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Off The Beach News 

Howdy gang.  
Well, it might be nearly Christmas but there were no presents under our tree last Sunday, that's for sure. With an early start needed by the race team and the wind strong enough to blow Linda Wooley's dog off it's chain ( again!), and predicted to get even stronger by race time, the call was made to cancel racing for the day, Bah Humbug! I think a new Disney movie is in order, 'The Grinch Who Stole Sailing'. It couldn't be any worse than some of the others they crank out at this time of year!
 
Sailing put respectfully aside for the day, it was time to put on our dancing shoes and head upstairs for our annual Chrissy Party. Numbers were sadly a bit down on what was hoped ( curse that Grinch! ), but those there were treated to a fabulous feast, as usual. We even had a visit from Santa and his ageless Elf. I asked him about the wind and he said he only cared about the weather on one particular night and as there isn't a lot of sailing at the North Pole, he didn't give a rat's! Charming Santa, no cookies for you this year!
 
Thanks to all the people who called in to fill the spots on the RHIBs. Doc T(again) and Neil W drew the short straw to join Erik, Super D, Katrina and Simon. They were not too sad about the cancellation. I suppose you could say at least they all got an early present!
 
Okay, last week done, let's move on to next Sunday. Not only is it the last sail of 2025, and another round of the Southern Peninsula Community Bank Club Championship, it would also be the Birthday of our dear friend, Drew Mattingly. As you all know, Drew tragically passed away earlier this year and He left a sizable donation to the Club, to be used to purchase a new Pacer for the junior fleet. With that in mind, this week's race will be dedicated to Drew and a prize will be awarded to the sailor, or sailors ( or even race crew) that performs some outstanding feat (not necessary winning ), to be decided by their peers and awarded on the day. So please, please, make a huge effort to come this Sunday and remember our Friend.
 
This week's race team are Geoff and Super D on Start, Paul M and Moi on Woodsy and I'm hoping John Matheson and Rob Wells on Sutherland. Fingers crossed.
 
That's all for this week, see you Sunday, the weather will be perfect-ish.
Cheers, Pete Chippy

 

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Latest News

Off The Beach News 

Howdy troops,

Another ripper day on the beach at SBSC last Sunday. Unfortunately, not so good if you wanted to go sailing. The forecast, (who can ever believe that) said ten to fifteen knots all day, and sure enough we got that in the morning. It was so good in fact that the junior training program had 18 participants, all out on the water having an absolute blast. This has been such a success story this year, with great numbers turning up and a credit to Fi, James, Nick and the Gang for keeping them active and enthusiastic when the conditions haven't been conducive to being on the water. So, it was fantastic to see them finally getting in the boats for a proper sail. 

Then the sun went past the yardarm and wouldn't ya know, it took the wind with it! Between 12.00 and 1.00 the breeze dropped from that steady 10 plus down to under 5 knots. And if you were a bit late leaving the beach, well let's just say I was glad of the postponement flag. Once out on the course things were moving slowly, too slowly, and swinging around to the North as the race progressed. If you went toward the cliff like poor old James T in his Sabre, and Glen L and Doc T in the Quest, well it was goodnight nurse, see you tomorrow. 

 The fading breeze (down to 2 to 3 knots) favored the light wind specialists like Di J and Fiona M (and one other hangeronerer) who managed to stretch their lead to over a leg in Div two. Ross M was having a ding dong battle with Mark Bulka in the Impulses with Bill M hanging in there too. Nick B in his Taipan, Mark L in the Windrush, Dave and Luke in their Nacra rounded out the the cats. Throw in a couple of 420s, a Terra and Matt W with Zack L in a 49er and we had quite a nice fleet. Unfortunately, the wind dropped to the point where the RO declared no boats would finish in the time limit and the dreaded 'Abandonment' flag went up, bugger!

After waiting around for a while, it became evident that the wind was dropping right out and those hardy souls that had hung around hoping for a start, were given their marching orders. Back to the beach, pack up, change into your drinking clothes, and rue the day you ever took up sailing! Really? No, not really, SBSC is still a great place to be even if there is no wind. 

Thanks of course to Geoff and Super D on Start, Joe V and Keith B in Woodsy and Dave B and Jamieson F in Sutherland. Even though we didn't get a race in, they still had to set up, launch, set the course, clear the course and pack it all away as we were all sitting up on the deck soaking in the rays. 

Thanks also to everyone that replied to my text asking for a volunteer on the RHIB. One was the actual number, and that was someone apologizing for not being able to help. This week I'm looking for TWO extra people. It's the SBSC Christmas party after racing, so the first warning is 10.27 for a 10.30 start. At this stage the weather looks good with a 15 knot Westerly (if you can believe it!) Race crew will need to be at the dock at 9.00.

That's enough for now. Cheers, Pete Chippy

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Off The Beach News 

Hi all,

Wow what a great day sailing on Sunday! The day started with a lot of OTB crew taking shelter upstairs and watching the large shore break for the best way to launch without being washed ashore or smashing into the rock wall! Strong Westerlies are difficult. As the morning progressed more participants arrived, and everyone soon realised it was on! Launching was interesting with Greg and James walking the boat to almost Dromana to still be 2m from the beach towards the rock wall. Rick Potter was first to launch to beat the next squall but quickly returned to take off his expensive glasses and to put sailing gloves on. A big call out to Abbey for holding his boat whilst he got ready again. The race officers did a great job to set a course inside the mussel farm with the start not far from the club. The sailing was great, big swell and wind in the first race and similar but less wind in the second. Bill Manning, what can we say! Three times this season (Club Record!) you have dropped your mast on the water! We need to chip in and buy you a shackle key! James Thorne took out the chocolates for the Sabre fleet (just) behind Rick. Also, worth mentioning the 3 Lasers that braved the weather and seeing Luke almost beat his dad Ross in his Impulse.

Well done to all, it was a great day and looking forward to a repeat this Sunday!

Pete Chipperfield's secret writer 

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Off The Beach News 

Howdy Gang.
Well, another ripper day on the water last Sunday. Again, the weather wasn't supposed to be great, with 20 knots plus down at South Channel, it was a bit iffy. As it turned out, the big hill gave us some shelter and the rain held off nicely, so with nice flat water, low cloud to keep the sun out of your eyes and 10 to 15 knots offshore, it was a near perfect SBSC sailing day. 
   
After an on water start for the Keelboats, RO Dave Brewer, ably assisted by Super D in Start, Andrew 'Stocksey' Stocks, Stu Scott, Paul Martin and Bruce Mansfield in the RHIBs reset the course for us just inside the mussel farm. A brief moment of panic ensued before we left the sand when Ross M informed us that they intended to run a starboard course to keep it close to the beach ala Glen Lazzar style. This turned out to be a complete furphy, which I put down to Ross waging some psychological warfare against Bill M in the Impulses. Some people will stoop to any level!
   
All up we had 23 boats head out including 10 Sabres. That's numbers we haven't seen for quite a while. As well as 3 Impulses, 2 420s, 4 Cats and a Quest, we also had Dave and son Luke venture out in their Nacra 5.9. They were planning to just go for a sail but were having such a good time that they decided to join in the race, great job.
   
Race one had the experienced one's head left to the beach as normally that's where the lifts are. Not today though, as some stray gusts and knocks left them way behind, even 'The Maestro' Rick P ended up way back (even behind me !!!). Mark L cleaned up as the only boat in Div 5, as did Greg and James in Div 4. Ross led Bill and Duncan a merry dance in the Impulses with a couple of 420s and Jameson F in his Laser ( with a bigger sail he has jumped up a class). The 2 'A' Class cats of Ewan C and 'A' Class Anthony were chasing or being chased by Nick B in his Taipan, not necessarily in that order! Meanwhile, Wayne J and Andrew 'Doc' Taylor were cruising around in the Quest with Doc looking very comfortable at the helm. I didn't see the headphones or coffee, but I'm sure they were there at some stage,
   
Race two saw the wind pick up a bit, and with those same shifty conditions, the places changed around quite a lot. Rick found his groove and left all of Div 2 in his wake far behind. Talking to him afterwards, I asked if he was playing 'possum' in race one. He said "No, I just picked some good shifts in race two and wondered why no one else cottoned on". That's Rickspeak for, "So long Suckers!". He also said, "In Race one I couldn't pick a shift and didn't know where I was going wrong ". That's Petespeak for, "I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time!".
 
Race two also saw Bill pip Ross (sweet revenge), Katrina M take advantage of the heavier wind to grab third from Fiona M and a few boats pull out and live to sail another day, including the 2 'A' Class guys, leaving Nick to take out both races. As usual, some of the best sailing was getting back to the beach with some great reaching and then the offshore wind giving that nice calm landing, right when you need it after a hard slog.
 
All up, a great day's fun with only one casualty. Poor Luke M broke his mast mount just before race one started. A real shame as it would have been great conditions for his Moth, as opposed to the other weeks where he spent a lot of time ploughing into the back of some big waves. As he said, that probably contributed to the breakage. 
 
Great to see Norm K out on the water even though it didn't meet his 20 knot and 20-degree rule, and John W stepping off his Keelboat and into his Sabre for a change of pace.
 
Thanks again to the Race Team for a sterling job as usual. Next week we have Stu Scott as RO again, with Super D assisting (we all know she runs the show), Simon H, Norm K, Ben Griffin and as it's another on water start for the Keelboats, we have Brett from 'Summer Breeze' on the RHIBs. 11.15 at the dock guys and gals.
 
That's all for this week. Cheer, Pete Chippy 

 

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