faces having their first capsize and sail around a nice reaching course in around 4 to 6 knots from the s/e. I was especially impressed with the class session where when asked they knew where the wind was coming from and where the no sailing zone was as well great work everyone. This basic knowledge showed on the water with everyone sailing around with little or no problem making Aidan's job a lot less stressed with just the occasional capsize (Gybing) and a lot of laughing. I spent some time teaching Abbey and Ben how to tack and now she knows where the pizza is when she is tacking around the buoy, great work kids despite a swim or two.

Sunday Juniors 10.30:
Again we had a good roll up for this advanced class with eight boats on the water who I sent out first around a triangle with the hope of them setting their sails right for each leg when racing? Well you can all guess once racing started it was back to pull the sail on! let the sail out! with even a few of the dads getting involved from the shore, it must sound strange to people passing by with all these people yelling the same thing and the looks of confusion coming from the kids on the water. Having said all that it is still great to see everyone out there learning and having fun.

Open Bic Racing:
With several people away we ended up with Michael, Charlie and Sienna at the start line used by the race fleet. Once the open fleet left we gave them a normal start with Charlie managing to get away and Sienna and Michael running into the start boat which wasn’t helped by Michael freaking out Sienna by telling her there were jellyfish in the water (she hates jelly fish) and then pushing her into the start boat. After much drifting and meeting of the anchor chain they were off with Aidan in hot pursuit in the coach boat but there was no catching Charlie who had bolted and never looked like being overhauled, it was a great performance by Charlie who is heading to Port Stephens in January to compete in the States.

Open Racing;
In the open race conditions improved after we set the course with a wind speed increase of around 3 knots which doesn’t sound like much but actually greatly improved the actual time spent on the water to around 1 hour and helped overcome a lot of outgoing tide, it was good to see all the full rigs out there . There was a great gesture out there as well with Maurie feeling embarrassed by being in front of Tom so he did the right thing and capsized on the downwind just so Tom could overtake him, I am sure he appreciates your gesture Maurie???

From what I saw of the racing everyone had a good start but John just slowly got away from Pieter and Roger and finished with a healthy margin (that should improve your points position John)

Finish Positions;

1 John Pring

2 Pieter Verstoep

3 Roger Margot

Finally don’t forget to get the word out there for the Try sailing plus fundraiser plus Club Xmas Party on the 15th Dec (members sailors and guests)

 

C U on the water

John Murphy

President/Sailing manager

P.P.S.C.

Hi Everyone,

This is going to be a big week for news as I have to make up for last week when I hadn’t the time to update everyone.

I have to start things off with the official notification from the Pan Pac Master people that we have been accepted as the host sailing venue for the 2014 Pan/Pac masters. This Event will commence on Friday the 31st of October and run until the 9th of November. As part of this exciting news the club is looking for people to either help at the actual event and we are also looking for people to help out with the sailing committee, to not only help with this major event but to also help with our expanding Junior racing program. If you are interested send us an email with you preferences and we will catch up and have a chat (don’t call as I will probably forget).

Club News:
Despite some ordinary weather the clubs numbers in Juniors is steadily increasing which is great to see as sailing is a sport for life.We have also just completed 5 days of sailing with Benowa state high school and what a great bunch they were, there was a lot of capsizing, swimming, drifting, collisions. But in amongst all that there emerged some potential sailors which we have invited back for our Try Sailing Fundraiser on the 15th if December. With Try Sailing I believe that David (web guru) has posted the flyer so where possible can you pass it on to your schools and general community. 
Don't forget the parent and child races they should be fun!

The Club will be operating up until Sunday the 22nd of December and Re opening on Saturday the 4th January 2014

Sunday Juniors:
With ever increasing numbers in our early class and great weather last Sunday we had around 20 children attending with nearly half of them having their first try , I have to thank Charlie, Dylan, Harrison and Sienna who all came down early and either helped on the beach or took people sailing, thats what its all about kids helping others! I was very proud of you all.

The previous Sunday was affected by early windy conditions which forced me to cancel sailing for a great proportion of new sailors at 8.30 but those who we thought could handle the changeable conditions went out and had a fast sail and some crashes and capsizes.

Sunday Juniors 10.30:
With weather conditions settling on Sunday week and 9 juniors turning up for the session we had some initial training followed by off the beach racing which was a great spectacle from the shore with everyone trying hard to out do everyone else for speed and control. There were some interesting returns to the beach after each race as people were keen to get the best start position for the next race so they forgot about pointing into the wind to stop (right Nick) resulting in some crashes. Last Sunday we only had 6 starters and the conditions were light so there was a lot of jockeying at the start line and with Sienna not being able to race in the BIC's due to party commitments taking part and showing the rest of the fleet how to time the starts (we wont mention the 1 boat length over in one race !!!)  I believe also that young Jonah had his first race win as well although he still needs to look at the luff more (right dad?)

Open Bic Racing:
Each week we  getting consistent numbers with some of the Junior racers having to use the club Tera as we only have four BIC's and around 8 sailors who want to race. On both weekends the racing has been pretty intense but with that same old problem rearing its head when people try to get around a mark and not taking into account the tide and also wind (remember guys and girls NO SAIL ZONE AND MOST IMPORTANT BOAT SPEED). Aidan said you all finally got it but it took a lot of talking and showing between races on the beach to get you there.

This Sunday past I took everyone out with starts at the club pontoon E/N/E wind with everyone finding the conditions light and shifty so looking at the sail was imperative as was evident by people either pulling their sails on too far or not enough. There was a great deal of instruction front the pontoon about these issues with everyone starting to get it towards the end, again guys and girls BOAT SPEED IS IMPORTANT IN  LIGHT CONDITIONS. There were a few minor collisions mainly due to people (Luka) not looking before they turn and also drifting into each other. I did see though some encouraging signs in regards to Dylan and Charlie with both of them when focused understanding the conditions and what was needed to keep their boats going. I will be starting a separate training session for both these boys as part of their lead up to The National titles in January, hopefully I will have some time soon which will include team sailing, sail trim, boat trim and rigging. Let me know if there is anyone else interested.

Open Race:
Sunday week saw a small fleet on the Broadwater with good winds but a screaming outgoing tide, the racing went on for two hours yes two hours with only 4 seconds separating Pieter Verstoep and Andrew Todd at the end, now thats what I call great racing in tough conditions. The only problem on the day was the influx of both boat and jetski drivers? who didn’t seem to have a clue where the channel was or the give way rules. Last Sunday saw the return of Maurie, Chris James, John P and Trish and the inclusion of Jason and Justin to the fleet and with two races on the day it was an interesting race especially with the brewing storms which saw Ted shorten the second race due to lightning strikes. The wind was light and variable but you could see the change coming so it was safety first which I heard no complaints about, it only lasted half an hour then the sun came back out but by that time everyone was in relax mode.

Results

Race 1   Chris C, Peter F, John P

Race 2 Jason, Chris C, James b

Holiday Camps: The Christmas School Holiday Camps and Training days begin on Monday 16th Dec and run through to Friday 24th January 2014 check the website for details. We now also have a Facebook page and Twitter page attached to our website so feel free to use it .

Catch U on the water next weekend !

Late news it has been rumoured that George Morton has brought a laser now we will see some speed !!!

John Murphy

President/Sailing manager

Paradise Point Sailing Club

Gold Coast Qld 4216

Mob 0407 145397