Hi Everyone Well Christmas is really just around the corner I cant believe another year nearly over but vat least it was at least for us queenslanders an improvement on 2020 but lets face it that wouldnt be hard . 2021 allowed some of our adults to travel and sail and it also allowed some of our Youth sailors the opportunity to compete in local and state regattas unlike 2020 . My only regret for the year was that I couldnt be with the Youth group for both midwinter cup and Youth week due to illness but Iam definitely going to be behind them when Jade , Daniel and Ross head for Yepoon in a few weeks time and we wish them luck and happy sailing and even though we cant physically be there Charlie and I will be watching from the wings ..
8.30 am Sunday Juniors :
Even though it was a bit chilly early sunday always looked like being another great day with blue skies and yes even early wind which is a definite change from previous weeks so everyone was soon out rigging boats with the odd help from parents and instructors . We soon were ready for briefing and despite some trepidation Taylah had a go in front of the class , yes she did have notes and also me standing beside her with helpful prompts . The only unfortunate side to the windy conditions were that the wind was westerly and shifty but with charlie and jason combining they soon had a course set and then reset as the wind started to favour n/w . All the bic sailors couldnt wait to get out there because they finally had wind to really get going andd even Reece in a Tera was right on their heels . Taylah and I stayed in the shallows launching people and Jade took on three juniors in a Tera teaching tacking then sailing out in front of the club , they must have been having fun because all I could hear was laughing although Taylah said she thinks they were laughing because they were taking turns getting hit on the helmet with the boom ? There was some trouble early with people having to be towed but once Charlie and i herded everyone up to the buoys they were just cruising and enjoying some good gusts which even had the teras cruising on the reach .
10.30 am Youth Group:
After some conversations between fathers and children the week before about who was the better sailor it was decided during the week that for fathers day we would have a father child challenge so with some trepidation a few fathers dusted off their sailing gear from twenty years ago and took up the challenge to sailing against their kids . As you can imagine all our youth group and some of the juniors were soon out on the water and heading to a start line down at the channel south of the club . Even my boat was out as Andrew complained that it wasnt fair as he had nan old boat so I gave him mine and yes it didnt help Abby still beat him we even had charlie out there as he couldnt resist the challenge . Unfortunately mother nature wasnt helpful with the wind virtually dying out half way up the first lap so from then on it was a struggle especially for a couple of dads who sailed club boats as they were both leaking and finally had to be towed home . The funniest part as usual involved charlie who while trying to cover abby heading for the finish line capsized while tacking twice but he still managed to beat her over the finish line and of course stood up while going over the line and saluted the crowd while Harvey gave him the finish hooter so all in all lots of fun and we will definitely do it again next year and hopefully have the leaks fixed in the club boats !
1.30 pm Open Racing :
With a good fleet of 12 boats including Bics rigging on the shore but with still light winds from the N/N/E at around 2/4 knots I decided to set a start near runners with a upwind buoy slightly in the sailing zone mainly because the outgoing current was roaring then a rounding buoy up near the port mark near the canal then a down wind back to the start line buoy buy as it always is with mother nature as soon as we got back out for the start luckily the wind shifted N/E and came up to around 6/8 knots setting up a perfect upwind start so yes you guessed it everyone was so keen that four boats broke the start and a recall was called but this time everyone behaved with Talyah right up the front just like her brother the week before . Greg did his usual away we go and looked to have a clear lead but then Steve appeared in the lead with a lucky wind lift and Greg couldnt peg him back . Tom was also doing well but yep he hit the sandbank and capsized alllowing everyone to get in front with Chris coming home third . In the bics it was a great race between Jade and Daniel who is really improving especially his upwinds buy Jade just sails away on the downwinds finally crossing the line 26 seconds in front of Daniel so two very p[roud coaches watching both of them improving weekly.
UPCOMING
Yepoon 20/9/2021
Holiday sailing Camps starting on the 20/9/2021
October long weekend we are closed
XMAS PARTY 19 December
CU on the water
J Murphy
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