The 2018 RC Laser sailing National Championships are to be hosted at Mawson Lakes Model Yacht Club, – ‘the Friendly Club’ – where everyone is encouraged to come and have a go. The dates for your diaries are Friday 28th September to Monday 1st October. The club is located in the Salisbury area, 14km north of Adelaide, South Australia.
Yes, it’s the AFL grand final weekend and we will have a screen in the clubhouse on Saturday. The big advantage of the chosen weekend is that the Friday is a public holiday in Melbourne and the Monday is a public holiday in NSW, Queensland and SA. Also with the AFL grand final always played in Melbourne this is the one weekend in September that we can guarantee that there are no AFL finals in Adelaide, so airfares should be cheap and readily available.
There will be a registration, measurement and practice day on the Friday followed by 3 days of racing. Why 3 days of racing you may ask ? We are anticipating around 45 entrants for the 2018 RC Laser sailing National Championships and we will require A, B and C fleets. To fit in a minimum of 16 races for each division, we consider that the titles will be best run over 3 days.
We have some excellent people to help run the event. Firstly we have our club president Dean Bonnett, our club secretary / treasurer Chris Levi and our club assistant secretary Gerry Giebel all working hard to help run the titles. We have John Berry, Mark Easton, Bob Whitehead, Chris Levi, Reg Cunningham and Adrian Heard all on the club organising committee. Our club has 75 members so there will be a good spread of volunteers to help stage the titles.
We have a couple of first class people to take charge of the event. Johno Johnson, widely regarded as one of South Australia’s best PROs will share in officiating the racing together with Mario Gulic, one of Victoria’s best PROs. Mario will also have the role of keeping participants informed on race schedules and race results.
Mawson Lakes is a great location for a national title. The clubhouse is a very handy facility with tea, coffee, drinks, boat storage and toilets available. The club has an excellent floating platform for launching and retrieving boats. Participants will be required to remain within a cordoned off control area while racing, as the cement footpath around the lake needs to be kept clear for local foot traffic.
Mawson Lakes is a major shopping precinct with cafes and restaurants located near the club. There are also many accommodation options nearby, including Discovery Parks – Adelaide Beachfront at Semaphore Park, Highway 1 Caravan and Tourist Park at Bolivar and Windsor Gardens Caravan Park closer to the city.
Registration for the 2018 national titles will open on March 3rd and will be on the MLMYC website – mawsonlakesmyc.com, and a raffle for an RC Laser will also be launched at the club on the same day. Watch for updates on this website.
The South Australian State Titles will be held at Mawson Lakes on Sunday 10th June, starting at 9.30am. This will be a one day event limited to one fleet of 24 boats. Being South Australians and of generous nature we will hold 14 of the 24 places for interstate entries, and three of those places will go to Scott and Jayne Fleming and Malcolm Kampe. This will be a great opportunity to sail at Mawson Lakes prior to the nationals and a chance to test your skills against Malcolm and the two Scotts. Scott Mitchell from SA is the defending state champion.
We look forward to seeing many of you in September and some of you in June.
Adrian Heard
