After a long period of lockdown due to Covid-19, the South Australian Laser fleet is back in the water. Even though Mawson Lakes Model Yacht Club is still closed, we run unstructured sailing at Mawson Lakes each Wednesday, and we have regularly been getting 6-7 Laser sailors in attendance. We are also running unstructured sailing at West Lakes one Saturday a month so that those Laser sailors who work during the week also have a chance to sail.
Last Sunday we had a sail at Hart’s Mill, one of South Australia’s premier RC sailing venues. As you can see from the photo, we had a light south-easterly breeze but great sailing was had by all participants.
During the Covid-19 period some significant developments have taken place in the South Australian RC Laser fleet. Don Turnbull has been regularly travelling up to Wallaroo, about an hour and a half north of Adelaide, and has now recruited several members of the local club into the SA fleet. Also, Mark Keeble from Mildura has bought several RC Lasers and we look forward to racing at Lake Cullulleraine with him in future. We have another new member of the MLMYC fleet, Bruce Backman who has joined us recently with RCL #169.
We have released a revised 2020 program with a date of October 31 and November 1 for our State Titles. This is about a month after the planned date for the Nationals and we hope we will get lots of interstate visitors for this event.
We wish all other Australian fleets well and hope to see some of you at Emerald Lakes in early October.
The host club has changed for the 2020 RC Laser Australian Championships. The event will now be hosted by Paradise Radio Yacht Club over the weekend 3rd – 5th October 2020 – a long weekend in QLD, NSW and SA.
The venue is Emerald Lakes, where the very successful Championship of Nations was held in 2017.
The experienced organisers at Paradise Radio Yacht Club will undoubtedly put on a great event. It’s one to mark in the diary now.
Fantastic conditions welcomed 8 competitors at Mangawhai for the RC Laser New Zealand 2019 North Island Championship on Sunday 3rd November. A 12 -18 knot SW breeze kept the fleet on “C” rigs all day, where we managed to squeeze off 19 races.
5 different skippers all got a bullet showing the competition was hard fought. Paul Goddard seemed to have a slight edge upwind and sailed well to take out the day and retain the trophy for the second year running. The mid fleet positions were very closely competed for with many photo finishes.
Thanks to our race recorder, Barbara, who was under the pump during those close finishes.
Many laughs and good fun all round made for a most enjoyable day of competition. Most improved skipper award would have to go to Greg McBain who, once he got his confidence in the start box, showed he could grab some good results. The pics tell the story of how lucky we are with a great venue for RC Yachting.
Another great day of RC Laser sailing with lots of laughs and wonderful company.
Dobroyd Aquatic Club hosted the NSW State Championship 2019 for RC Lasers on the first Sunday in November.
Thanks to NSWRYA for providing the medals for first, second and third places and to Steven Crewes, DAC Member, for donating prizes.
Competition came from far afield. Noel Christison set the pace with his four-week journey from Queensland which also took in the SA State Titles. Peter Burton and Alan Griffith came from Forster Tuncurry and David Preece from George’s Basin on NSW south coast.
The success of the event was made possible by a small but dedicated team lead by Noel McPherson, the Class Captain. Thank you again to Paul Martin for his role as Race Officer. The varying wind was an early challenge but Paul still managed to set Courses which provided a fair test. At the other end of the radio was Stephen Deane who spent most of the day in the rescue boat, moving marks at Paul’s request. Stephen suffered from the odd rain shower but also made our sailing a success.
I assumed the role as scorer and with Mark Luland, we were the observers with pads and pens in hand. Not much was heard from Mark and I, as quite often after an infringement, the appropriate boat was already completing the penalty turn.
The forecast was more gentle than advised with only a light shower later in the day and no thunderstorms in our area. The wind eventually settled to a Nor’Easter with a light to moderate chop.
It was interesting to see “B”, “C” and “D” sails in the same race on one or two occasions. The “D”s would take off in a strong gust only to be overtaken by the “B”s in the lulls. Some weed from recent strong winds was shared equally so probably didn’t affect the results much, if at all.
The racing was dominated by Peter Burton and Graham Brown. An early contender was Paul Derwent who suffered more than most from weed. Alan Griffith always seemed the be up the front end and Noel McPherson again showed that consistency is what counts.
Quite a few boats had moments of glory. Apart from the top three, race winners were Alan Griffith, Paul Derwent, David Preece, Peter Close and Rob Lowndes.
Peter Burton and Graham Brown were the early contenders for NSW Champion. Peter and Graham were neck and neck with the greatest margin being only six points. This was the final difference between them.
NSW State Champion 2019 is Peter Burton scoring 23 points.
Second Place is Graham Brown scoring 29 points.
Third Place is Noel McPherson scoring 61 points.
Congratulations to all Sailors on a successful day.
By 9.30am on Saturday morning a swirl of activity had descended on Mawson Lakes Model Yacht Club (MLMYC) with many interstate visitors arriving. With 22 competitors there was a real sense of excitement.
The morning practice session got underway with Peter Burton experimenting with a B rig in the gusty SW winds of around 10-16 knots.
By the time racing began the wind had increased slightly and almost all sailors had opted for C rigs. While Brad Hein and I won the first two races, it quickly became apparent in ensuing races that Peter Burton was sailing very consistently indeed. Not only was he winning races, but often by large margins.
There were several other surprises in store. Len Hearing, who is an experienced sailor, but new to Lasers adapted to the strong winds superbly and finished the day in third place. Phil Clerke, who is the master of tacking to port immediately after the start and picking up wind shifts in the middle of the lake, again showed how successful this tactic is.
Other stand-outs were Stephen Cibich who, after the first five races, looked like he was set for a top three finish. Dean Bonnett, our club president who courageously decided to give Lasers a go, acquitted himself very well. Gary Polomka, also new to Lasers, led most of the second last race of the day before being passed on the last leg by Brad Hein.
Fluky Conditions for Day 2 RC Laser Titles
At the designated start time of 9.30am on Sunday morning, Race Officer Stewart Ross was faced with a highly variable SW-SE wind and a SW course set for the forecast wind direction. The first two races of the day were sailed in fluky conditions and hard luck stories abounded. None worse than John Berry who led B division by a long way for most of the race, only to pick the non-favoured leeward gate mark and finish up in sixth place.
We then changed to Gold and Silver fleets, and Brad Hein recorded his second win for the morning. It looked for a moment as if Brad might rise to challenge Peter Burton’s dominance of the series. Meanwhile, in the silver fleet Gary Hein had a great win followed by Noel Christison. Alex Hayter was also sailing well.
The
next gold fleet race bordered on farcical. Peter Burton, sensing he had to do
something different opted for a B rig and Brad Hein followed him. Everyone else
had kept A rigs. All went smoothly until the second windward work. Most of the
fleet tacked in shore into a windless hole, whereas Kym Stringer, Phil Clerke
and I sailed out into the lake into a good breeze. At one stage I led the fleet
by about 50 metres. However, Kym and Phil stayed further out in the lake than
me and pegged back my lead by the windward mark. It was Brad and Peter’s worst
race for the series. The following silver fleet race was won by Brenton Rowney,
who had had a tough series up to that point.
The
final two races for both fleets were held in moderate SW breezes with all
sailors using B rigs. Peter Burton lapped up the fresher breeze and really
stamped his authority on the series. Phil Clerke and Kym Stringer also sailed
particularly well in the conditions. In silver fleet Don Turnbull had a loudly
applauded win in race 12 and Peter Yates had an important win in Race 13.
Series Place-Getters
Gold
Fleet – Peter Burton, Brad Hein, Phil Clerke
Silver
Fleet – Peter Yates, Gary Hein, John Nieuwenhuizen
Special
thanks go to Stewart Ross as RO and Mario Gulic and Lorraine Berry as scorers
for running such a smooth series. This was especially true considering it was
the first time many of the competitors had raced using the Simple Heat Racing
System (SHRS).
There was also a huge band of MLMYC volunteers. Brian Marshall, Peter Simmons and Nigel Stone ran the recovery boat. Robert Jones and John Dockerill looked after the boat shed. Meredith Reardon, Sylvia Nieuwenhuizen and Gaynor Koewenhoven looked after the registration and food area, Bob Whitehead was measurer, Gerry Geibel and Chris Levi assisted with photography and administration, Peter Trenorden and Wendy Falland assisted as race observers. Dean Bonnett did everything required of a club president. Overall it was a fantastic effort by all the MLMYC mob – you did the club proud.
