Commodores Call September 2021
Welcome to the new COVID Sailing Season. As you are no doubt aware, we have had to cancel quite a few events including the Winter Retreat, the Working Bee, the Open Day & Champagne Breakfast and the last Achinar & Commodore’s Cup Winter races. In addition, with ongoing COVID restrictions,the NSW Youth Championships in which Wangi was running a racecourse on the long weekend in October has also been cancelled.
Club Racing
As far as club racing is concerned, due to COVID restrictions we are not in position to run point score races for yachts or Off the Beach classes until after the long weekend which would be Saturday 9 October. This is consistent with what RMYC & LMYC are doing and as a result the first race in the Inter Club RK Robertson set down for the 18 Sep is cancelled. By the way, congratulations to Graeme Vivian in “Voila” winning the Achinar series and Garry Luxton in “2EZY” winning the Commodore Cup over the winter.
Membership & Boat Entries
Membership fees for the coming season are now due, so please go to the WASC website and arrange to renew your membership. This will ensure that you will receive up to date communications regarding club activities and is essential for anyone wishing to sail as a skipper or crew in club races.
Boat Entries
As we are not able to start our point score races as planned, we feel it is unreasonable to charge a full entry fee. As a result, we will modify the entry fee once it becomes clearer as to when racing can resume. To administer this, we have stopped taking entries for races on our website and will arrange for prorate refunds for those that have already entered.
Safety Inspections for Cat 7
We have extended the expiry date of last year’s Categrory 7 Inspection Certificates until at least the 9th of October, as we are unable to do face to face inspections under the current COVID restrictions. We will however be trialling video inspections via mobile phone and if successful inspectors may contact boat owners to continue the process, so standby.
On Water Sailing
Under current restrictions,it would appear that multiple members of a family, all living together, and only one other person are allowed to go sailing on a boat as recreation/exercise. In addition, from Monday 13 Septembera maximum of 5 people can sail together onboard, providing they are all fully vaccinated and from the same local government area (Lake Macquarie).
As a result, I would like to advise you that a number of sailors are intending to sail each Saturday prior to official racing commencing.
They intend to start from the club at 1.30pm and sail the following course:
Start, Skye Pt (s), Wangi Pt (p) Pelican (p) Skye Pt (p), Wangi Pt (s), club and then continue on for a second lap.
At exactly 2.45pm all boats will turn around and retrace their steps back to the club.This is not an official club event, just a cruise, as there will not be a start sequence, handicaps or results recorded.
Sailing Club Booklet
The new booklet for the new sailing season is now printed. It includes among other things, for yachts the Notice of Race, Sailing Instructions, Courses and the Sailing Program. The Booklet and Course sheet are blue in colour this year, so please dispose of last year’s pink documents to avoid confusion, as there have been some changes. Some copies have been distributed to local boat owners. We have plenty of supplies of the booklet along with laminated course sheets which can be collected from the sailing club on Saturday morning between 10 and 10.30am. Details are also on the club website.
Junior Sailing & OTB
I am pleased to announce that Joel Skelton has agreed to take on the roll of Junior Club Captain. In addition, Ewan Shearer will be the coordinator for the Learn to Sail Program (LTS) this season. Junior sailing, OTB & LTS will be returning to Saturdays rather than Sundays as was the case last year. Further details will be provided soon, however on water activities are not anticipated to commence until Saturday 9th of October in line with yacht races.
Moth Worlds
In a fleet of 139 boats, which included multiple Olympic Gold Medallists, America’s Cup Sailors and Sail GP sailors, local sailors did extremely well at the World Moth Championships in northern Italy. Tom Slingsby now living at Coal Point, won from Iain Jensen from Fishing Point 2nd, Kyle Langford from Coal Point 4th and Nathan Outteridge from Wangi finishing 8th.
Well done guys
Sail GP
Sail GP, which features quite a few local sailors racing on foiling 50-foot catamarans, is on again this weekend, this time at St Tropez in France. Racing will be shown live on Fox Sports 505 starting around 9pm Saturday & Sunday nights our time. If we can’t go racing at least we can still watch some racing.
Please stay safe, get vaccinated and hope this lockdown will end soon.
Tony
