This Week's News. The good, the bad and the cuddly

Transcription

1 RE: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2014 Forward to a Friend This Week's News Quicklinks Duty Roster MYC Results MYC website MYC Video Channel Hartley Association Laser Association Minnow Association Mirror Association Mirror States photos Racing Calendar Seabreeze Mug of the Week The good, the bad and the cuddly Take your pick about the cuddly factor, but former two-time commodore Jerome Toonen seized the moment on Sunday to show how the MYC club shirt has progressed from a white/grey in the '90s, to a thickish fabric, mainly white version in the early 2000s, and now the new-look navyblue-and-white polo shirt. The latest offering was snapped up by many members in the new year and is very prominent around the club, particularly during presentations on Sundays. Our models (from left) are Jerome in his swish and swanky modern shirt; former commodore and current Rear Commodore Training Ken Patterson in the shirt from the early 2000s, and Chief Starter John Wood in his old faithful.

2 Well, experience counts for nothing sometimes. Why else would former commodore Andrew Carter and defending club champions David Ponton and Alan Benn forget to sign on for Club Heat 5? David tried to make amends by sailing in close to the Start Box before the race and bellowing out a verbal sign-on, but Chief Starter John Wood had his earphones in, listening to AC/DC, and missed David's bleat. Alan was prepared to accept the Mug, purely to get a free drink. He said he couldn't find the sign-on sheet downstairs, but on Sunday there was only one sheet Racing Wrap A fresh sea breeze greeted 19 starters for Club Heat 5 on Sunday. The Three Amigos were given the all clear to start first in the Hartleys, while it was no surprise that the awesome Full Rigs outnumbered the pesky Radials in the combined Laser fleet. Well, it was six boats each but Bob Jackson didn't finish in the Radials and had the audacity to blame gear failure. for all fleets, so good try, Mr Secretary. So the Mug goes to Andrew, who is our barman and didn't have to move to fetch his reward. GOTCHA: The MYC hidden camera captures Bob Jackson launching his Laser 1.7. A cheeky Bob claimed it was really

3 a Radial with a busted top section, but we're not falling for that one, old Bobby boy. Regatta Diary ^^ Walpole in the Trees, March 1-2, WYC. ^^ Minnow States, March 1-3, TCYC. ^^ Laser States, March So it was Hartleys away first because someone had to get away early. Fair dinkum! John Gaunt (it wasn't him) turned up the wick from the start and took what seemed like a commanding lead after the Bunbury Bridge-St Annes leg. But then along came Dad, Terry (who must have been in a hurry to get away). From then on, it was Terry ("I'm late, I'm late") Gaunt Snr from John, with Brian Plumb filling the podium. 1-3, RFBYC. ^^ Mirror State Championships, Part 2, March 30, SBYC. ^^ Mandurah Easter Regatta, April 18-21, MOFSC. Thank you To Nick and Daniel in the Support Boat; John and Steve in the Start Box; Andrew behind the bar; Jerome for organising the pizza night; and Leo and Isabella in the canteen To The West Australian for publishing our results each Tuesday (or sometimes Wednesday). THEY'RE OFF: John Gaunt (905) holds the windward advantage over Brian Plumb, with Terry Gaunt busily sorting through his appointment diary in the red boat. In the Lasers, the first run to St Annes saw Matt Clark- Massera leading from brother Jack (in a very, very pesky Radial) and David Ponton, with Alan Benn slipping through on the inside of Jerome Toonen at the mark. At this stage Robert Hermans had plenty of catching-up to do. Alan strutted down the catwalk to Aerodrome in his fetching new sail, which he said made it easy to de-power his boat. However, the wind god Huey was smiling on the Full Rigs as Robert got the benefit of a prolonged gust to catch the pack. By the time the Lasers headed back from Maylands

4 Duty Roster Buoy, the bookies had shut their bags. David Ponton had surged clear and was now at unbackable odds. Please check here to see if you are on duty in the next few weeks. FALSE DAWN: Matt Clark-Massera was off to a flyer but it didn't last too long. Elsewhere, the Mixed Fleet added some spice when Chris Holyday's Sabre closed in ominously on Terry Gaunt Jnr's Pacer. Sorry to say, another false dawn, with Terry and his daughter, Tahlia, too good. The Mirrors, unfortunately, were way back - in a different postcode. But pats on the back to Andrew Carter, who sailed solo and finished third, and Dylan Holthouse and Creek Ellis, who didn't finish but stuck it out for most of the race in testing conditions. MIXED FLEET: Chris Holyday, in his Sabre, shades Terry Gaunt Jnr, while the two Mirrors need to monitor their countdowns a little more closely.

5 The breeze fluctuated throughout the afternoon and skippers had to be on red alert for the many bullets that made life interesting. Robert Hermans persisted in the Lasers and sailed under and past Matt Clark-Massera in the final thrash to St Annes, and that's where Dave Hogg capsized, when it looked like he had avoided the dreaded wooden spoon. It was a memorable day for Commodore Les Mack, who looked astern and actually saw some rivals instead of empty water, while the ever-improving Mike Wilcox snaffled equal third place on handicap. * Well done to Jerome, who finished the race with a broken bottom section, though he didn't know it until it was pointed out onshore by Matt! RESULTS: Club Championship Heat 5, Consistency Heat 18: Mixed Fleet: 1. & Fastest, One Direction (Pacer, T Gaunt Jr-Tahlia Gaunt); 2. Tango (Sabre, C Holyday); 3. Dinki (Club Mirror, A Carter). Laser Full Rigs: 1. & Fastest, Force Majeure (D Ponton); 2. Mr Wah Wah (M Clark-Massera); Equal 3. Slick Chick (K Patterson); Equal 3. No Banana (M Wilcox). Laser Radials: 1. LWS (L Mack); 2. Stuffabout (J Toonen); 3. & Fastest, Ayoopdook (A Benn). Hartley TS16s: 1. Redback (J Gaunt-R Pagett); 2. & Fastest, Welsh Dragon (T Gaunt-A Christie); 3. I DUN-O (B Plumb-J Plumb). - STEVE FOX Training Report I spent a few hours during the week repairing the damage to Buzzin, caused when a wind gust lifted it and then dumped it on to its trolley. The repair involved cutting out damaged plywood to form a neat hole, then sanding the inside of the edges of the wound to form a clean surface, then gluing on a piece of marine ply. When this was set a patch was carefully made to insert into the exterior ply and then glued into place. When the glue was dry the surface of the patch had to be filled slightly because the hull, at this point, had a very slight curve and the ply I had used was slightly less thick than the original. When the filler was dry,

6 a quick sanding, followed by a paint with a sealing coat and then top coat, finished the job. Thanks to Murray Playne for scraps of marine ply to do the repair. He is building a sailboat and had produced some very useful offcuts. Today we welcomed two new arrivals both to Australia and to the club. Vojtech Gajdos and his daughter, Alica Gajdosova, came to this country from Slovenia and have spent just a year here. While Vojtech speaks English, Alica had very little skill before she arrived but now shows a great command of the language and is speaking very confidently. I can only guess at how steep the learning curve must have been. When the wind finally arrived they began by sailing a reaching course, occasionally with circular diversions, as so often happens with new chums on the water. Both got to

7 the stage of being able to read the wind (when it finally arrived) from tell tales and maintaining a course. It didn t take long for it to become very clear that this pair should sail a Pacer in future in the Mirror it was a real squeeze for them to get between the vang and mainsheet during tacking. After my experiences last week I can well relate to their discomfort! While I spent the morning with Vojtech and Alica the rest of the fleet chased some breeze. Influenced by the Winter Olympics, Les, Alan and Bob had set a slalom course near Racecourse Buoy. Unlike Solski there was no snow and it was far from being cold. Nor was there any wind for the first 45 minutes or so. The water surface was mirror-like. Thankfully a pleasant south-easterly finally came, and later an early south-wester, and the early frustrations were forgotten. The idea was to develop skill in tacking upwind. Alex and Xander showed their skill in finishing well before the others who chose to follow courses that were far from being direct, often overshooting the markers by wide margins. Thanks to Bob, Alan, Les, Matthew and Nick.

8 Best wishes to Dylan Holthouse (left) and Creek Ellis who will represent the club in the WA Minnow State Championships at The Cruising Yacht Club, Rockingham, over the holiday weekend coming up. - KEN PATTERSON Rear Commodore Training Triple whammy In his Training Report last week, Ken Patterson acknowledged John Arkle's donation of Pacer sails and spars to the club. John sails for pleasure, not racing, and has a Red Witch trailer-sailer at Nedlands Yacht Club. He also bought an old club Pacer from MYC and the 2008 spring edition of The Mudlark ran a report of his maiden voyage. John set out from NYC towards Applecross, when the breeze really kicked in and a large fleet of big power

9 boats in a competition event were heading his way from Fremantle. The dinghy bucked like a bronco in the big wakes kicked up by the power boats and the tiller pulled out of its rudder socket. At the time, John said: "I had all the sheets cleated and the boat went berserk and started swerving around, out of control. How I didn't turn over I'll never know." John limped over to the Freeway shore and bailed out the Pacer. On the way back to Nedlands, the power cruisers appeared on their return lap and almost sank John as he was swamped by more boat wash! That was almost six years ago. The yellow Pacer hull is now in the big boatyard in the sky. But the Nedlands "curse" lives on. This is what happened to Johnno when he went for a spin in his Red Witch last week: "Went for a sail today. Got down to Blackwall Reach when the wind dropped completely. Had to motor home. Then, when towing the boat on the trailer out of the water, one wheel of the trailer wasn't quite on the ramp. I thought I could tow it back onto track. Big mistake. The wheel got stuck. I went on towing and the trailer axle broke. So the boat & trailer were half in, half out of the water. Stuck. Had to call a crane to lift the boat on to a borrowed trailer. Discovered the hull had been holed. Crane also lifted broken trailer and dumped it in a corner. Meanwhile,

10 another boat wanted to use the ramp but decided to launch off the beach. He asked me to help hold the boat. No worries...except I forgot I still had my iphone in my pocket. So broken trailer, holed boat and kaput phone. A great day of sailing. Know anyone who would like to buy a Red Witch? Going real cheap." BREAKING NEWS: Just to prove that things do happen in threes, John was back at Nedlands on Saturday to transfer his boat from the borrowed trailer to another trailer. During the process he severely hurt his left index finger and was admitted to hospital for surgery on a broken bone and ligament injuries. It's a tough game, this sailing caper. Coming Up March 1-3: Labour Day weekend. No training. No club fixture. See the Regatta Diary in this newsletter. Sunday, March 9: Handicap Start, Consistency Heat 19 (you go when your number drops), 2pm. Sunday, March 16: Short Course Championship Heats 7 & 8. Consistency Heats 20 & 21, 2pm. Sunday, March 23: Club Championship Heat 6. Consistency Heat 22, 2pm. After-race barbecue. BYO meat and the club will provide salads and bread. Sunday, March 30: Consistency Heat 23, 2pm