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Report From Garry Bromley

The weekend of the 24th & 25th of August saw the running of the NSW State Title for RC Laser class. The event was hosted by Koonawarra Bay Sailing Club at Kanahooka point, Lake Illawarra.
While numbers were low the quality of the fleet was high; with entrants from as far away as South Australia.

The Competition

Saturday saw nine starters, with the fleet losing Bob White at lunch time after sercuming to the flu. Overnight gales threatened to postpone racing but the morning brought a cold light westerly breeze so racing proceeded at 10.00am. Early heats on Saturday saw no clear leader with placings being distributed throughout the fleet. By lunch time Graham Brown began to string together some consistent results. With the breeze rotating slowly through 180 degrees, many course adjustments were made during breaks. Finally lunch was called and the course reset again directly in front of the clubhouse, to the advantage of competitors and spectators.

After lunch Jürgen Luther (SA) also showed much consistency
to move away from the fleet with Graham Brown. The afternoon session saw the breeze settle from the east and featured great open course racing with very little shifting of direction. Neither side of the course was favoured, with the fleet spreading evenly across the beats.

After racing on the Saturday Koonawarra Bay provided a cheese and cold meat platter which went well with wine and beer. Overnight, boats were able to be left fully rigged under security in the clubhouse.

Sunday morning again started with a light off shore breeze, which quickly turned 180 dig, fortunately before the start of the first heat. Cliff Bromiley managed to join the fleet after doing good things with his family Saturday.

With the course set, racing commenced again circa 10.00am with some great close racing being a feature. PRO Garry Bromley and course co-coordinator Jon Pinkerton kept courses reasonably short to allow for a final heat tally approaching 30.

Graham Brown & Jürgen Luther continued to be consistent
throughout Sunday with Graham just edging away after lunch. Rapidly on the rise throughout Sunday was Peter Newman who had some great results mixed with some bad luck.

Final Placings
Final placings saw Graham Brown (64pts) Dobroyd RC Lasers, Sydney, winning the title from Jürgen Luther (72pts) Mawson Lakes, South Australia, and Peter Newman third (99pts) Dobroyd RC Lasers. Peter Newman received PRO sports award for “taking a few on the chin” and picking himself up so well. Interesting to note nearly all competitors won a heat, indicating the close nature of the racing. Also of note was the exceptional behaviour of all competitors. This made running the event a pleasure and showed the standard of this class is up there with the best of them.

Thanks to Koonawarra Bay members and Ted Gay from Kogarah Bay. Also to those who provided great photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Report from Rod Popham AUS 42

This inaugural event, of what will be a World RC Laser Championship in future, was held at the West Lancs Yacht Club at Southport in the UK. Two weeks before the event, the 2013 UK Nationals were held in Gosport in the south of England.

The Fleet

The championship heats were held over six days with a lay day in the middle and another ‘orientation’ day before – five full sailing days. With three RC Lasers from the Netherlands, three from France, one American and two Australians,  the international contingent was good. A large number of boats were expected to attend from the UK but the local turnout was poor. The quality of the UK contingent, however was excellent, as the winner of the 2013 UK RC Laser Nationals and some key boats attended.

The Conditions

The lake venue was close to the sea and the yacht club facilities, welcome to competitors excellent, and water access was easy. Winds were variable from light to moderate for most of the days and varied in direction – we only got into C-sails for one day with most days sailing in B-sails and A-sails.

Before the event all boats were weighed fully set up with B-sails and the key dimension between the base of the mast and the bottom of the gooseneck checked on all rigs.

 The Competition

From the start competition was very tough but the PRO and helpers set good courses to test every point of sailing. A French protest on the Monday and the events that followed, including involvement of the local Police (another story), delayed things a bit – but everyone settled down happily and cheerfully again and sailing was on in great spirit.

From the start of the heats, current UK Champion David Fowler and the Frenchman Marc Albiges started to dominate with heavy competition from the USA boat, key UK representatives and Taco Faber from the Netherlands. Dave Bedford from Australia sailed very well and consistently to be in contention in most heats.

It was found out later in the regatta that there were two big 2.4Ghz deadspots out on the lake and Rod Popham did not get his boat electronics working properly until the last race of the third day when he was lying 13th in the fleet. With the layday his boat was stripped down and everything replaced and a 29Mhz system installed – Rod was back in action! With so many DNFs from the first three days, Rod had two days to get back into the standings.

The catering for the event by the Club was excellent and after a days sailing it was a very enjoyable opportunity to sit down with the local and international Laser sailors and their wives socially at the bar.

AThe Future of the World RC Laser Championship

meeting was held with the UK distributor to discuss future RC Laser events. It was proposed that the international RC Laser website would be activated to coordinate international events in the future. A

·         The Championship of Nations event would be held every two years – the next in Netherlands in 2015 and it was suggested that Australia would host the 2017 series.

·         Most representatives agreed that they would be extending the acceptance of the John Tushingham D-sails for all events for extended periods.

The support from the UK RC Laser distributor Peterkin was excellent with a spare boat, sails, electronics, servos, and a full range of spares made available from the start of the regatta. Every competitor also received a C-sail signed by all the competitors at the end of the regatta.

 The final results are tabulated below with Australia’s representatives doing well – Rod had moved up to 6th after the last two days sailing and Dave into a very consistent and creditable 7th place. We are waiting for the best photos to come from the UK and will post them when received.

It was a great regatta with lots of good experience in tactics and sailing RC Lasers and meeting old friends and making new ones for Dave and Rod – they are already planning to go to Netherlands in 2015.

The RC Laser community can now access information about upcoming events and news in Facebook.

Radio Control Sailing Australia set up the Facebook Page a few months ago and has steadily been increasing the number of stories and pictures posted there.

There’s also been an increase in the number of people in the RC Laser community going to the page, liking stories and adding comments. It’s a great way to share information, opinion and to offer congratulations to your companions for excellent competition racing or to post news of your upcoming events and regular sailing days.  Please check it out at  https://www.facebook.com/RadioControlSailingAustralia?ref=hl

There has been a flurry of RC Laser championship racing lately, with the RC Laser Championship of Nations held a few weeks ago in West Lancashire, while closer to home the QLD State Titles were held in May, and the Victorian State Titles in June. Now it’s time to get ready for the RC Laser NSW State Titles on 24-25 August 2013, hosted by Koonawarra Bay Sailing Club.  All of these events offer important championship racing experience leading up to the Australian RC Laser Championships being held on 5-6th October 2013 in South Australia, hosted by the Adelaide Radio Control Yacht Racing Club.

Registrations for the NSW RC Laser State Titles currently sits at 9, with 8 participants from NSW and one from South Australia. Click here for the full list of participants.

The Koonawarra Bay Sailing Club is located on Kanahooka Point, Dapto on the western shore of the vast and spectacular Lake Illawarra.  The Lake regularly experiences lively conditions, with plenty of wind to make for an exciting couple of days racing. Click here for the Notice of Race and here for the entry form.

Australian RC Laser sailors, Rod Popham and Dave Bedford, put in excellent performances at the Championship of Nations against a tough international field. Coming in at 6th and 7th after five days of sailing and 30 races, the WA-based pair continually threatened the top five.

Hosted by the West Lancashire Yacht Club in the UK, the inaugural Championship of Nations was held between 21st -26th July 2013 and saw representation from UK, Holland, France, USA and Australia. With many races being extremely close, the event was described as “a week of great competitive, yet sportsmanlike racing”. The winners trophy was taken home by Dave Fowler of GBR,  second was Marc Albiges of France, and third was Taco Fabern of Netherlands.

The second RC Laser Championship of Nations will take place in 2015.