Hi everyone yes we are back with our weekly newsletter for 2021 , we were going to start on the 7th of February to line up with the beginning of club racing but I had to travel to sydney for business and to catch up with family now the border is open again . To begin the year I would again like to say thank you on behalf of the club to Charlie, Declan , Abby and greg for their volunteering efforts over the summer holidays because without you people we couldnt have had such a massive success with both camps and school sport sailing between december and january . Each camp had numbers far exceeding our normal numbers and a school group of over seventy students on one day . Both the treasurer ( andrew )and I have also worked behind the scenes to set up ppsc for 2021 with the view to make your club even more successful post covid 19 especially in promoting junior and youth sailing plus we have also worked with our team headed by Tom Bourke at Sports House Sailing at Varsity Lakes which has also seen an increase in sailing since the return from lock down in 2020 and with the increase in numbers we have been supported by Gold Coast City Council with a grant to buy more boats including lasers and in the future Sabots to cater for the increase in its junior numbers .
8.30 am Sunday Juniors ;
Well to start with on sunday the 7th we actually ran out of teras to sail as the group was over 20 sailors but with some many keen sailors there was only one thing missing was WIND !! well there was some wind but it was light and moved all over the compas so eventually most everyone went for a drift down the broadwater so with the help of the guys on the white boat everyone got to have towing practice including abby who was driving sarah c and despite a few innitial hickups soon had the boat in the right places to throw tow lines and drag everyone back up to the club . everyone still seemed to have fun anyway despite the conditions so another sunday juniors ticked off . Then we had last Sunday where we thought we would have roughly the same amount of sailors as the previous sunday and although we did have 13 sailors sign on there were quite a few missing until we realised it was valentines day so I am sure there were more import things to do for a lot of Dad,s . The forecast wasnt looking good and even though it started light we soon had boats in trouble being pushed under the bridge so casey and i yes Casey were kept busy towing boats from under the bridge back to the sailing area and of course the odd capsize . It was probably not the best conditions to give willow her first go on a laser but at least she had taaylah on board to help her out in the gusty bits but even they came in as the wind speed increased .
10.30 am Youth Training :
This group on the previous weekend did manage to get some wind but again it was shifting all over the compas so it was a massive challenge for everyone to successfully sail it . We sent everyone off down to the canal as that was where the wind was well sometimes and even with a briefing on rig set and body positioning its really hard to get a boat goig in such fluky conditions although Taylah did get away for a while but eventually drifted back to abby , mason , Kaia and daniel ah well guys its all experience .
Then there was last Sunday and with Abby ( school assignment ) and Ross ( school team racing ) missing it was only our two Bic sailors in Jade and Daniel plus a very apprehensive Taylah rigged and ready to go . Conditions were becoming Quite windy with gusts of twenty knots followed by 10/12 knots winds so it was definitely going to be hard work but definitely fun . As I knew Jade just took off and had some very fast broad reaches disappearing in the spray as she has definitely sailed in more than that wind before . Taylah had some trouble with power just too much and ended up with a swim and returned to shore where we managed to convince her to go out with Casey and they were soon flying on the broad reaches which is one of caseys favourite angles . Then finally we had Daniel who had never sailed that much wind before so it was a bit wild but finally we noticed him startint to release more main on the breach and was absolutely flying and when I asked him back on the beach if he thought it was awesome fun going that fast I got a massive smile and nod !
1.30 pm Racing :
The first Sunday was definitely a mixed bag as conditions were light around 8 knots when we laid the course so everyone went radial including Abby as it wasnt predicted to go above 12 knots so you know what happened yes it blew eighteen plus so generally everyone was overpowered and struggled upwind well except for Tom who slowly got away from the fleet , the rest of the team struggled with quite a few retirements mainly exhaustion as both the upwind and down wind were punishing . Luckily we had Charlie out on the newly repaired jetski lending a hand to capsized sailors and andreww keeping an eye on abby who after two laps had a bad gybe and retired so all in all a pretty wild afternoon .
Then there was last Sunday and with winds reaching twenty five knots there werent many takers and even the one who turned up were a bit hesitant but like true crazy sailors they decided to give it a go . Charlie and I set a two buoy course with the start in front of the club and a top mark just before Allisee with three one lap races . Race one saw Tom stalled out in the gusts at the start and Casey soon followed while Greg just took off upwind . Casey who sailed radial so was overpowered soon had a capsize but she hasnt lost any of her determination despite 12 months away from racing and was soon off again as was Tom . Everyone was having trouble with the bullets ( up to 35 knots ) and having uncontrolled roundups upwind so it was time to let some vang off and get rid of wind but it was still wild we were evn getting spun around on the start boat in some of the gusts . So what were the down winds like well bloody awesome and these guys made it look easy surfing down the face of waves spray everywhere just awesome to watch !!!.
Upcioming :
School Holiday camps for easter are listed on the website
Mid winter cup 26/27 June
Manly Youth week one week after midwinter cup
Ok thats the first news letter done for this year with many more to come and no mention of things like Ben roake walking into glass doors at the club or Charlie being referred to as a girl at school !!!!
CU on the water
J Murphy
8.30 am Sunday Juniors ;
Well to start with on sunday the 7th we actually ran out of teras to sail as the group was over 20 sailors but with some many keen sailors there was only one thing missing was WIND !! well there was some wind but it was light and moved all over the compas so eventually most everyone went for a drift down the broadwater so with the help of the guys on the white boat everyone got to have towing practice including abby who was driving sarah c and despite a few innitial hickups soon had the boat in the right places to throw tow lines and drag everyone back up to the club . everyone still seemed to have fun anyway despite the conditions so another sunday juniors ticked off . Then we had last Sunday where we thought we would have roughly the same amount of sailors as the previous sunday and although we did have 13 sailors sign on there were quite a few missing until we realised it was valentines day so I am sure there were more import things to do for a lot of Dad,s . The forecast wasnt looking good and even though it started light we soon had boats in trouble being pushed under the bridge so casey and i yes Casey were kept busy towing boats from under the bridge back to the sailing area and of course the odd capsize . It was probably not the best conditions to give willow her first go on a laser but at least she had taaylah on board to help her out in the gusty bits but even they came in as the wind speed increased .
10.30 am Youth Training :
This group on the previous weekend did manage to get some wind but again it was shifting all over the compas so it was a massive challenge for everyone to successfully sail it . We sent everyone off down to the canal as that was where the wind was well sometimes and even with a briefing on rig set and body positioning its really hard to get a boat goig in such fluky conditions although Taylah did get away for a while but eventually drifted back to abby , mason , Kaia and daniel ah well guys its all experience .
Then there was last Sunday and with Abby ( school assignment ) and Ross ( school team racing ) missing it was only our two Bic sailors in Jade and Daniel plus a very apprehensive Taylah rigged and ready to go . Conditions were becoming Quite windy with gusts of twenty knots followed by 10/12 knots winds so it was definitely going to be hard work but definitely fun . As I knew Jade just took off and had some very fast broad reaches disappearing in the spray as she has definitely sailed in more than that wind before . Taylah had some trouble with power just too much and ended up with a swim and returned to shore where we managed to convince her to go out with Casey and they were soon flying on the broad reaches which is one of caseys favourite angles . Then finally we had Daniel who had never sailed that much wind before so it was a bit wild but finally we noticed him startint to release more main on the breach and was absolutely flying and when I asked him back on the beach if he thought it was awesome fun going that fast I got a massive smile and nod !
1.30 pm Racing :
The first Sunday was definitely a mixed bag as conditions were light around 8 knots when we laid the course so everyone went radial including Abby as it wasnt predicted to go above 12 knots so you know what happened yes it blew eighteen plus so generally everyone was overpowered and struggled upwind well except for Tom who slowly got away from the fleet , the rest of the team struggled with quite a few retirements mainly exhaustion as both the upwind and down wind were punishing . Luckily we had Charlie out on the newly repaired jetski lending a hand to capsized sailors and andreww keeping an eye on abby who after two laps had a bad gybe and retired so all in all a pretty wild afternoon .
Then there was last Sunday and with winds reaching twenty five knots there werent many takers and even the one who turned up were a bit hesitant but like true crazy sailors they decided to give it a go . Charlie and I set a two buoy course with the start in front of the club and a top mark just before Allisee with three one lap races . Race one saw Tom stalled out in the gusts at the start and Casey soon followed while Greg just took off upwind . Casey who sailed radial so was overpowered soon had a capsize but she hasnt lost any of her determination despite 12 months away from racing and was soon off again as was Tom . Everyone was having trouble with the bullets ( up to 35 knots ) and having uncontrolled roundups upwind so it was time to let some vang off and get rid of wind but it was still wild we were evn getting spun around on the start boat in some of the gusts . So what were the down winds like well bloody awesome and these guys made it look easy surfing down the face of waves spray everywhere just awesome to watch !!!.
Upcioming :
School Holiday camps for easter are listed on the website
Mid winter cup 26/27 June
Manly Youth week one week after midwinter cup
Ok thats the first news letter done for this year with many more to come and no mention of things like Ben roake walking into glass doors at the club or Charlie being referred to as a girl at school !!!!
CU on the water
J Murphy
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