Category: News

It was a day where you just had to hang in there.

The day for the 2018 NSW RC Laser State Titles started out at Dobroyd Aquatic Club feeling fairly benign.  There was a cold westerly wind blowing, so an up and down course in front of the deck was set up with a clearance mark set at the windward mark, together with an indicator mark to give some size to the zone around the mark.  There were a couple of B sails, but a majority of C sails were set for the first race; and then things started going downhill. Significant wind shifts occurred through the day; particularly “effective” in the last seconds of the countdown to some of the starts.

A quick decent with everyone on to D sails; and it just got worse.  The problem was not so much the strength of the wind, but the depth of the lulls between the darkies.  You would fall into a hole and be essentially stationary with the D sail providing very little assistance in keeping the boat moving.  A few C sails re-appeared later in the day more in hope than with logic.

We had the works… gear failures, radios, sailaways, there was one rescue of three boats at once in different points of the compass; and a couple of dismastings.  Yes, it was a lively day.

The conditions got the better of a number of sailors as the day progressed with a growing list of withdrawals occurring.

In spite of the conditions, Paul Derwent sailed perfectly to the conditions to destroy the opposition and take out the 2018 NSW RC Laser State Title – a fine exhibition of sailing under the conditions.  Well done and well deserved Paul.

Graham Brown took second place, but was not comfortable at any time during the day.  Noel McPherson was third, and was only lifted into the position with some kamikaze sailing with a C sail later in the day.  Robin Tickner and Peter Close fought impressively for positions the whole day to finish on the same points, but Robin finished ahead on a count back.  Daniel Bergan had a varied day, but the D sail ended up to be his undoing.  Phillip Page sailed into some good results, but finally had to withdraw.  Brian Chapman had an unfortunate day, being well positioned in a number of races, but not getting to the line to hold the position.  Ivan Schlederer had some good results, and also could not continue the racing.  Geoff Lucas found the going difficult, and finally had to pull out with gear failure; as did Mark Luland, Peter Lee and Steve Crewes.

It was an intense day – I think it will be etched in our brains for some time to come.

I want to thank everyone who helped out on the day, in particular PRO Paul Martin, and our scorer Jill Brown.  Graham Brown and Brian Chapman did a great job with the rescue boat and the other peripheral things that have to be done.. Thanks everyone for a good day.

Words By Noel McPherson RCL#65. Photos by Carola Derwent

It is now less than eight weeks before the 2018 RC Laser National Titles take place at Mawson Lakes. After a successful State Titles in June,  during which we were able to test the new motor and batteries on our electrically powered recovery boat and use our new specially-designed racing buoys, there is now a sense that Mawson Lakes Model Yacht Club is really set up to running such an important event.

First Prize

The prize for first place will be an RC Laser with B rig and boat bag, sailed only at the Championship of Nations in 2017.

Entrants

We now have 27 entrants for the National Titles – 11 from SA, 6 from Qld, 5 from Vic, 3 from NSW and 2 from NZ. We are hoping that with later entrants during the next six weeks or so that we finish up with 35-40 entrants.

Important Dates

For those yet to enter, please note that standard entries close on Friday 14^th September, and following that a $20 late fee will be payable for any entries up to 6pm on Friday 28^th September.

The Program for the 2018 RC Laser National Titles 

Friday 28^th September

Registration and Measuring 9.30am – 12.30pm

Lunch 12.30pm

Practice Sailing 10.30am – 3.30pm

Saturday 29^th September

 Registration and Measuring 9.00am – 10.00am

Briefing 10.00am

Warning signal for first race 10.30am

Lunch 12.30pm; TV will be available for updates on the AFL grand final

No heat will commence after 4.30pm

Sunday 30^th September

Briefing 10.00am

Warning signal for first race 10.30am

Lunch 12.30pm

No heat will commence after 4.30pm

National Titles Dinner – The Bartley Tavern, Bartley Tce, West Lakes 6.00pm

National Titles Raffle to be drawn at the dinner

Monday 1^st October

Briefing 10.00am

Warning signal for first race 10.30am

Lunch 12.30pm

No heat will commence after 3.00pm

Presentations 3.45pm

Presentations will be made by the Mayor of Salisbury, The Hon. Gillian Aldridge

New Class Rules

Please note that the new Australian addendum to the RC Laser class rules will come into force at these Titles. Amongst other things our measurer, Bob Whitehead will be checking overall length of A masts (minimum 1780mm) and all B/C/D masts (minimum 1425mm), and the distance from the bottom of all masts to the bottom of the gooseneck fitting (110mm), so please ensure that all your masts fit these specifications.

The National Titles Raffle

The National Titles Raffle has been a great success both within Mawson Lakes Model Yacht Club and with the RC Laser community nationally. For those of you who still have raffle ticket books, we would appreciate them being returned to Chris Levi at Mawson Lakes MYC by Friday 14^th September. The first prize in the raffle is a CON17 RC Laser with B rig and boat bag, and the raffle will be drawn at the National Titles dinner on the evening of Sunday 30^th September.

The Organising Committee

The National Titles organising committee is John Berry, Chris Levi, Mark Easton, Reg Cunningham, Bob Whitehead, Alex Hayter and Adrian Heard.

It’s time to Enter

The registration form for the National Titles continues to be available on The Mawson Lakes club website, and we encourage all of you who are interested in the event to register sooner rather than later. The club website can be found on www.mawsonlakesmyc.com

The notice of race for the National Titles is also available on the ARYA website www.arya.asn.au

And who will win….

I wrote this section for the Championship of Nations last year, and I always enjoy writing it – there are so many capable sailors around Australia and New Zealand. Scott Fleming and Scott Mitchell, the ‘two hot Scotts’ as they have been labelled, not only came first and second at CON17 but also both have considerable sailing experience at Mawson Lakes – that has to put them as favourites. However, there are some serious challengers around and Graham Watson from New Zealand is definitely one of them. His recent performances against Graham Brown in Sydney (another serious challenger) show that he is a major contender. Peter Burford from Queensland will adapt quickly to the Mawson Lake conditions and will sail well as always. On the local front Jurgen Luther, Lindsay Sawyer and I are probably rated as the most consistent sailors, with Jurgen having the best knowledge of the Lake of any of us, but none of us have any delusions of winning more than a race or two. Brad Hein from Portland, Victoria is a prodigious talent, who will win titles in the future – you will all hear a lot more about him. Daniel Bergan from Queensland, has great potential but probably hasn’t done enough sailing in the past 12 months to be a major threat to the Scotts. Linton Little from New Zealand I don’t know much about, so he may surprise us all, and who knows we may yet get an entry from Kirwan Robb – wouldn’t that set the cat amongst the pigeons!!

Words and photo

Adrian Heard

The QLD RC Laser State Championship was sailed and decided on Sunday 22nd July. Paradise Radio Yacht Club hosted the event on Emerald Lakes where we had a light southerly which switched to southeast. There was a mixture of A and B sails, but most races were won by those using the larger rigs even though there were a few nosedives on the downwind legs. 

Ian Ashe, the RO got the racing under way shortly after 10.00 and, although there were some course adjustments needed during the day, the result was that the best skippers came out on top. 

Thanks to the ever-reliable David Black we had progress results at lunchtime and then the final figures after 18 races courtesy of Bill Clancy and Ralph Nahrung. 

It was very close for first and second with home skipper Peter Burford and Kawana visitor Geoffrey Morris each having 5 race wins. Local skipper Geoff Smith through consistent sailing took out third placing. In addition to Peter and Geoffrey, other race winners were Brenton Rowney [3 wins], Laurie Hinchcliff, Daniel Bergan, Nick Pye, Trent Jarratt and Gary Russell so the honours were spread widely. 

We had 16 starters – Roman Wenger from Maitland (NSW), Geoffrey Morris, Gary Russell and John Halloran all from Kawana and 12 from PRYC including Linton Ward who made his way down from Cairns. 

Some great video was shot on the day which you can watch here. 

The skippers all expressed their appreciation and thanks to the officials and observers without whom it would be impossible to have a successful regatta. 

Peter O’Grady 

The 2018 RC Laser South Australian State Titles were our second ever titles and our first to be sailed at our home territory of Mawson Lakes. We again had a healthy clan of eight Victorian sailors, which when combined with some of our local fleet gave a total of 18 boats.

The briefing was held in very calm conditions, but the forecast was for a 10 knot northeaster and within about half an hour of the briefing the wind arrived. The six races sailed before lunch were all sailed with A rigs, although nose-diving became an increasing problem as the morning progressed. It also quickly emerged that Scott Fleming was a clear leader this year, as with the exception of one brilliant race by Jurgen Luther, Scott won five of the other races. Scott’s boat speed and his ability to pick wind shifts in the fluky conditions separated him from Scott Mitchell and the rest of the fleet.

The wind steadily increased from the north east during the lunch break and the 10 afternoon races were all sailed with B rigs. The starboard and inshore end of the start line tended to be favoured for most of the afternoon making traffic near the mark very heavy.

The two Scotts together with Brad Hein, Jurgen Luther, Terry Rowe, Luke Donovan and myself in tow were frequently seen tacking along the southern shore of the lake picking up neat wind shifts on their way to the windward mark. The racing in the afternoon was more even with Scott Mitchell and myself picking up a couple of wins. The rounding of the windward mark became known as the most notorious part of the course, with big wind shifts making it hard to know how far to sail on port tack before attempting a starboard tack rounding. I remember seeing Peter Yates and John Nieuwenhuizen amongst others being stuck at the mark.

Overall however, Scott Fleming emerged an easy winner, as Scott Mitchell wasn’t at his usual blistering pace. The Portland delegation performed very well with Brad Hein claiming 4th place, Luke Donovan 7th, Mick Doherty 9th and Gary Hein 17th. Of the major placings it was Scott Fleming first, Scott Mitchell second and a pleasing third place for me.

Thanks to Johno Johnson for doing a great job of officiating on the day. Mario Gulic did the scoring and was assisted by Lorraine Berry. Dean Bonnett and Peter Simmons ran the recovery boat and Barry Jones and Roger Wilkey were observers. Stewart Ross assisted Johno in setting courses, John Nieuwenhuizen was in charge
of logistics, Meredith Reardon and Janet Luther covered catering and Gary Polomka organised drinks. Many thanks to all you wonderful volunteers – you helped make it such a great day. The support of Salisbury Council and Renewal SA is acknowledged. See the full results sheet below or by clicking on the link. 
By Adrian Heard

2018 RC Laser South Australian State Titles Results