Last Month 

Some challenging sailing

Anniversary Regatta

The Rob Leitner Memorial Trophy kicked off the weekend with a light air start at the Pier 2 Coffee shop. An advantage to the light boats with Out of the Blue rounding the T10 yellow buoy ahead of the pack and breaking out the masthead spinnaker for the run out to C9. Leitning Storm, a sprightly catamaran, quickly caught up by C8 screaming out to sea to make two big broad reaches down to the Yorkey’s Knob port entrance marker.

Out of the Blue set off in hot pursuit with the big spinnaker pulling, surfing the waves and maxing out at 16.6 knots in 18kts of breeze. A gybe around the mark brought a painful slog back upwind. The waves that were so joyously surfed on the way down became a serious impediment to the light, short boat. Impulse soon pulled ahead, and Wild Spirit was making ground on our lead. Once back in the shipping channel, Leitning Storm was nowhere to be seen, in fact, they had already finished, and Impulse was closing on the finish line. The battle now was between Out of the Blue and Wild Spirit with Out of the Blue just squeaking over the line ahead of Wild Spirit.

Results: Race One: 1st Leitning Storm, 2nd Impulse, 3rd Out of the Blue

Day two was a windward-leeward and a triangle race in the vicinity of C9 with the start line set between the Polyanna & a pin buoy. Two downwind legs with three upwind favoured the bigger boats especially when the wind picked up. After lunch for the triangle race gusts topped 25kts producing some exciting wing mark runs under asymmetric spinnaker. Out of the Blue hit 17kts then a botched gybe at the wing mark rendered the spinnaker impotent. Finally, a broken sheave on the jib and the big boats to powered past while we wrestled a jury sheet line into place. Out of the Blue came 6th on handicap.

Results: Race Two: 1st Impulse, 2nd Out of the Blue, 3rd Anastasia.

Results: Race three: 1st Anastasia, 2nd Volare, 3rd Impulse

Regatta Results: 1st Impulse, 2nd Out of the Blue, 3rd Volare. Anastasia only had to come 2nd. on handicap in the third race to equal Impulse. Unfortunately, they had to pull out of the last race. An excellent demonstration of the effectiveness of completing every race to get a good score.

Splish Splash Swimwear lady’s day regatta

Another day of contrasting elements greeted the Splish Splash Swimwear Lady Skipper’s race. Leaden skies and drizzling rain put a dampener on preparations. Forecasts of more than 20kts looked pessimistic while moisture laden zephyrs wafted down the inlet for the start. Once again this favoured Out of the Blue and an asymmetric spinnaker run all the way to C8 with the wind picking up. The bullets hit gusting over 20kts almost as soon as the spinnaker made it into the bag with the boat rounding up, now with an overpowered main. The skipper, using her vast dinghy experience, soon got the machine going again and we bashed our way up to the orange buoy about 1.5 nm toward False Cape. As we struggled forward under overpowered main the green cat, Barefoot, seemed to slide effortlessly past and rounded the mark ahead of us. Rounding the mark we dared not launch the spinnaker into the unpredictable wind but chose a broad reach with a gybe back to the downwind mark at C8 at times hitting 15kts without assistance from a swell. Heading directly downwind, under goose-winged jib, was Wild Spirit which had made good ground on us. We contemplated, then abandoned, a reef with our inexperienced crew before rounding the mark for the final lap up to the upwind mark again still with an overpowered main. Fortunately, the wind eased a little, but Wild Spirit with a reefed main closed the gap further. The final run back up the leads turned into a tacking duel where we had the disadvantage of signalling the lifts and knocks to Wild Spirit as she slowly closed the gap. The wind dropped, Wild Spirit shook out their reef and passed The Blue 500m from the finish line. After three hours and fourteen minutes, they crossed the line about a minute ahead. A fantastic race and great skippering by Rebecca. Out of the Blue took out first place with Eileen skippering Centinella taking out second place. The blustery conditions tested the skills of the lady skippers, some wisely handed the helm back to the owners. Thank you Splish Splash Swimwear for some great prizes. I look forward to seeing Bec in her new kit.

Ellis Beach Monthly Regatta

The month-end regatta at Ellis Beach saw a good turnout of cats and a couple of brave Lasers determined to defy the prediction of 20+ knots of breeze. Riley organised the start boat and launched into threatening skies to lay the course. Now, an outboard has one desire. To ruin a good day’s sailing and our outboard on the RIB was no exception. Soon after laying the marks the crew of the start-boat were seen madly paddling their inflatable in a futile effort to fulfil their mission as a start-boat. Alas, to no avail. The outboard had lived up to its reputation and the RIB anchored on a somewhat extended start line. Three flags down and the fleet were away. Nearing the top mark, a squall line bore down with the predicted gusts of 20+ knots. All the little boats went into capsize mode showing glistening hulls to the grey sky then started drifting toward the orange flags of the Surf Rescue team further up the beach. Seeing an opportunity to put their well-drilled skills into action, the Surf Rescue RIB put to sea punching into the rising swell. Fortunately, the self-rescue skills of the dinghy sailors saw the small boats heading for shore and the gallant Surf Rescue crew now could tow our limp RIB home. To add insult to injury, they then turned up with a shiny new ‘Can-Am Defender’, (a quad bike on steroids) to rescue “The Duchess” (Our Fergie) from an unceremonious drowning from a splash on her delicate electrics. For those that now have Can-Am envy, remember, our collective poor performance when it comes to maintenance of things mechanical at Ellis Beach precludes indulgence in such a complex piece of machinery. Long live the Duchess!

Another exciting day at Ellis though not quite in the usual format. Well done Riley for battling through the day and maintaining a sense of humour.

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Sailability

On June 15th we launched ‘Trinity Dream’ which is the Hansa 303 which has been very generously donated to us by the Rotary Dream Flight trust and the Cairns Trinity Rotary Club. A perfect day for it, with quite a large turnout for our launch and a heap of people enjoying the sailing and the support boat as we played around for the television cameras. A truly memorable day and it’s just fantastic to now have the ‘Trinity Dream’ as a permanent addition to our fleet.

People love to watch the Sailability boats sailing, which is great exposure for the generous sponsors who have their signage on the hulls and sails. There’s a fairly constant flow of people watching from the observation deck. Get closer, come and volunteer to help get these people with disabilities an amazing day on the water.

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Club Membership – Renew or Join now

Great time to join, benefit from full 12 months of membership only $170 for an adult plus $85 for Yachting Australia Silver Card if you are racing and don’t yet have one. Be part of the most active sailing Club on the Far North, keelboats and dinghies to learn on and for hire. Two great locations, the Marlin Marina in town and Ellis Beach just past Palm Cove. Relaxed sailing every Wednesday from the Marlin Marina, sailing on Trinity Inlet. Keelboat races almost every second weekend and fun in the dinghies between Learn to Sail courses also Laser and catamaran sailing at Ellis at the end of each month. Great social gatherings after each event at the Boat Shed opposite The Salthouse restaurant.

MEMBERSHIP FORM HERE – Just bring it along to the Boat Shed and someone will sign your nomination.

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Dinghy Learn to Sail – Fourth Course starts 11 August  

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Keelboat Learn to Sail

We now have a beautiful little J24  available for hire and to conduct sail training on keelboats. We already have had four people complete the course this month. Contact Bill Munroe, 0408 072 152 if you want to organise a session.

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Ellis Beach – Mid Year Regatta

Ellis monthly Regatta on the 28th-29th July. Generously sponsored by Pickers Vinyl & Canvas with cash prizes and Kincrome Tools with shiny gadgets to fix stuff. Need a shade sail? Pickers are your people.

Here are the boat hire and event entry fees. Get in early as boats will soon be snapped up. BYO Boat too if you wish.

Free camping in this idyllic location, stay overnight. Food / meals / BBQ will be available. Bring some cash.

If you are hiring a boat, please help keep equipment together, so the next person hiring the boat doesn’t have to hunt through the Clubhouse to find missing parts. Each boat has a number to help with this. If something is missing or broken, please let Scott or Barry know. These dinghies only stay serviceable with your help.

 

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Coming UP – This Month – download nomination form here

Saturday 14th – Sam Cadman Series – Race 2 and 5, Bay Races – Race 2 Series Presentation.

Saturday & Sunday 28th & 29th July –  Ellis Beach Mid Year regatta. Sponsored by Pickers Vinyl & Canvas and Kincrome Tools

Saturday 4th August – Dick Cater Series Race 1, Fitzroy Island Race (Race 3) First of the Dick Cater series of five races. Over to fantastic Fitzroy for the night

Saturday 11th August – Learn to Sail commences

WAGS – Every Wednesday. A fun sailing day with others, stress-free and a chance for non-members to sail for the day, just $20 gets you on a boat. Be at the Boat Shed at 12. No need to call anyone, just turn up. Backpackers welcome, the best value day out on the water you can have in Cairns.

Connect to the calendar HERE; you can download a .pdf copy to your phone or sync the calendar.

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Commodore’s Commands

Thanks to all, for your patience re the carpark, I feel it’s slowly coming around to our favour. Ports North are keeping a record of regos of repeat offenders so the warning will turn into parking fines. So please inform P/N of repeats and give them rego number.

All new CYC cards now have the amenities access so hopefully, that will ease the inconvenience for members caught short.
Congratulations to Andy and Gordo for the successful launch of their new SWD 303 proudly donated by Cairns trinity Rotary and Trust Flight.
Champagne was spilt on the deck and consumed by some, thanks to David Good, P/N for taking the time to attend and observe first hand the joy and difficulties. He now has a much better understanding of what SWD is all about as far as the operation is concerned.

The lease of the boatyard and travel lift has been taken over by the Big Boat Shed, I attended the meeting at the CCYS last Sunday, they stated it was business as usual but no discount for being a member of CCYS for the slip.
Joel the operator/owner of the Big Boat Shed said he will consider a pre-race hull clean, discount for the CYC yacht owners that store at the CCYS for a splash and retrieve for club racing.

On behalf of CYC and myself I wish Joel all the best for his new acquisition, not sure of the pricing yet, hopefully, it’s favourable for both parties.

Sorry to the boys from Vanguard. Hopefully, they will hit the water with a replacement in the near future, anything that the club can do to assist please let me know.

Hoping also, the weather will ease and we start to complain about being too hot.

Until, next time Capt John, out.

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