The 2018 NSW RC Laser State Championship, hosted by Dobroyd Aquatic Club, will be held on Sunday 19th August. Typically at that time of year, we experience good winds and fine weather.
It’s great to see there are already some early entries. The organisers encourage all sailors to enter the one day event and have set a challenge to beat the number of starters for the South Australian State Championship being held on 10 June (Queens Birthday long weekend).
The preparation for the 2018 RC Laser National Championships proceeds apace with a number of new developments in recent weeks. The most important of these for the Mawson Lakes Model Yacht Club has been our success in applying for a Council Grant which will enable us to upgrade our marquee, to improve the operating time of our electrically-powered recovery boat and to build new specially-designed racing buoys.
All these changes will significantly improve the model yachting experience for all our competitors in late September. Scroll down the page to the Notice of Race and Entry Form.
The club raffle to help finance the RC Laser National Championships commenced in early March and has already helped finance a number of initiatives including the first prize for the Championships of a new RC Laser. We have been very pleased with the support of MLMYC members for the raffle and the event generally. Also interstate RC Laser clubs have been terrific in their support of this raffle, and we expect tickets to continue to sell well.
The 2018 RC Laser National Championships organising committee of John Berry, Chris Levi, Mark Easton, Reg Cunningham, Bob Whitehead and Adrian Heard have all been busy arranging various aspects of the event.
The South Australian RC Laser State Titles take place on Sunday 10th June, and this event will give our club a great opportunity to have a test run for the National Championships. Our race crew are looking forward to setting courses and practising boat recoveries. All skippers are invited to compete in the State Titles. Click here to access the Notice of Race for the State Titles.The entry form can be accessed here.
We will also have an open afternoon at the club on Saturday 9th June where interstate visitors will be welcome to attend a club barbeque and participate in some practice racing. We already have eight entrants, and we expect this number to swell as the event nears.
Yes, it’s the AFL grand final weekend and we will have a screen in the clubhouse on Saturday. The big advantage of the chosen weekend is that the Friday is a public holiday in Melbourne and the Monday is a public holiday in NSW, Queensland and SA. Also with the AFL grand final always played in Melbourne this is the one weekend in September that we can guarantee that there are no AFL finals in Adelaide, so airfares should be cheap and readily available.
There will be a registration, measurement and practice day on the Friday followed by 3 days of racing. Why 3 days of racing you may ask ? We are anticipating around 45 entrants for the 2018 RC Laser sailing National Championships and we will require A, B and C fleets. To fit in a minimum of 16 races for each division, we consider that the titles will be best run over 3 days.
We have some excellent people to help run the event. Firstly we have our club president Dean Bonnett, our club secretary / treasurer Chris Levi and our club assistant secretary Gerry Giebel all working hard to help run the titles. We have John Berry, Mark Easton, Bob Whitehead, Chris Levi, Reg Cunningham and Adrian Heard all on the club organising committee. Our club has 75 members so there will be a good spread of volunteers to help stage the titles.
We have a couple of first class people to take charge of the event. Johno Johnson, widely regarded as one of South Australia’s best PROs will share in officiating the racing together with Mario Gulic, one of Victoria’s best PROs. Mario will also have the role of keeping participants informed on race schedules and race results.
Mawson Lakes is a great location for a national title. The clubhouse is a very handy facility with tea, coffee, drinks, boat storage and toilets available. The club has an excellent floating platform for launching and retrieving boats. Participants will be required to remain within a cordoned off control area while racing, as the cement footpath around the lake needs to be kept clear for local foot traffic.
Mawson Lakes is a major shopping precinct with cafes and restaurants located near the club. There are also many accommodation options nearby, including Discovery Parks – Adelaide Beachfront at Semaphore Park, Highway 1 Caravan and Tourist Park at Bolivar and Windsor Gardens Caravan Park closer to the city.
Registration for the 2018 national titles will open on March 3rd and will be on the MLMYC website – mawsonlakesmyc.com, and a raffle for an RC Laser will also be launched at the club on the same day. Watch for updates on this website.
The South Australian State Titles will be held at Mawson Lakes on Sunday 10th June, starting at 9.30am. This will be a one day event limited to one fleet of 24 boats. Being South Australians and of generous nature we will hold 14 of the 24 places for interstate entries, and three of those places will go to Scott and Jayne Fleming and Malcolm Kampe. This will be a great opportunity to sail at Mawson Lakes prior to the nationals and a chance to test your skills against Malcolm and the two Scotts. Scott Mitchell from SA is the defending state champion.
We look forward to seeing many of you in September and some of you in June.
The South Australian RC Laser team from Mawson Lakes Model Yacht Club are in the news. Their achievement in winning the State Shield at the recent 2017 RC Laser Championship of Nations held at the Gold Coast last November has been recognised by the magazine, Mawson Lakes Living.
Congratulations to Adrian Heard, Scott Mitchell, Don Turnbull, John Berry, Lindsay Sawyer, Jurgen Luther, Bob Whitehead and Mark Easton for winning the Shield and to John, Lindsay, Bob and Ken (President) for the great group photo.
The South Australian RC Laser team will be one to contend with at the 2018 RC Laser National Championships taking place on their home waters October.
More news on the National Championships will be published here shortly.