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The Noelex National Championship was conducted at the Safety Beach Sailing Club on the Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th May 2012.

A quality fleet of 19 Noelex 25’s entered the regatta which was sailed over 6 races with five races to count.

Saturday dawned overcast and drizzly with a 15/20 [...]]]> NOELEX AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012

The Noelex National Championship was conducted at the Safety Beach Sailing Club on the Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th May 2012.

A quality fleet of 19 Noelex 25’s entered the regatta which was sailed over 6 races with five races to count.

Saturday dawned overcast and drizzly with a 15/20 knot south westerly blowing across Dromana Bay. The information session took place at 0900 hrs and the President of the NYAA Inc welcomed the sailors to the regatta. He introduced the Principal Race Officer Geoff Eldridge who briefed the entrants as to local hazards etc. From the two storey section of the SBSC clubhouse windows, anxious faces looked out over the race area with a certain amount of trepidation.

Saturdays racing consisted of four back to back races with a lunch break scheduled between the second and third races. The windward/leeward course consisted of legs of approximately one nautical mile and in the prevailing wind and sea conditions the course configuration tested the skippers and crews. There was several gear breakages suffered in the morning races with one boat, Virgo skippered by Hugh Provis, RBYC having to retire from the regatta.

All 19 boats greeted the starter for the first race of the day which was sailed in blustery conditions. The racing was very close across the entire fleet and tactics both up and downwind played an important part however, Glen Collins and his crew on Leewana proved to have the right combination of sail trim, tactics and boat handing as they won the first, third and fourth races of the day.

After a very social evening including dinner at the SBSC clubhouse the weary skippers and crew members retired to their boats to prepare for the action next day.

Sunday dawned in much the same fashion as the previous day. As the yachts left Martha Cove through the canal into Port Phillip and Dromana Bay the sun attempted to break through the low overcast. The SW wind was blowing at 12 to 15 knots and the sea and weather conditions were similar to Saturday. Thankfully the rain squalls had cleared.

The final two races of the series were fought out and resulted in another two wins for Collings and crew to give them a clean sweep of the series with a score of five points. While Leewana won all five races the competition was much closer than the scores indicate.

At the Presentation of Prizes on Sunday afternoon the President of the NYAA Inc., Andrew Fedorowicz thanked the SBSC members for their input into the series, in particular P.R.O. Geoff Eldridge for his accuracy and patience in setting excellent courses in very difficult shifting wind conditions.

Individual race results:
Elapsed Time results   Handicap results

 
Winners are grinners!
(Photo Gallery here)

Video Highlights      Slideshow:Click here to view slideshow.

Download SD .MP4 file (424×240 / 128MB)

From: David Read

Whitsundays in a stiff breeze. Click for enlargement

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Lesley and I have five granddaughters and I was sure that at least some of them would have fun on a cruise at the Lakes. Five kids and two adults was not going to work so other arrangements had to be made. That’s [...]]]> Read on and all will be revealed….

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Lesley and I have five granddaughters and I was sure that at least some of them would have fun on a cruise at the Lakes. Five kids and two adults was not going to work so other arrangements had to be made. That’s how we ended up with my son Bruce (a sailor from way back), two of his, and two of my daughter Jill’s children on board. Oh, and me!

The plan was hatched some months back. After Christmas all the grandkids would be attending a music camp in Frankston for a few days – they are all into singing and dancing – and since they don’t live anywhere near Frankston, where better to stay than at the beach house (ie our place which is actually nowhere near the beach)? Of course, it gets a little complicated when at various times their parents stayed here too. And the five relatives from the US !!!….. But right after the music camp there would be a few days when Bruce and I and the four of the girls could escape to the Lakes

Long before the plans were finalised, Lesley received an email from one of the girls asking if Nana could make her a sailor suit for the trip as she had always wanted one. Nana could not resist this request, especially as a pattern for a suit was attached to the email! One thing led to another and soon four sailor suits were in production. And the hats were ordered on eBay, as were the labels “Made with love by Nana”. Why do things by halves? When there was a spare moment, we taught them all how to coil and throw a rope and how to tie reef knots, figure-eight, bowlines and round turn and two half hitches. And they learnt the phonetic alphabet at the dinner table.

The day arrived to set off for the Lakes. Two large vehicles were needed even though the instructions were to take only one bag each. And pillows, and sleeping bags. Then there were the mountains of food and drinks, PFDs, etc etc. The dinghy takes up a lot of room, too.

The plan was for me to arrive first and have the boat ready for the mob when they arrived. It didn’t quite work out that way so they had time to get the dinghy inflated while I finished rigging.

Eventually we had everything on board and we headed for a suitable beach – Duck Arm. Here conditions were perfect, with little evidence of the dreaded algae that we had been reading about. There was a large catamaran at the beach that had sailed from Sydney and on board was another girl of just the right age. Soon our lot could be seen exploring all over the luxury cat. A little further along the beach was another TS with two kids on board so soon the seven youngsters had all teamed up for D and Ms on the sand.

Duck Arm was also the perfect spot to practise rowing straight in the dinghy.

Over the next few days, we went to Steamer Landing (the algae was thick in the morning), Rotamah Island, Sperm Whale Head, Metung, Lakes Entrance, Flagstaff Jetty to see the entrance, Barrier Landing and back to the favourite spot, Duck Arm for the last night. The kids swam in the clear waters at Flagstaff and Barrier and found all the geocaches I had planted around the Lakes over Christmas. (They are still there, the coordinates are on TSP).

I nearly forgot – How do you manage with six on board? The two little ones (eight years old) claimed the v-berth and it also had luggage stored in it during the day. The older two (aged eleven) slept on the double which is made up on the sink side. The two poor six foot adults had to sleep head to toe along the starboard side. “Sleep” is probably an exaggeration as the accommodation there is marginal for two persons of our height.

The young crew soon learnt to perform useful tasks as the captain barked his orders. They all became experts at heaving a line to someone on the jetty; they tied fenders to the lifelines and fastened mooring lines to posts. They learnt the cardinal marks and what those red and green signs mean. They know what “trim ship” and “ready about” mean and they even heard the coast guard using phonetics. The older two could drop the main and jib using the downhauls. At the end of the trip they could all steer the boat, even by the jib tell-tales. And it is really useful to have crew available to put “fifty turns up on the keel” as we approached the shallows.

All too soon it was time for the crew to head home but I wished we had had more time available together. All was not lost though as my friend Ed, on Wanton, a Careel 22, was still about and all his crew had by then gone home too.

Wanton and Crème Caramel decided to head for Loch Sport but we had not even rounded Point Turner when we were hit by a fierce wind that had us scurrying back into Paynesville. Next day was reasonable so we tried again to go west. Reaching Loch Sport in good time, we changed our plans and continued on to Hollands Landing and then to Plover Point on the shores of Lake Wellington. We stayed there the night and in the morning had a glorious sail to the picturesque Perry River, (about 8 nautical mile across Lake Wellington) where we had lunch before heading back to Plover.

Leaving Plover next morning, we had pleasant weather at first but on passing Hollands Landing it started to rain and it became quite windy. With the rain came poor visibility, so much so that we soon lost sight of land in any direction and for a time we could not even see each other’s boats. Two unusual things happened to me on the way. Out of the mist came a powerboat, circled around me and then came close. I thought they may have been going to ask for directions, but no, a voice called “I’ve seen you on Youtube”! A little further along, and sailing fairly fast, there was an ominous sound of chain rattling followed by silence. I dashed forward to find that the shock cord keeping the anchor steady on the bow fitting had given way and released the anchor. Very luckily the shackle joining the chain to the rope had caught on the bow fitting instead of letting it all go, and so saved the boat from a dramatic sudden halt.

It was a long and exhausting day’s sail back to Paynesville (20 nautical mile) where we were greeted by other friends who had their Duncanson “Scott Free” on a pontoon near the yacht club.

Plover Point Photo:E Flynn

Ian

Crème Caramel