Sunday afternoon RC Laser sailing on the Central Coast couldn’t have been better – the weather was great (apart from the wind); the venue was great and so was the company. There was a fleet of 13 boats – great to have so many RC Lasers on the water! There was a lot of interest generated among the Central Coast sailors to try and get themselves more organised as a RC Laser fleet.
The forecast was for a north easterly breeze 20 to 30 kph from the middle of the day… it might have been that way on the beach, but it didn’t come through on the still water.
The course was 4 sided; if we were lucky, the start was into the wind, but swung around to a bit of a reach, then swung around to a following breeze on the approach to the first mark. There were some big rafts around that one! As you emerged, the wind appeared to be coming from the south east, so it was an initial work, but as you got used to that, you had to turn down to the second mark, then start a work up to the third mark. If you were lucky, the breeze held, and you could maintain your course; but most of the time it swung away further to the south to take you away from the mark. But everything was saved for the last leg – you just had to keep your boat moving – in any direction – then try to come back to the finishing line, and start over again. I think everyone was hoping for more solid wind to come in but it didn’t happen.
We sailed on the A sail all day – there was one B sail up, but I think it struggled more with the conditions than most of us.
To Graeme, Richard, Derek, Brian, Roman, Ivan, Mark and Tony Hill; I hope the day has encouraged you to get into more frequent RC Laser sailing together. You are all welcome anytime at Dobroyd. To the Dobroyd sailors, thanks for coming along for the day. Thanks to Kevin and Brian for hosting the day – well done; and thanks to Brian Lindsay for his enthusiasm for extending the class on the Central Coast.
Gold Coast to host 2017 RC Laser Championship of Nations
2017 RC Laser Championship of Nations to be held on the Gold Coast
The 2017 RC Laser Championship of Nations has been awarded to Australia. At the recent Australian National Titles held in Sydney, it was decided that the Paradise Radio Yacht Club on the Gold Coast would host this important event.
The Gold Coast is Australia’s favorite holiday destination due to the climate, the beaches and the many tourist attractions. The 2017 RC Laser Championship of Nations is the only excuse you need for you and your family to travel to Australia for a holiday. Apart from the sailing, which promises to be a huge event with not one but two regattas, there are 5 theme parks including native flora and fauna, whale watching, dozens [hundreds?] of eating establishments, shopping centres and of course the weather and beautiful beaches.
Gold Coast Climate
The Championship will be held in mid November 2017 when the average temperature varies from an overnight 19 degrees C to about 27 during the day. The mean wind speed in the morning is 10 knots and in the afternoon increases to 13 knots. It is stunning weather at this time of year, and a welcome break from the cold for our Northern Hemisphere friends.
Things to do on the Gold Coast
Because it is such a popular area there are many websites promoting the whole experience of the Gold Coast. Here are a few of many that will provide you with information and a desire to come to the Gold Coast to compete in the Championships and holiday with your family. http://www.australia.com/en/places/gold-coast.html and http://www.visitgoldcoast.com/
Event Planning
As well as the Championship of Nations we are planning to have the 2017 Australian RC Laser Nationals as a warm up series. Depending on numbers, this will be open to all-comers and will be used to select the Australian team for the Championship of Nations if numbers need to be restricted. If there are more than 50 total entries for the big event we plan to have a parallel series, this way everyone will have a full week of racing.
To help with our planning we are asking all fleets to canvass their members to get expressions of interest. This will help us to decide if there needs to be a quota system and, if so, how it should operate so that it is fair for everyone.
We understand that sometimes it is difficult to know what you will be doing in two year’s time but we would appreciate hearing how much interest there is in coming to Australia for a wonderful holiday, good friendships and, of course, some excellent sailing. We would initially like to hear from you as to whether you think that you or any of your members will make the trip to Australia in 2017. We hope to have preliminary estimate of numbers by March 2016.
If you have any comments or questions you can send them to cofn2017@gmail.com
We have a great video to add to the growing collection of radio yachting videos available online. This one was taken using a drone during the recent 2015 RC Laser National Championships. It features the start of the last race of a magnificent day on Sydney Harbour.
With more than 35 boats on the water, the footage shows the magic of radio yachting.
[jwplayer mediaid=”2285″]At the recent 2015 RC Laser championships, Chris Saville, a local amateur videographer politely asked if he could make a video of radio control yachting. He took Cliff aside and asked him a few questions about sailing radio controlled yachts. The result is terrific. Cliff did well talking off the cuff explaining the ins and outs of radio control yachting and the RC Laser and the footage shows what a great day the second day of the 2015 National championships was.
The video is recommended viewing. [jwplayer mediaid=”2278″]
Video Transcript
“Welcome to Dobroyd Aquatic Club in Sydney. This is the 2015 Australian national championship of the RC Laser. The RC Laser is a quarter scale model of the very iconic Laser Dinghy Class which has been sold for decades all around the world and has been an Olympic class for many many years. In fact the current World Champion is an Australian whose dad sails with us here in the RC Lasers.
We have close to 40 sailors here this weekend which may well be a world record in terms of numbers for such an event like this. Devotees sail all around the world, there are very large fleets in the UK, the United States – of course the boat was designed and in the United States – through Asia and the Middle East, South America – all over the world. There has been a big fleet in South Africa for many years.
What we have here this weekend is a collection of people from all of the states of Australia and vying to be the national champion for the year. There is also a state shield which is based upon participation
So here we have the boat – everything above my hand is a quarter scale model of the Laser. Of course being radio-controlled and not having a person sitting on it – it has a keel on it which will ensure that it cannot overturn. You can turn them upside down – it’s a very simple design.
You see you fit the mast into the step here. In order to operate it is just too simple controls with your radio controller. One lets the sail in and out and the second one is the steering with the rudder.
It’s not an easy boat to sail – you’ll see when you have this breeze it’s a challenge for these people sailing with us today. There are world champion classes so it’s at the top level it’s a very competitive sport but at the same time we have people here that it just here not to try and win the competition, its just the sport appeals. – certainly for people who sail other classes of boats and in some cases people that have sailed for many many years then there’s probably half the people that sail with us had never heard of sailing but it was the radio-controlled part that got them into it. We have all ages – it’s certainly very appealing to young people.
In terms of how the boat operates, we control them using 2.4 giga hertz radios which will find their own frequencies so you never get frequency conflicts and basically a small electronic engine under here which is called a servo and that’s just a little winch if you liked it rotates and allows the sail to be let out and pulled back and we have another small winch you can rotate so allows you to move the rudder. We control it with a hand held transmitter and inside here we have the receiver that the transmitter talks to. It’s as simple as that really just have those two controls.
Of course when you’re out on the water it’s all the principles of sailing, which is being able to pick the wind shifts where they’re going to come from. A big part of it is staying out of trouble because we essentially sail to the same rules as big boats America’s Cup and so on so you’ve got to give way approaching buoys and there’s rules around not touching and if you do you do incur a penalty …
A record fleet of 40 boats registered with 34 boats starting in the the 2015 RC Laser National Championships over a weekend where fickle wind conditions caused significant course changes on both days. Kirwan Robb of Victoria took out the top spot with 31 points, followed closely by Scott Fleming also of Victoria taking second on 32 points and Graham Brown of NSW on the podium for third place with 52 points.
Because of the size of the fleet, it was decided to run the competition in 2 fleets, with 4 boats to progress or retire from each fleet. PRO Gary Bromley set interesting courses that were a challenge to the local sailors, as well as the visitors.
Saturday saw light winds coming from the west, and then moving around all over the place – so much so, that only the seeding races and the fleets for the first race were completed at lunchtime. It was a day of difficult starts, with many restarts being the order of the day. Everyone was on the A sail for the day, and all had tales of woe at the end of the first day in which 7 races were finally sailed. With winds moving around all the time, contacts were many and varied. Boats were being smacked down by eddies and flurries of the wind. Heat results were quickly entered into a computer and progressive results quickly available after races. At the end of the first day the leaders were Kirwan Robb and Scott Fleming from Victoria with Graham Brown and Paul Derwent from NSW very close behind.
The Club hosted an excellent dinner for the skippers and their partners on Saturday evening. The Dobroyd Aquatic Club is a perfect venue with great facilities and terrific views from the upper decks over the course above the race area and across the water to the Sydney skyline.
Day 2 – 2015 RC Laser National Championships
Day 2 of the Championships started with a much more promising breeze that appeared more steady from the south west, but causing some challenging starting line set-outs. The first few races had the starting line almost running east west, and competitors found it difficult to get a proper sight along the line . The big decision was whether to run with an A or B sail. Decisions were being made within the countdown sequence of the first race. Most changed back to the A as the wind was dropping off, but with gusts coming through.
As the day progressed, the wind again became more varied in direction and strength, causing large course changes – finally settling on a south-easterly course. Sailors dropped down to the B sail for most of the day; and a few dropped down to a C sail for the last sequence of races.
There was a lot hanging on the final set of races, with nearly all competitors spending some time in the B fleet. Perhaps the unluckiest sailor of the day was Jurgen Luther – in his final race, he was sailing on a C sail – one of the few to do so; and was sailing to climb out of the B fleet to consolidate his overall position. He was leading by the country mile down to the last mark and only had to turn for the line, but completely lost the wind – he fell into a hole, and had enough competitors sail past him to stop his progress into the A fleet. Oddly enough the same thing happened in the A fleet race where the leader had left the carnage behind, but repeated Jurgen’s efforts on the bottom mark. That is the way the championship was.
Scott Fleming, Graham Brown, Gary Bromley
Championship Competition
Gary Bromley awarded the Sportsmanship Award to Carl Sparre – well deserved too. Congratulations to everyone who participated – you all deserve a medal! Everyone had hard luck stories.. Graham sailed without much luck on both days; Peter Burton sailed well, but had his share of problems including his radio; Paul Derwent sailed very quietly and consistently, concentrating on his sailing; Peter Newman had his share of hard luck but finished well; I also have the tales to tell, but am happy with the result; Phillip got really beaten up a number of times that I saw; Robin sailed without luck, as did Hugh, who was caught in the A fleet/B fleet Zone – I think he had the most racing over the 2 days; Rob Fielding achieved a reasonable result, Alan achieved a second and a fourth in the B fleet; Carl sailed without luck, but had his moments; as did Paul Martin. Mark found the going rather difficult, and Gerry was really beaten up in most of his races – that was really unfortunate because he is a much better sailor than his result shows; Narelle had her moment in the sun; and it was good the see Steve participating under very difficult conditions for him.
We look forward to next year’s RC Laser National Championships to be held in Victoria.
