Palm Beach Sailing Club 2016-2017 Season Opening Sails
The Palm Beach Sailing Club, which has among its sailors 2016 World Champions, Grand Master World Champions, and some really lovely sailors who aren't world champions, has begun its Sailing Season for 2016-2017.
Coming up on their 2016-2017 Calendar are:
Club Championship 24/9
Forster 'Wild Cat' Regatta 1/10
The Beware the Bullets Regatta will run 19th & 20th of November this year.
This great family orientated club is attracting new members. Members race from Sandy Point, Palm Beach and have a great little clubhouse around the corner where after race Barbecues take place or they have teaching/training sessions. When you can learn from the best, why would you miss that opportunity?
People who want to have a try are welcome to get in touch with the club.
Website: www.pbsc.org.au
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/pbscoz
Just reading the reports from some recent sails and races will give you a great idea of what goes on and why the members are smiling pretty much all the time:
What can I say about last Saturdays racing !!!
The first thing would be that I wish those wind gods would get their act together. The Heart Starter was a drifter, the week before last we were blown out by a huge westerly and last Saturday when I left the beach on my H16 one-up it was gusting from the WNW well over 20 knots. It could have been the shortest sail of my career but fortunately it settled down "a little" from time to time. What's wrong with the gods giving up a 15 knot NE for a change !!!Anyway, back to last Saturday !
Firstly a huge thank you to Dick Clarke for setting the course, running the races and providing on course assistance to some of the boats who found them selves in trouble. Also, thank you to Alicia for assisting Dick.
It was fantastic to see even more new faces on the beach this week. Mick, Fiona and their children Jake and Tess came down to see what the Hobie way of life is all about and to gain some first hand experience on the water. Andrew Nelson gave Jake and Tess some brief training on the beach and then took them out for a spin on the "Mean Machine", with their parents on their rib in hot pursuit. Also, thank you to Mick with assisting in a rescue later in the day.
Considering it was going to be a challenging day at best and the lack of cat experience of some of our newer members we had a pretty good turnout of 10 boats. Unfortunately Denis and Gavin had to pull out prior to the start of racing due to an injury.
Everyone had their boats rigged for speed even though the conditions probably dictated a more cautious approach. Andrew, Richard and I were on our Hobie 16's one-up due to some last minute crew cancellations and if I hadn't gone out Richard may have stayed on the beach with me. Andrew on the other hand laps up the big conditions with or without crew.
There were 3 races of 3 laps each over a slightly shorter than usual course. Peter DuRoss on his Weta was having a blast at the front of the pack all day. Upu and Sam were unstoppable and Andrew was hot on their heels. The rest of us were having our own individual duels. Unfortunately Geoff and Caitlyn lost their mast early in proceeding due to some gear failure. A few of the boats had a swim and even master Upu got washed off at one point.
Honours for the day went to:
1st Hobie 16 - Upu Kila and Sam Duchatel
2nd Hobie 16 - Andrew Nelson
3rd Weta - Peter DuRoss
Note: racing was conducted using standard VYC yardstick and penalties have been applied for one-up sailing of two hander boats. The results from this week along with previous racing results will be used to calculate handicaps for the remainder of pointscore races this season. Stay tuned !!!
It was also great to see Peter and Jacqui out on a Hobie 16 having a great time ... even if it was a fleeting visit. At the end of the day we all enjoyed ourselves and there were a lot of stories being told at the post race BBQ.
Until next week ...... happy sailing !!!
