G'day gang,

 

Well we had another great days sailing on Sunday with near perfect conditions. We're starting to get good numbers on the water at last, and Huey is rewarding us with some awesome weather. The wind was a steady 10 knots from the S.W. and the race team set a nice triangle course trialling the Bouyzone app to lay the marks, (no that's not Geoff's new Boy Band, that would be "RTBO" or "Run Up The Laundry" or something much more suitable). Bouyzone is a course laying app that takes the guesswork and maths out of setting the marks and works similarly to google maps in that the RO sets the course on the start boat tablet, then sends it to a phone or tablet on the rhibs who receive it like a pin on Maps and just drive the rhib to where the pin says and drop the mark, simples.

All went well, the course was set and the flags went up for the first start....and then the inevitable 30 degree wind shift! Easy fix with the app, just alter the wind direction on the start tablet and it recalculates the course and sends the new coordinates to the rhibs. This should make things a lot quicker and easier. There will be a bit of hardware to purchase and setup on the rhibs before its fully operational, but we will get there. Once we did get going on a pretty much dead Southerly course, there were no problems at all. We had about twenty boats sailing with a good mix of classes. We even had the Mighty Sharpie on the water with the long awaited return of Di Jackson at the helm, back from her and Mark's overseas jaunt flouncing around the Caribbean on a 60 odd foot luxury yacht. All agreed, this was much nicer. Yeah, sure it was!
 

The first start of Race one had plenty of action, with Tasars, Taipans, A class cats, a Windrush as well as the Sharpie all bunched up on the start line. Someone beat the gun and had to come back but I didn't catch who it was. Just shows that every one was keen to get into it. The Div two start was similar, with finally a decent number of Sabres, some 420's and a Laser vying for pole position. With plenty of wind shifts, there were ample overtaking chances to be had, or not had depending on how you read them, but it all made for great fun.
  Race two was much the same with slightly more breeze and a little more chop. No need to alter the course and we all got away clean- except Bill who buggered up his watch and missed the start entirely. Just when I was about to christen him The Gingerbread Man, because we can never catch him, there he was, stoney last! Duncan M got an excellent start until he fell foul of being Mr Nice Guy. He had kindly picked up Campbell Martin's whisker pole (the second one they had dropped in for the day!) and when he tried to tack, it got caught up in the main sheet, the thwart, his feet and probably tangled in his undies too just for good measure. Splash one for Bill, who gradually rounded up all the Sabres and Paul in his Laser. Ah well, we'll get him one day.
 

With two good races under our belt, we headed for home. Isn't it always the way that you get the best reaches heading back to the beach- a great way to finish the day. I want to say a huge thank you to our race team of Geoff and Deirdre on Start, Rick P and Rob C on Sutherland and Bruce M and Norm K on Woodsy. An extra special thanks to Norm who filled in literally at the last minute after I messed up the rostering.
   

A final shout out this week to Rob Campbell, our dedicated power boat manager, who by his own admission thinks we are all mad for not having an engine bolted to the back of our boats. On their way back to the marina, Woodsy broke a steering linkage and Rob had to sit on the floor and steer by pushing on the steering arm tiller style while Rick operated the throttle to shouts of " all ahead full" from Rob down in the engine room! Picture attached, hopefully.
 

That's all for this week Folks. Good luck to those going to Geelong and McCrae and don't forget Safety Beach Australia Day sailing starts at 11.00 o'clock, 10.57 first warning. Regular sailing Sunday at 2.00pm, 13.57first warning. See you there.
 

Cheers, Pete Chippy 

 

Please note the sailing instructions changes for Australia Day have been posted on our website click here for details

1st	Tumi	Jeff Savage
2nd	Bombay Sapphire	Michael Manson
3rd	11.11	Till Braukmann

 

1st PHD	Unprecedented	Andrew McGrath
2nd AMS	Unprecedented	Andrew McGrath
3rd ORC	Unprecedented	Andrew McGrath

 

1st PHD	Rells	Mal Winder
2nd AMS	E’Toile	John Gordon

 

Click here for full weekend results.

Another team effort in the tower over the weekend.  A ‘jetlagged’ Di and Mark were back in the Tower on Friday night (a warm Welcome Back!) along with duty boat Crowded House and assisted by Elaine Nicholas.  And Di and Elaine were back there bright and early Sunday for the morning race.  Many thanks to all of you

 

First Warning Signal	17.25H  Pursuit Start
Tower	Race Officer:	Di Jackson
		Mark Lawrence & Amanda Malin

 

Another Fun Twilight this Friday night.  If you elect to run an extra sail, please notify the Tower when signing on for the race on VHF 69 and add 4-minutes to your nominated start time.

If you are short of crew, or a crew member looking to sail, please utilise the SBSC Crew Register on the website.  There are some new bios on there now with some good experience, so please check them out here and get them onboard!  Even if you take someone out with less experience but keen to learn – you never know where it may lead.  Our aim is to get as many boats as possible involved in racing, and encourage new people into sailing.

 

If they are not (yet) a member of SBSC, please direct them to the Sail Pass page on our website to register on the day they sail.  It is a simple online process, and they can have up to six (day) sail passes before joining the club.  The Sail Pass is important for them to be covered by Australia Sailing insurance.

• As per SI’s 11.1.3, skippers are reminded that boats not starting must keep clear of the starting line and the Martha Cove Channel. And a further reminder to please keep well clear of fixed Piles when rounding to avoid contact / damage to pile infrastructure.

• Due to the long weekend, there is no Sunday race on Sunday 29 January 2023.

• The Night Race (on the Summer Program) will not be going ahead on Friday 3 February 2023. There will still be the normal Twilight Pursuit race.

Come for a great weekend cruise to Geelong.  It’s a great location with lots to do - great foreshore, walks, restaurants etc.

We’ll sail over on Saturday March 11, spend the Saturday and Sunday night at Royal Geelong Yacht Club with the  return sail on Monday March 13.

Please contact Terry Jones for further information or to register your interest.  We need to know ASAP as bookings will need to be made.

Terry Jones (Whiskers)

Cruising Coordinator

Mob:  0408336626

Ann Matheson captured this amazing photo on Monday 23rd.

The crescent moon, Venus and the starboard light at the marina entrance. Thanks Ann for the stunning photo!