Fourteen DAC RC Laser Sailors recently mentored ten teenagers from Hornsby Ku-ring-ai Sailing Club, in how to sail the RC Laser. The teenagers sail on the Hawkesbury River near Brooklyn and their club, although small, has produced a number of State Champions, National Champions and even an Olympic medallist.
This was the planning of Graham Brown who has been involved with the Hornsby Ku-ring-ai Sailing Club for over 40 years and has been instrumental in their instruction in dinghy sailing and racing.
Each DAC sailor was assigned a “novice” for the day. The format was for alternate races being sailed by a novice under the watchful eyes and advice of the more experienced RC sailors. The in-between races were then sailed by our regular sailors for our normal point score.
The conditions were a light Westerly on smooth waters, and there was some leftover weed from the weather the previous week.
The eventual Teams Winner was Peter Close and Alex Stewart ( Current HKSC Commodore) who showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of the fleet. Alex adapted very quickly to the subtleties of RC sailing and, combined with the skill of Peter Close, were clear winners. It was decided that, due to the experience and age of Team Close / Stewart, an age allowance was imposed and the prizes went to the runner up team of Noel McPherson and Cadel Stewart (Alex’s son).
The ‘novices’ surprised us all at how quickly they grasped the necessary idiosyncrasies of remote controlling a sailing craft – we were very impressed – well done all.
A very successful day with smiles all round, including a few Mums watching. Well done and thank you Members for your support!
Thanks to Graham Brown for the Club background input and Noel McPherson and Eliza Kemp’s Mum for the photos.
Scoring for the “oldies” was based on 5 Races.
Graham Brown took the honours for the day to win 1st place on 6 points.
Peter Close finished in 2nd place on 10 points.
Robin Tickner finished in 3rd place with 14 points.
The Club Championship now has Peter Close in front from Graham Brown and Noel McPherson.
From Brian Chapman #246.
