Tag: Model boats

2018 RC Laser Sailing National Championships at Mawson Lakes, SA

2018 RC Laser sailing national championships
Bob Whitehead (259), John Nieuwenhuizen (148), Lindsay Sawyer (171) and John Berry (256)

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

2018 RC Laser Sailing National Championships

 

South Australian RC Lasers in the News

South Australian RC LasersThe South Australian RC Laser team from Mawson Lakes Model Yacht Club are in the news. Their achievement in winning the State Shield at the recent 2017 RC Laser Championship of Nations held at the Gold Coast last November has been recognised by the magazine, Mawson Lakes Living.

Congratulations to Adrian Heard, Scott Mitchell, Don Turnbull, John Berry, Lindsay Sawyer, Jurgen Luther, Bob Whitehead and Mark Easton for winning the Shield and to John, Lindsay, Bob and Ken (President) for the great group photo.   

The South Australian RC Laser team will be one to contend with at the 2018 RC Laser National Championships taking place on their home waters October. 

More news on the National Championships will be published here shortly. 

To read the full article, go here: Mawson Lakes Living. 

RC Laser Fleet Growing in NZ

RC Laser New Zealand
Pinders Pond, near Roxburgh central Otago. A hot 33C day blowing strong and gusty from the north. Boats sailing with C And B rigs. Photo courtesy of Robert Todd.

The number RC Lasers in NZ is growing rapidly with small fleets of boats increasing both in the north and the south.  Latest boat sales have been in the South Island – Dunedin, Central Otago and Invercargill. 

There is talk this year of a South Island Championship, a North Island Championship and an RC Laser NZ National Championship. We will keep you posted so RC Laser sailors outside of NZ can make travel plans. 

Not to be missed for North Islanders is the Open Day at Gulf Harbour on Sunday the 25th of February  
being held at Regency Lake in Gulf Harbour, Auckland between 10am and 3pm.
RC Laser sailors are invited to come along and join in the sailing. Anyone interested in trying RC sailing is most welcome! There will be boats to try and people on hand to show you the boat and how to sail it.

For further information contact Linton Little golfview@outlook.com or Graham graham@crewmate.co.nz 

 

RC Laser Fleet Portland, Victoria

Rc laser fleet Portland Victoria
In the clubhouse with from left to right, Gary Hein, Hugh Cameron, John Lloyd and Brad Hein

Adrian Heard Visits the RC Laser Fleet in Portland, Victoria 

The RC Laser fleet in Portland Victoria is probably the largest fleet in regional/rural  Australia. I arrived at Portland Yacht Club deep in the industrial heart of Portland Bay to be greeted by the wry smile of Gary Hein. “Welcome, you must be the bloke from Adelaide”, he says.

Gary and his son Brad are the front line in defending the standing of the Portland RC Laser fleet. And what a fleet it is.

I am amazed to see six neatly-rigged RC Lasers sitting in the protection of a comfortable club house, and I am told there are more boats to come. “We only use B rigs here”, says Gary, so I quietly slip my quiver of sails back into the car. Looking out into the bay, I am relieved to see that it is ideal B rig weather.

After rigging my boat in the clubhouse we are soon out on a floating platform with the course buoys set close by. The setting in a brisk south-easterly breeze is quite beautiful. Barring perhaps Dobroyd and Robb Point, this is one of Australia’s best RC Laser venues. There is a small chop present and boat speed and quick tacking are the order of the day.

Considering that they having only been sailing RC Lasers for a year, these guys really know how to race their boats.  After being sandwiched between two boats at the start of the first race, I find the group friendly to compete with and generally respectful of the rules.

Back in the clubhouse after racing I get to know the group better. They are very interested in knowing about the wider world of RC Laser racing, but it is their story that captivates me most. It turns out that they virtually all sail trailer sailers and keelboats, but as Gary Hein put it ‘one night around a campfire and after a bit of drinking, fifteen of us decided to put in an order for RC Lasers’. What an amazing way to start a fleet. Since then David Woolner has further increased their numbers and added more competition to the group.

Portland is an amazing place and it is the home of probably Australia’s largest rurally based RC Laser fleet. Get ready, because you are going to hear a lot more about this fleet in the future. We’re looking forward to seeing the Portland crew at Mawson Lakes in October for the RC Laser National Championships. 

RC Laser fleet Portland Victoria