Only 2 weeks to go until Mawson Lakes Radio Yacht Club hosts the South Australia RC Laser Titles, over the weekend of 19th October.
Last year’s National Titles hosted by Mawson Lakes, was an absolute blast and its expected that the 2019 State Titles will be a whole lot of fun as well.
18 sailors have already registered and will experience, for the first time at a state titles event in Australia, the Single Heat Racing System. This will provide great competition for all levels of sailors.
With a few of the RC Laser worlds top sailors being unavailable for this Titles series, the field has been thrown wide open.
If you are thinking you’d like to participate but haven’t done anything about it, it’s not too late to register. Visit the Mawson Lakes Radio Yacht Club website for more info, contact phone numbers and to register online. http://www.mawsonlakesmyc.com/
As my term as national RC Laser representative on the Australian Radio Yachting Association (ARYA) is soon to end, I thought it would be useful to relate some of the major events and happenings during my term.
Firstly, may I say that serving the RC Laser community in this way has been a privilege and as a fairly novice RC sailor back in 2016, it gave me the opportunity to get to know the national and even international RC Laser community relatively quickly. Initially, Jurgen Luther and I shared the role after Rod Popham’s term ended. Rod had done a great job connecting Australia with the international RC Laser community and in that regard, he created the opportunity for Paradise RYC to run the 2017 Championship of Nations (CON17).
This leads me directly to CON17 held in November 2017 and what was easily the biggest sailing event that I have ever had any involvement in. It was a resounding success and Peter O’Grady, ably helped by many others, did an extraordinary job of running it. All of us who were lucky enough to attend will never forget the week-long gale that descended on southern Queensland at that time and gave us a big lesson in C and D rig sailing. We were treated to some tremendous sailing by the likes of Scott Fleming, Scott Mitchell, Malcolm Kampe and Peter Burford.
The next big event that was to unfold in my time at the post was the Australian amendment to the class rules, and this happened largely due to CON17. I remember that in the NSW State Titles of 2017, which just preceded the CON17, Taco Faber from the Netherlands sailed with what were clearly shortened masts. Some of the State RC reps decided that they did not want the shortened mast epidemic to hit Australia, and after CON17 a variety of teleconferences ensued. Discussions on the matter were not always straight-forward as there were a range of opinions. However, eventually Noel McPherson wrote an Australian amendment to the class rules which included minimum mast lengths for both A and B/C/D masts and also a measurement tolerance for the gooseneck position. This was accepted by the ARYA with the support of the measurer Robert Hales and the secretary Ross Bennett. Unfortunately, the lack of quality control by RC Laser part manufacturers led to the eventual withdrawal of the gooseneck clause, but overall Noel is to be commended for the persistence he showed in this task.
Easily the biggest pleasure in the role is getting to know all the characters of the RC Laser world. A few extroverts stand out – Ian Ritchie, Daniel Bergan and Noel Christison from Paradise RYC, Peter Close from Dobroyd, Don Turnbull and Alex Hayter from Mawson Lakes MYC, Peter Yates from Patterson Lakes RMYC and Gary Hein from Portland YC. The State Laser Reps of Scott Fleming, Peter O’Grady, Graham Brown, David Bedford, Noel McPherson and Noel Christison have been great to work with. At the ‘Big Wet’ national titles held at Yarrawonga Victoria in 2016, Scott Fleming pointed out to me that there had never been a South Australian state championship in the RC Laser class. He said that if I organised one he would get a group to come across from Victoria. Well, it was some group – in August 2017 nine boats travelled from Victoria for our first ever SA titles.
Sadly there has been the loss of a number of Laser sailors of which I will name only a couple. Ray Nasmith from Pine Rivers RYC was a great supporter of RC Laser sailing and he sailed in CON17 when he was clearly quite unwell – an heroic effort. George Fish from Launceston sailed in at least two national titles that I know of, and I got to meet him in the puddles at Yarrawonga. Being Tasmanian he was well equipped for wet weather. He died about 6 months later.
Cliff Bromiley and Beth Powell, the national distributors for the class have been a great support and a great source of information. It was them that put me on to Bob Caldow from the Sunshine Coast. I am still yet to meet Bob in person (roll on 2020!) but he stands out as one of the most dedicated club sailors in Australia. Also, they told me that there were rumours of an RC Laser fleet developing at Portland Victoria. Now having been raised in the South-East of SA, the fact that Portland had a Laser fleet came as a very pleasant surprise to me. Within the month Meredith and I had travelled to Portland and met the whole crew down there with their 15 Lasers.
One thing we need to remember, and my good friend John Berry regularly reminds me of it – we sail the simplest and the best class of radio yacht. It provides the most level playing field of all classes. It exposes your true sailing skill – that is why people either love or hate Lasers!! It will survive the onslaught of other production model classes for this very reason – there will probably never be a simpler boat!
The next challenge for the class will be the implementation of the Single Heat Racing System (SHRS) into RC Laser state and national events. There is a groundswell of support amongst the State reps for this to happen, and the 2019 SA state titles will be the first of a series of events using this scoring system in future. I personally believe the SHRS fits the ethos of our class very well.
In December this year, I hand the baton on to Scott Fleming. Scott and Jayne and great friends, and there is no better exponent of the class than Scott. We will all be in very good hands.
On
Saturday 19th October and on Sunday 20th October the 2019
SA RC Laser Titles will be run at Mawson Lakes. We are expecting a fleet of
20-25 boats with around 6-8 interstate visitors.
The titles will be run using the Single Heat Racing System (SHRS) – the use of which is now fully approved by ARYA. This will be one of the first titles in Australia to use this system post ARYA approval. On Sunday the fleet will be divided into gold and silver fleets, with both fleets racing for a trophy.
The
Laser Sub-committee managing this event is Adrian Heard, John Berry, Bob
Whitehead, Alex Hayter and Stewart Ross. Stewart Ross will be the race officer
for the event. Mario Gulic from Patterson Lakes Victoria has agreed to be
scorer for the event.
A
full notice of race for the event will be out in mid-August. The fee for the
event will be $45 early-bird registration and payment (by 27th
September); $50 normal registration and payment.
Registration is now open on the MLMYC website – www.mawsonlakesmyc.com.au and we encourage you all to register soon. Invoices for payment will be sent out as soon as our Notice of Race is approved by ARYA.
The timetable for the titles will be -:
Saturday 19th October
10 am Practice sailing
12 pm Lunch
12.30pm Briefing
1 pm First race commences
5 pm No race will commence after this time
6.30pm Dinner at Mawson Lakes Hotel
Sunday 20th October
9 am Briefing
9.30 am First race commences
12 pm Lunch served during racing
2 pm No race will commence after this time
2.30 pm Presentations
We look forward to seeing you in Adelaide in October. It is a great time
of the year with reliable westerly winds and it will be great to have a good
bunch of interstate visitors present.
Adrian Heard, on behalf of the organising committee.
On the weekend of October 19th and 20th 2019 the South Australian State Titles will be run at Mawson Lakes, but this time they will be run under a new scoring format.
The Simple Heat Racing System (SHRS) is a system which we here in South Australia believe fits better with the ethos of RC Laser sailing than does the current Heat Management System (HMS).
The main difference with using SHRS is that after ranking the whole fleet on day one, for the second day’s sailing each sailor will be locked into either gold or silver fleets. There is no movement between fleets and there will be a trophy for the winners of both fleets. Everyone has something to race for.
How does the Simple Heat Racing System work?
For the simplicity of this explanation assume we have 20
competitors entered in a two-day competition.
Qualifying Series – On day 1 we conduct of Qualifying Series of 8-10 races. For this series the 20 competitors are randomly divided into two heats of 10 boats, A Heat and B Heat.
The aim of Qualifying Series is to give every competitor the opportunity to sail against every other competitor. To achieve this, all odd place finishers (1,3,5 etc.) in each race remain in the same heat, and all even place finishers (2,4,6 etc.) change to the other heat. This results in 50% of competitors changing heats after every race.
The other important aspect of the Qualifying Series is that
no competitor who finishes a race can receive more than 10 points for that
race, compared with the Heat Management System (with A & B Divisions) where
the last competitor in B Division receives 20 points.
A Heat and B Heat must complete the same number of races
for the Qualifying Series to be completed.
Finals
Series – On day 2 we conduct a Final Series
For this series 10 competitors sail in the Gold Heat and 10 in the Silver Heat.
Say 8 races were sailed in the Qualifying Series, then each
competitor will be scored on his/her best 6 races and ranked 1-20. The top ten
competitors go to the Gold Heat and the next ten to the Silver Heat.
There is no movement of competitors between the two heats. They are discrete heats. There are prizes for place-getters in both heats.
Should this series finish early due to unsuitable weather,
there is no requirement that the Gold Heat and the Silver Heat sail the same
number of races.
Should we be unable to conduct any races in the Finals Series, then prizes will be awarded to place-getters 1,2,3,11,12 and 13 from the Qualifying Series results.
Invitation to try the New Heat Racing System at SA State Titles at Mawson Lakes
For those of you who came to the National Titles at Mawson Lakes in
2018, you already know what a great location and what excellent facilities we
have. For those of you who haven’t sailed on our home waters yet, you have got
a treat waiting for you.
The other big news is that the RO for 2019 will be one of our own –
Stewart Ross. Stewart is an enormously experienced race officer who has
officiated in major yachting regattas all around Australia. We are very lucky
to have Stewart at Mawson Lakes and you are all going to love his experience in
handling major events. Also we may have the services of a scorer well versed in
using the SHRS system.
Put all this together with sailing in what is now one of the biggest RC Laser fleets in the country – Mawson Lakes now has well in excess of 20 Lasers in the club – and you have all the right ingredients for a great event. While we can’t make any promises about the weather, we can say that the south-westerly sea breezes which are legendary here in South Australia are at their most reliable in October.
We need 18 sailors to be able to run this event. We hope that you will be one of them. If less than 18 sailors attend the state titles we must use the HMS system.
Please contact Adrian Heard to express your interest in attending the SA State Titles by email or text. Adrian Heard Email heard.14.au@gmail.com Phone 0427 833 324
DAY 1. An eventful first day of the Championships came to a close after 9 races. The wind was out of the west, but varied in its fickleness all day; essentially driving most sailors nuts with its variability, its strength and its dead spots.
We saw all sails during the day, from A to D, and many sailors found they had made wrong sail choices once on the water. Once the racing had settled down after the seeding races a rhythm developed moving from the B fleet to the A fleet, and back again for most people. There was little respite for those bouncing between the two fleets. A number of times, skippers found they could not capitalise on good finishes in the B fleet, once they went up to the A fleet. So, at the end of day 1. we saw a bit of a changing of the guard in the top order.
DAY 2 Frustrating! The wind was just not going to behave itself, and demonstrated that by moving all the time, causing constant course changes. We tried to set a course with a south westerly wind, and we got a couple of races in before some significant moves in the breeze caused the comedy of the day, with the course setters constantly changing positions. We moved to the eastern side of the deck and got in a race, and then the wind really started coming from all points of the compass. The course was set of the end of the point – that is a desperate move from our point of view, and then we moved into unknown territory by moving further around the point for a final few races. We only ended up have 4 races for the day!
To view more photos of the 2019 RC Laser National Championships click here
DAY 3 We all had our fingers crossed for what would unfold, and were greeted by a nice westerly breeze. Racing started with the course holding up, but the wind was slowly dying off until it became a millpond. Early lunch was called. At this stage it was generally considered that there was not much chance of any more sailing; but a bit of a puff came up out of the east and firmed into a nice B sail breeze for the rest of the day. The course was reset, and the final races were sailed in conditions we were hoping for all weekend. There was still some shuffling among the places, particularly lower down the score sheet, but Scott Fleming had it locked up from day 1. Brad Hein took second place, and Graham Brown took third – both finishing on the same points; but a countback separated them.
A great Championship. I want to acknowledge the great job done by the Race Officers – Scott Condie and Owen Jarvis on Day 1, then Paul Martin on Days 2 and 3. A special thanks needs to be given to our Scorer, Jayne Fleming; who carried out the job to perfection. I also want to note the efforts of all our members, volunteers, and outsiders who jumped in and helped make this a memorable event. Lastly, I want to thank everyone who competed for the good spirit that pervaded the event, and which made it an enjoyable event to be part of. Thanks to you all.
