Head of the Harbour - this Sunday!

This Sunday is the annual Head of the Harbour regatta hosted at Vaucluse 12 foot Sailing Club.

Always a fun day, this is one of the main Sabot regattas for our region. As well as our own fleet of intrepid Sabot sailors we will be welcoming visitors from other clubs around Sydney.

Sailing School will be running as normal, including Sailing School and Adult LTS, but it will be busier in the club than usual.

A big thank you to the many members who are volunteering their time to help on the day. We recognise it’s a big time commitment and we’re very grateful for your support.

Details of the day, race documents and results can all be accessed here

Xmas Holiday Camps

We’re reaching capacity for all of our holiday camps. If you want to register kids please do so ASAP (click here). We will be closing registrations for individual camps as they get full.

For those that expressed interest in the advanced skills camp (14 - 18 Dec) - we’ve received sufficient interest to confirm this is going ahead. Please book here

Sunday 29 November - Report

Autumn closed with a very hot and very windy bang last Sunday!

Just as the Learn to Sail fleet were launching the first big gust came through with a 40 degree blast of 25 knot wind! Needless to say most of the PJ fleet found themselves blown back ashore rather quickly!

Some fast action from the coaches and parents ensured everyone stayed safe - and for the most part happy!

Back onshore we changed the focus to relay races with some rope tying cunningly tucked in to make sure the kids kept learning. A short day on the water, but another good day at the club!

The Sabot fleet were rigged and ready to race. A few of the kids were getting quite excited about a blast in the breeze. Race Officer, Adrian Paul, hoisted the AP to see if the wind would abate. It didn’t so thecorrect decision was made to abandon racing. The afternoon fleet followed suit.

New Check In using a QR Code to remain COVID Safe

We have introduced QR Code posters at the entrance to the club to enable electronic COVID Safe check-in.  The QR code sign-in process uses the existing ServiceNSW App that members might already have as it is already in many café’s, restaurants and gyms around Sydney. If you don’t have the app, please download it in the Apple App Store HERE or the Google Play Store HERE.

Before you enter the club, you will be required to: 
·      scan the QR code displayed at our front entrance
·      electronically check-in using the ServiceNSW App
·      show the confirmation to one of the Club officials

If you are unable to download the app or are having difficulty registering the manual check in form needs to be completed

Sunday 22 November - Report

A beautiful morning greeted the sailors last Sunday. Light breezes, sunshine and a lower tide meant we even had some space on the beach!

The Sailing School fleet are steadily migrating across to PJs as the term progresses. It’s fantastic to see the kids building confidence skippering their own boats. A big thanks to our instructors for their awesome work nurturing the next generation of sailors. We even had a brave mum taking to the ocean solo on a PJ. Great effort!

The volunteer roster is working very well now. Thank you to everyone for your efforts - especially our canteen captains, Sasha and Fiona. This is one of the biggest roles on a Sunday and these two legends turn up every week and work a solid 6 hours shift. Thank you ladies.

Race fleets were doing sprints this week. We had 10 Sabots in the morning, which is the biggest fleet in many years. Well done all! The afternoon was lighter winds for the three Cherubs that raced. Results available here

Sabot - Upcoming Regattas

There are a couple of regattas coming up for the Sabot class:

Teralba Club Regatta - Sun 28th November

$10 per Sabot and a presentation after sailing on Saturday for juniors. Saturday 2.30pm start. Sunday 2.00m start. SI’s issued on the day. Enter here

Head of the Harbour - Sun 6th December

Vaucluse is delighted to once again host the annual Head of the Harbour Sabot regatta on 6th December. This year promises to be a great day out on the water.

This regatta has a long tradition and is an invitational for all our clubs.

The details of the event including COVID plan, NoR and SI are included below, together with the booking details.

 https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=682213&bof=1

 I encourage early entry, to assist us in planning for a smooth day.

If you have any question please do not hesitate to contact Scott Day (0421626092) or our regatta Director Kate O Loughlin

Speers Point Club Regatta - Sat 12th December

This is a re-run because it was called off in September when a dog flew high from a chain before the start.  For those that don’t know, Speers Point is the same waters as Teralba on Lake Macquarie, so another good reccy opportunity at this event too.

For those considering a weekend on the lake, Sundays are extremely busy at Wangi for sabots too.  There are 2 sessions of LTS (8-10am)/Intermediates(10-midday) and then junior club racing, mostly 3 races, starting after midday with 10-15 boats.

Any questions on Speers Point or Teralba events, please contact Scott Day by email

Dick Winning Fun Day - Sun 13th December

The end of term is approaching. And that means the social highlight of term 4 is just around the corner - the Dick Winning Fun Day!

For the new members, this is a social family day to close out the term. It starts at 10am and runs through til 4pm. The focus is on beach games, socialising and having fun.

Program of Events

10am - 10.45am - Greasy Pole (three categories: under 10 yrs, 10 - 13yrs, 13yrs +)

10.45am - 11.45am - Swimming Races (kids & parent categories!)

12pm - 1pm - Lunch

1pm - 1.30pm - Beach Games (Tug of war & Treasure Hunt)

2pm - 2.45pm - Kids & Parents PJ race (start in front of clubhouse)

3pm - Afternoon tea, with a guest appearance from Santa!

The Canteen will be serving lunch at $10/head. Please bring a plate for afternoon tea, and a present for Santa to gift to your kids.

Head of the Harbour Regatta - Sun 6th December

Volunteers needed!

VA12SC are hosting the annual Head of the Harbour Regatta on SUNDAY 6TH DECEMBER. This is a full day regatta for 1 up and 2 ups Sabots from the Southern NSW Sabot Sailing Association and invited guests.  This includes Sabot sailors from VA12SC and surrounding clubs.  In previous years we have had 30-40 sabots and their supporters including parents and siblings.  We will also have a Green Fleet for up & coming Sabot sailors. Learn to Sail will also be conducted.

Inter-club regattas are a fantastic training ground for VA12SC children to experience a larger scale event & get excited about the possibility of competing at inter-club & interstate regattas including States and National competitions.

We require VA12SC club members to step up in a number of volunteer roles. If you have a boat that can be used as a support boat please advise & we can possibly allocate it to a position on the course.  

We require the following positions to be filled. If you have any experience in any of these roles or would be keen on a certain position please advise.

Start Boat Committee

Support Boats & Safety Boats

Measurement/Safety Check

Beach Marshals (Kutti & Gibsons Beach)

Parking Marshals (top of Wharf Road & Gibsons Beach)

Canteen

Registration Desk

More information and a volunteer roster will be circulated shortly. Please contact Kate O’Loughlin at kate@wattlesong.com.au or 0407 109 760 for further details.

Club Championships Race 3 - Reports

What a day! Summer is officially here! With one of the highest tides of the year, club championships, the good weather and the biggest turn out of sailors I’ve seen in six years it was very busy on the beach! Well done to everyone for coping with it so well. Another cracking day at VA12SC!

Race Results available here. Reports below.

Sabots

With seven boats on a tight start line it was one of our mostly hotly contested club champs in recent years. Max Nearn prevailed over Zac Golovsky to maintain his picket fence and a series score of 3. Strong! A special thanks to Adrian Paul & Sally Badger who’ve been Race Officers for all morning racing this term.

Flying 11s

Race report – David O’Loughlin

We had a 15knt North easter, a packed harbour with Yachts and 18fters mixing it up with our fleet. It was hectic out there.
JackO had to gybe away from a Port tack Yacht who could not control their boat. Yachts were broaching downwind at times it was chaos..
We had a full complement of Support boats and safety boats 3 on water in addition to the start boat.
Sophia Ugarte and Emma Badger won the F11’s convincingly by a few mins shooting past JackO who had gear problems
Earlier JackO came from dead last at mark one to lead to for most of the race in a great display of power reaching.. Awesome to watch.
The run out tide really threw up challenges for the F11’s on the reaching, probably JackO set the benchmark running high across the tide to get out of it a bit and then jibed back high to the wing mark getting a quick inside run on mark 2 to jump past Sophia who was leading at that time. Then at the end of lap 2 his massive 2 min lead came crashing down with gear issues…(a savage knot in his spinnaker halyard that took him the remainder of the race to sort out)
Sophia cruised past JackO and through the remainder of Lap 3 and won by 50seconds. Jacko  pipped a fast finishing Max by 5 or so seconds to finish second – I could hardly watch.. it was a close thing.
JJ led well to the first mark with his best upwind performance to date, His boat again had gear issues, but he finished confidently, well done.

Cherubs

Race report – David O’Loughlin
Ombeline and Pierre won the cherubs in a great display and their boat handling has really improved
Second was ChrisO and third was Neil
Sophie O and Natasha Walshe joined in for the first week and had a hard time holding it down…
I was so proud of them all - they are all really improving fast.
We had 4 Cherubs and 4 F11’s comprising 16 members, all having a great time, one late scratching from Richard and Ella meant we just missed out on the biggest turnout for years –
I’m confident that we are heading in a good direction.

Changes to Sailing Instructions

Our sailing instructions (SI’s) have been recently amended in order to improve scoring accuracy and reporting through ScoreIT. The revised sailing instructions are located here. You can access the Racing Rules of Sailing is located here.

Summary of amendments
Changes have been made to clauses 15.3 and 20.1 ii. of our Sailing Instructions as follows:

> 15.3 Boats still racing after the time limit has expired will be allocated a point score equal to the number of boats that have started the race + 1 (ie SRS). This changes Rules 35 and A4.

> 20.1 ii. Each race in each event will be scored as provided in RRS 90.3 but applying A9 Race Scores in a Series Longer than a Regatta.

These changes have been approved by the Race Committee for application to this seasons' Club Championship race results. Race results are now updated and published after each Club Championship race. Club Championship provisional results are located here for each class.

Please feel free to reach out to Alex Badger (Rear Commodore) or another member of our Race Committee if you wish to discuss any aspect of these changes or scoring in general.

Xmas Holiday Camps - filling fast!

We’ve had a heap of kids already signed up for our Xmas Holiday Camps. So much so that we’ve put on a fourth week to cater for demand. If you’re keen to get your kids involved, it’s definitely worth signing them up sooner than later to ensure they get a place. Camps cater to beginners through to seasoned sailors. Getting a friend to sign up with your kid always helps them enjoy it even more.

Camp dates:

7th Dec - 11th Dec 2020 (choose 5,4 or 3 day camp)

14th Dec - 18th Dec 2020 (choose 5,4 or 3 day camp)

11th Jan - 15th Jan 2021 (choose 5,4 or 3 day camp)

18th Jan - 22nd Jan 2021 (choose 5,4 or 3 day camp)

Details and booking link here

Sustainably Sailing

On Sunday, our little sailing club was powered 100% by solar energy, we had the smallest bag of food waste which went into organics recycling, all cans were recycled, bottled water is not sold anymore and a very small amount of rubbish went into the red bin. Previously we used to put at least two full bin liners in the landfill bin every week!!
Thanks to your support, we are kicking our sustainability goals! It just goes to show how small changes, make a big impact.

Sailing School - Sunday 15th November

A perfect day for our Learn to Sail crew. With lighter winds we were able to start moving the kids out of Pacers and into the PJs - skippering their own boats without instructors aboard! There were a few swimmers, but with the self draining cockpits the kids can quickly right the boats and carry on - making capsizing fun not frightening!

Photos courtesy of Scott Denton

Upcoming Events

22 November - Sprint Racing & Sailing School

29 November - Club Champs Race 4 & Sailing School

6 December - Head of the Harbour Regatta & Sailing School

13 December - Dick Winning Fun Day

O'pen Skiff 'have-a-go-day' - This Sunday!

This Sunday O’pen Skiff will be hosting a ‘Have-a-go-day’ on Kutti Beach from 10.30am to 1.00pm for kids to try out this exciting new boat.

O’pen Skiffs are one of the classes of dinghy redefining kids’ sailing. There will be a number of O'pen Skiffs rigged and ready for kids to have a go, with specialist instructors to show how to sail the boats. This event is free of charge and open to all members & friends of the club.

If you’re kids are interested in having a go please register here so they know how many boats & coaches to bring along.

If you’re not familiar with the O’pen Skiff, check out this video and the pic below.

Save the Date(s)

Two important diary dates for everyone:

Sunday 6th December - Head of the Harbour Regatta
This is a Sabot regatta with competitors from around the region. The club will be full and fun will be had.

Sunday 13th December - Dick Winning Fun Day
Arguably the most important date this side of Chrissy…it’s all about beach games, greasy pole and (a very nautical) Santa. Check out the details here, along with photos of previous years.

Finally some good weather!

After two weeks of rain and wind, the sun finally shone on Watsons Bay last weekend, and the winds were perfect. The race fleets were largely out of town, but the Learn to Sail fleets (young and old!) had a cracking time back at base.

Flying 11 State Titles Report

Four VA12SC teams made their way to the Flying11 states on the Pittwater last weekend, hosted by Bayview Yacht Racing Association.

Despite the challenging conditions, with races in 25 knot winds to 5 knot winds, the results were very commendable:

• 25th overall for Protagonist 1366 (Skipper Max Nearn Crew Zac Golovsky)

• 28th Shotgun 1403 (Skipper Jack O'loughlin Crew Sol Golovsky)

• 36 Bandit 1394 (skipper Jamie Bando Crew Isabella Badger)

• 37 Marvellous (skipper Sophia Ugarte and Emma Badger).

Some highlights:

For most of Race 2 on Day 2 Sophia Ugarte was coming in the top 10 after sailing her own race on the margins in clear air.

Jack O sailing into a hole and seeing his crew Solly Golly paddling on the leeward side.

The most capsized boat award is a tie between Marvellous and Protagonist.

Man Over Board - this was close with Jack O losing his crew and needing a support boat to bring him back. Slightly more exceptional was Simon Bando on Kutti (yep Kutti the inflatable rib) who was able to loose Sally Badger his crew over the side.

And no regatta is complete with out the Mr Fix it award to David O, making emergency repairs on the go, that almost held a boom vang together in 25knots.

Well done Team Vaucluse. Looking forward to Round 2 at Port Kembla Sailing club in February.

Sabot Twilights - anyone interested?

From Ashleigh Minnett:

I just wanted reach out to other families as I am very interested in getting together a group of interested parents and kids who would like to participate in a weekly one up Sabot twilight sailing on an
afternoon after school on a weekly basis .
It would be fantastic to be able to provide the kids more time on the water sailing on top of their regular Sundays. A lot of other clubs do this and it really benefits the kids and and it works really well, especially now the days are long and we can make the most of the summer conditions and our idyllic location. It really doesn’t get much better than our harbour views blue waters and north facing club house!
We will need enough interested families to make it work .
Please contact me if interested and we can discuss a mutually agreeable afternoon that works for as many of us as possible.
I can be contacted on
Email ash.minnett@gmail.com or
ph : 0419266145

Sabot State Titles Report

8 sailors made the trip to Gosford. First time for some and familiar territory for others, they all got a taste of what is like to be part of the SNSW squad and the whole team were very friendly and supportive.  Our squad of Zac Golovsky, Max Nearn, Hugo Minnett, Georgia Silverton, Charlie &  Oscar Paul, Izzy & Emma Badger all had their moments to shine.  5 races over two days 44 entries, winds from the North and the South with races in 8 knots and 20+ knots testing the sailors all weekend.

Emma made it out each day.  Oscar showed a gutsy performance finishing races both days.  Oscar took home a recognition prize along with Hugo. It was Hugo’s first regatta toughing it out with the big boys in the big breeze, his head never went down, the smile never left his face.  If you think Russell Coutts is a cool customer wait until you see this chap on the race course!  Talking of cool customers does anything phase Georgia?!  She gunned into the top ten by day two only to be nailed by the gust of the day and still came home smiling.

Izzy, Charlie, Zac and Max were right in amongst it and all in the top 20 after the 5 races.  Zac was straight out of the blocks fourth at the first mark in race one, Max best scored with a 6th.  Charlie was nipping at their heals with some great starts but with a penalty turn holding up for hitting the odd mark.  Izzy was loving the windy races and picking places up all day with great boat handling.

State Champs is in two parts with next round at Drummoyne 13/14 February so plenty of time to build our squad numbers.

(Author: Simon Nearn)

Max Nearn on ‘Thunderstruck’

Rising star, Adrian Paul, having a well earned rest between races….