29th January 2012

Sailing Sunday sought a something ,
to the ever-lasting rain .
The river flittered , it was littered , with debris washed  along  the drain .
Don`t bash it with your boatses , we all said so , for that will  really slow you down 

Fresh it was , and brown , not salty , don`t fall in you`ll surely drown .

If  cats went first I did not notice , for I was busy with the ropeses ,

 away we went , after the gun .
 a stiff nor`easter , clouds around , not too much sun .

Dave came by , his voice a cryin` , "Your whisker pole , I have it here!"
"Thankyou Dave, but we can`t stop now , if we meet again then that`s OK "

 Around the mark at reaching speedses , boat flat out and on the plane .
Here`s  the red mark near the boat club , to  the sunset , `round again

Upwind then , was  such a fightses , water sloshing all the time .
Gybing quickly `round the top mark , wind behind you

 Dave !  That pole .. where are you now ?

 A windy day  , no rain and a fast run-out tide. Frank O`Rourke got his cat home in front of Jack Corthals and Tony Kuhn , whilst on handicap it was Tony , Dave Winter and Frank . In the monos it was Paul and Jade ahead of Warren and Alex , with Peter Fitz and Phil Johnson third . On handicap , Peter and Phil took the points , whilst Peter and Taylor Young came second with Norman and Andrew managing a third . Next week we have a series of sprint races scheduled to start  two hours earlier than usual . Note that :
starting time is noon . See you there .

8th January 2012

You don't realise how annoying a sailor can be until you spend a week with them when the wind is good and they're not able to go out and hit the water.  Sunday was certainly a welcome back to the river for our sailors, many of the boats who took to the water last weekend battled with a wind that was holding steady at the 18kt mark and a roaring outgoing tide that whipping up a nasty two foot swell.  Many boats held strong in the trying conditions, with only four managing a finish, others retiring for either the sake of themselves or their boats. By the end of the day Frank O’Rourke and Tony Kuhn crossed the line, making it look easy, in first and second in the catamaran class.  Peter Fitzroy and Kelly Miller on red Start crossed as head of Voyager crewed by Peter and Taylor Young. The marathon race held at the end of the spring series was once again a great success with a small fleet of boats taking part in the dash from Town Green to Dennis Bridge and a dash it turned into.  This time the wind was strong enabling a quick upriver run after a challenging short course down at the Town Green, the work upwind back to the club was a nail bitting race at many times, with both classes of boats in the mix for the win, with the eventual winners being Warren Sykes and Alex Kroog in Big Bang, just ahead of Dave Winter on White Pointers and Peter Fitzroy and Kelly miller on Red Star.  A big congratulation goes to Frank O'Rourke and Tony Kuhn who over the Christmas break travelled all the way to Noosa to compete in the Arrow Catamaran National Titles, Frank returned with the National title and Tony locked away tenth position after a solid sail. Good work boys.  This weekend’s racing starts at 2 pm with a Handicap Start.

4th December 2011

Last weekend saw the sailors at Port Macquarie compete for line honours over the course of five race in one afternoon.  Our new sprint series race format allows for a greater time to be spent on the water, which is what everyone wants, consists of a relatively short course with two laps to fight to the finish line.  The key to this form of racing is all about the start, if you can position yourself right, read the wind and the other boats and hit the line as close to the start you have a good chance to hold your own.  To make the results more confusing the single handed boats were let go before the two handed boats. Across the five races the race for line honours on the catamarans consisted of Tony Kuhn and Dave Winter, in a race of their own, Tony was able to pip Dave for the win in all five races.  In the monohulls it was a more evenly place field with many different boats taking out the top three positions as the afternoon wore on.   Race one saw Paul and Jade Roberson take the win, in race two, Warren Sykes and Alex Kroog locked away a win, races three and four saw Paul and Jade at the top of the time sheets again with the final race, race 5, being closely fought with the Peter and Taylor Young on their boat Voyager coming out on top.  This weekend sees a return to normal racing, with race twelve kicking off at 2pm, Tony Kuhn is on duty and will no doubt have a cracker of a course set for us.

26th of November 2011

Well it was a hard day in the office for the crews of Port Macquarie Sailing Club last Sunday afternoon.  After the week of soaking rain that we received no one had quite expected there to be so much water in the river, which turned into a ferocious run out tide just before the start of race 11.  The tide combined with the fickle nor wester that had begun to blow in made for some very trying conditions out on the river.  Never less the competition was still turned on by all the crews as they jockeyed for line honours after the handicap start that saw the faster crews start nearly 20 minutes after the starter’s horn.  In the monohulls Flembouyant skippered by Paul and Jade Robertson streaked towards the front of the pack regardless of their handicap time.  Phil Johnson onboard swift had an amazing race managing to hold off the ever menacing crew of Peter Fitzroy and Kelly Miller on Red Star to claim second place.  In the catamarans Tony Kuhn and Dave winter showed their skill on the ever changing river battling it out for the top two positions, in the end it was Tony Kuhn who took out the top spot ahead of Dave Winter in second and Scott Witchard in third.  On handicap review all these results remained unchanged.  A big mention must go to Darren Hunt in his OK Dingy whose has just joined our club and is unused to sailing in river conditions, congratulations on your finish.  A friendly reminder that the Christmas party is on Saturday night starting at 6.30pm at the Mykonos Tavern.  This weekend sees the return of our Sprint series, which consists of two, two lap races and a third longer race to close out the afternoon, be sure to get down to the club early as racing starts at 12 PM.

6th of November 2011

With the Hastings River on its near perfect behaviour Port Macquarie Sailing Club hosted the NSW Arrow Catamaran Titles last weekend. Eleven boats and their skippers turned up to for the highly anticipated event, all vying for a chance at the title.  It was great to see the event pulled in people from as far away as Sydney, Grafton and Speers Pt, put together with a spattering of local boats it made for an interesting series.  The Saturday races were definitely suited to the more experienced crews as the wind begun strong and only got stronger as the afternoon progressed with a couple of retirements occurring in the second race as racing turned to survival for some.  Sunday morning brought the lighter winds that were predicted to arrive on Saturday which suited some more than others.  Racing throughout the series was close and well fought with the leaders exchanging positions every tack.  In the end Frank O’Rourke on Return (PMSC) was crowned the 2011 State Champion with Gary Powell on Angry Ant (Speers Pt) and Tony Kuhn on Stella (PMSC) in close contention.  In other news the Club held a very successful Try sailing day in the perfect conditions on Sunday followed by a club race which consisted of only seven monohulls and one visiting Hobie 16 Cat.  Crossing for the win was Warren Sykes and Alex Kroog on Big Bang closely followed Kelly Miller and Peter Fitzroy on Red Star and David Cox in Miss Adventure.  On Handicap Red Star snuck in ahead of Big Bang and Phil Johnson in Swift.  This weekend sees the Tasar Class sailors competing at the Belmont Sailing Club in the Tasar traveller’s trophy, for everyone else it’s racing as usual on Sunday with the 3rd Club Championship starting at 11am followed by a club race at 2pm.

Sorry about the delay, I have just got this report