Congratulations to Loama who took out today’s race on corrected time and to Frances with their close fought line honours win with Acrospire III and Boambillee. The results plus the series aggregate and consistency trophy points status are attached.

Frances and Bungoona on the money

With a running start in a light breeze full of holes 18 Classics were all set for a race that wind shift concentration.  Frances and Bungoona had on the line starts with the majority of the fleet not far behind. Martini popped her kite earlier to put herself in good fleet position throughout the race while Acrospire III made up for her  delay from a light wind beat to the start and caught up to the fleet well before the first mark. Boambillee picked her way through the fleet with a kite that looked dead. Trim, the Ohlson 35, a design developed to take on the New York Yacht Club Concordia fleet, showed today’s fleet why her design was successful by staying with the early leaders.

Mark rounding drama

Breeze holes before the first mark allowed a large fleet to join in the first mark traffic jam with likes of Frances, Acrospire III, Boambillee and Mercedes III. The usual opportunist drama along with comments such as “you cannot go in there” being heard, Zephyr and Sirocco squeezed their way around the mark. Sayonara‘s 21 strong crew worked hard to keep calm and effect a clean rounding. After all this drama the fleet to settled down to work on the shifting to the south breeze beat to the laid rounding  mark off the RMYS break water.

On this beat Sirocco continued to lead the Tumlaren fleet with Ettrick making up ground. Snow Goose continued to keep her fleet position she won after her well sailed run to the first mark. Avian also held her ground on Marie Louise III.

To tack or hold

As the fleet rounded the floating laid mark the decision whether to tighten up or tack had to be made. Normally a beat down to Point Ormond is the go before heading out to the distant mark. This time the early tackers picked up the building breeze first. For the first time the mark R2 was used by the Classics as a distant offshore mark. Frances, Acrospire III and Boambillee were all working hard to not lose any ground. Mercedes III, Sayonara and Trim who didn’t tack at the mark used the shifting breeze to not lose ground in these 3 leaders. With a shorten course announcement  the line honours battle went to Frances who held off Acrospire III from making the pin end of the finish line. Following Sayonara through the finish line Trim sailed with concentration to hold off all the Tums and was 5^th over the line.

Loama takes out first on corrected time

As we know in light breeze races the fleet leaders are always crying about how the slower boats always pick up the building breeze. That may be so but the slower boats have to know where to put themselves to be the first to have the new breeze. Today was no exception. Joe Tuck and the boys on Loama went out that little bit further than anybody else on the first beat to R2 and were rewarded with the new breeze. From a distance they were seen in great shape heading for the finish and were all set to claim they package of Andy Doolan’s Neverfail bottled water.

Congratulations to Cameron Dorrough and Bungoona

Big news of the day was today that 60 years have passed since the launching of Bungoona.

Today Cameron Dorrough after taking over Bungoona on the passing of our great mate Col Bandy has allowed the fleet to continually watch one of Australia’s notable yachts sail and race in the manner she was designed to do. Now registered by the Australian Maritime Museum as a historic yacht that has contributed to Australians maritime history and heritage Bungoona continues to show that beauty and age do go together.

South Perth Retro Series.

Eu-Na-Mara and Panamuna

A similar series of races to the Classics on Port Phillip is conducted by the Royal Perth Yacht Club for the South Perth Retro Sailing Club on the Swan estuary. This is where the ex Royal Brighton Eu-Na-Mara now races. This weekend this group raced for the RPYC 150^th Anniversary Cup. No results at hand but progress of Eu-Na-Mara’s performance will be followed. Another ex Royal Brighton boat over there is Panamuna. She went over there many years ago to become the best performing racing yacht of the 50’s. She races out of the Royal Freshwater Yacht Club.

Acrospire IV

Acrospire IV is at the Fremantle Sailing Club and raced by our member Gary Martin.

Tall ship Alexandra Stewart is on her way

Peter Harris who heads up the Alma Doepel rebuild project tells us a Tall ship is in her way to Docklands on a voyage from Airlie Beach.

The Alexander Stewart was hand built over 17 years by three generations of the one family and is said to be the largest cold-moulded timber hull in the southern hemisphere. A magnificent vessel styled after the famous ship in which Joshua Slocum achieved the first solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1898.

Arrival details to follow.

That’s all for the moment.

Last race of the 2014/2015 Summer Series, a pursuit start from RYCV Marina, March 1

Group start times will reflect the handicaps calculated after race 6

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe

CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

Results Link

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Attached are the Sunday Race 6 pre race notes plus the Sailing Instructions and entries with their allocated handicaps.

Read the notes and the SI’s.

They contain details of the course description changes made to fit in with the RMYS Port Phillip Womens Series Championships being conducted on Sunday 11:00am from RMYS.

The notes also contain info about the Pittwater Classic Yacht Regatta, the Queenscliffe Maritime Weekend and a comment about the Hobart Wooden Boat Festival

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

Race 6 pre race notes

Race 6 Feburary 15 Sailing Instructions (HBYC) V2 02_11

Race 6 Feb 15 Entries and Handicaps (HBYC) V1 06_02

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Race 5 Feb 1 2015

Another day of great Classic Yacht racing for the 20 Classics that went out to race at the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron in the prevailing blustery and squally conditions.  Attached are the Race results and the status of the series aggregate and the Marie Louise III consistency trophy.

Avalon leads the Classic fleet out from RYCV

With her magnificent sounding 10 HP Simplex engine running true Avalon the William Atkins Little Dipper class led the Royals classic fleet over to the RMYS race venue.  Although the decision on Avalon, after sampling what Port Phillip was throwing at the fleet, was not to race, her presence was the inspiration of the day.

AVALON

Start Line Scenes

Pre start rain squalls in 1.5 metre seas followed by bursts of warming sunshine were put to one side as the fleet set themselves up for the run at the RMYS start line, the first time for several years. Boambillee and Marie Louise III were set up for long runs to be powered up for the windward chop only to see Mercedes III lead the fleet over the line.

Reports from several Classics said the sight of 6 Tumlarens all going hard for an on time start was the sight of the day. The scene was no different from those days 70 years ago when RMYS was the home of Tumlaren racing.

With Craig Begbie  using heavy Tum racing skills from his days of racing Vahine to advantage and twisting  new life into some Sirrocco deck fittings that her previous owner, Dave Allen, never thought possible,  Charlie Salters recently restored Tumlaren Sirocco held off Marie Louise III, forcing her to throw to the least favoured tack.

Elsewhere Phil Aitkins was holding Trim a tight line to the weather mark while Michael Mactavish’s Serifa and Avian under the helm of that great man Roger Dundas were also going well. Sayonara was dropped down slightly to keep her powered up through the chop. Also in the mix at the start were the two classics that were to be the feature boats of the day Bluejacket and Snow Goose.

Around the Course

Not long after the start Richard Macrae gave his Claire a let off after being hit by some decent size waves. After overhauling Sirrocco,  Boambillee and Fairwinds settled down on the starboard tack to power through the chop and lift themselves up closer to the weather mark lay line. Avian, Bluejacket, Ettrick  took the port tack punt while Marie Louise III joined them to keep clear of Sirrocco. Unfortunately the port tack chop was head on and Trim cleared out to lead this group to the weather mark.

Some approaching the mark drama for Bungoona with their club foot head sail . This drama put the Bungoona crew to the test which they passed but Tandanya was able to get past and clear out from them on the reach.

Zephyr also reported trouble that put paid to their efforts to keep up with the Tumlaren fleet on the first beat.

After a clean gybe at the outer turning mark Dingo was going well but a slight wind shifted caused the main to gybe and bang went the Goose Neck. Their headsail which promptly wrapped itself the forestay. With these two items of action dingo’s race to a sad ending. Jim Hutchinson informs the damage is repairable.

On the second time around the course Boambillee continued her battle with Mercedes III while Sirocco held on toFairwinds. This time around a short dig on the port tack bought Avian, Ettrick, Martini and Blue Jacket back with the fleet at the weather mark while Serifa did well on the starboard tack to also stay with this group.

Along the reach with Doug Jenkin on the helm had his crew working hard to have Bluejacket in great racing form and successfully put Marie Louise III to task to protect his wind.

After taking longer tracks to the weather mark than the rest of the fleet Sayonara again picked off the fleet on the run where Serifa received an acknowledgment from Dave Allen for allowing extra room for Sayonara to safely sweep past the turning mark.

Finish line action

Mercedes III continued to hold off Boambillee to take out line honours and Sirrocco followed Fairwinds and held off Sayonara to take out 4^th over the line. Meanwhile back in the fleet tight turning into the wind at the leeward mark allowed Marie Louise III prevent Trim gaining a windward advantage and drop over to the port tack.

Tight sailing along the RMYS Breakwater allowed Marie Louise III to make the finish line in one tack but not before being pipped by Avian by 35 seconds. Close elapsed times between Serifa, Ettrick, Snow Goose, Martini and Trim were also a feature of the race.

Bringing up the last of the finishers was Blackadder who kept with the fleet in difficult circumstances.

Result and analysis

For the sail of the day congratulations to Charlie Salter and Craig Begbie putting in a great race on Sirrocco and for showing todays classic fleet how Tumlaren racing must have been 70 years ago. Analysis of the results show even if Sirrocco was racing at a handicap (635) way above the 5 other Tumlarens she would have carried the day. Dave Allen Sirrocco’s previous owner was seen giving her a serious once over after the race.

While the race could have been a little bit longer the RMYS Race Director used the prevailing conditions to select the course and to be able to keep a decent watch of the race from the race control tower. The race director was later on the water in the RMYS rescue vessel William Paterson.

The average on course time across the fleet was 90 minutes. Close to the number we aim for.

Close corrected times between all the finishes was another feature of the race results. Check out the attached pdf.

Two other notable sails of the day were given to the fleet by Doug Jenkin with Bluejacket and George Low with Snow Goose.  These results show a clean sweep of the race by 3 Knud Reimers designs.  A design that is still holding true to the day when it left his drawing board.

So all up another great day of Classic Yacht racing with our next race scheduled for Feb 15 to be conducted for us by the Hobsons Bay Yacht Club.

Series Aggregate status

The series aggregate status is tight with three on the same points score where all races count.

Marie Louise III Consistency Trophy

Post race announcements

With the race all done the results were announced thanks to some timely work by the RMYS race director and the RYCV Admin staff.

Two special announcements were made. These announcements were to acknowledge the Classic Yacht Association of New Zealand continuing support of our Cup Regatta and in particular the much acknowledged Bud Nalder sail bags. Both especially made for the 2013 and 2014 Cup Regattas.

The first Bud Nalder sail bag was presented to Dave Allen for his best overall result in the first time conducted Elliot’s Teams race between the Australia and New Zealand Classic Yacht Associations and the Couta Boat Association. The second Bud Nalder sail bag was presented to Mark Chew for his successful efforts to have a CYANZ team compete in the 2014 Cup Regatta on Fairwinds and for pitting up for the successful auction of the two sets of Classic Yachting on Port Phillip montages.

Don’t forget Karen Batsons Cookie Restaurant. Karen has been our Cup Regatta Concours d’Elegance sponsor for the last 2 years. Incidentally yesterday the main reason for Zephyr’s performance was no Karen on forward deck.  Another restaurant opening was the main task for Karen yesterday.

The next announcement was to award the trophy provided by Andy Doolan of Tina of Melbourne. From now on the winner of each series race will receive a six pack of NeverFail water courtesy of Neverfail.

Below are some of our Cup Regatta sponsors

So that’s it till Feb 15 when the Classic fleet lives again.

Handicaps and revisions will be worked on. The pencils are already sharpened and at the ready.

Once again no photos.We need action photos of our fleet racing on the day, If you take a couple or so select some and and pass them over on an immediate basis to the handicapper.

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

www.classic-yacht.asn.au/results/

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The story for this race is contained in the attached pdf. Loss of text and image orientation when moving a word document via Outlook to Gmail makes the email look hopeless. I prefer to send out mail without the need to open attachments but this time not the be.

In the attached pdf details of the race being the first at RMYS for a long time is mentioned There’s also descriptions of the events the Association wishes to promote to the members including one from Tim Blackman from the British Classic Yacht Club about a never to be repeated offer that asks for your attention.

Finally there’s a short wrap up of the Jan 24 Sandringham Yacht Club race the Classic’s participated in. One of the features of this race was the clearing out of the Sandy Bar by Sayonara as she put on a spectacular sail past performance.

Comments are welcome

Cheers to all
Read on.

Peter Costolloe
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

Tas Wooden boat Guild AWBF BBQ Invite

2014_2015 Summer Series Race 5 Feburary 1 Sailing Instructions (RMYS) V1 28_01

2014_2015 Summer Series Race 5 Feb 1 Entries and Handicaps (RMYS) V1 28_01

Race 5 Pre race notes

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Attached are the provisional results of the Classic Summer Series Race 4 plus the Series and Marie Louise III consistency aggregate status. Problem with listed finish times of Ettrick and Snow Goose. RYCV Web site has them listed as a tie but time keeper has recorded them with separate finish times. Plus no listing of Sirocco. Will work on this tomorrow.

After racing over a course that had 3 beating and 3 running legs congratulations go to George Fisscher and Michael Rhodes for their no fault performance that had Boambillee lead the Classic fleet home by a significant margin. Frances with Peter Johns and his team was second home after eating the fleet up to record the best on course time of the day. Martin Ryan bought Mercedes back to life after the sea conditions changed to take out the third placing.

Tight finishing times across the following fleet was a feature of the race Peter Lloyds Marie Louise III with consistent sailing held off Anne Batsons Zephyr and the 20 stouts hearts on Sayonara to come home fourth. After recovering from some fleet entrancing tactics Craig Browns Cyan picked of Phil Atkins Trim by 30 seconds. 2.5 minutes separated these five at the finish line.

Gordon Tait kept Ettrick going in heavy lee gunnel down conditions to catch George Low who put in another big race performance on Snow Goose.

In the spirit of what pursuit racing is all about we had a tie finish between Jim Hutchinson’s Dingo and Roger Dundas Avian. Maybe it was the spirit of Dave Brodziak’s grandad with his Tumlare Var Flicka giving Avian that the one extra puff to hold off Dingo in the race to the line.

Close pursuit style finishes were recorded with Ross Clark pushing Martini to follow Avian by 14 seconds who was then followed by Bob Munros Tandanya 44 seconds later with Michael McTavish on Serifa following a minute 22 seconds later. This race was the first for the season for Serifa after her new engine installation.

After her 12 month rebuild Charlie Salter put Sirocco through some active racing to see what work was needed to bring her back to her race winning ways. Not much and she’s reasonable tight was the report.

Analysis of the results on a handicap basis showed the sail of the day had to go to Richard MacRae who kept Claire going at her best, racing home with the catch performance, throughout the race.

Like many races the wind always dies at the wrong time. So it was with this race where a dying breeze caught out and stunted the finish times of Matthew Fewster and Peter Denniston in Loama, in spite of their efforts to lighten her and Kent Bacon who kept Renene going in the way that she is known for throughout the fleet.

One feature of the race was to see Lindsay Holland’s Tumlaren Zea racing with us. After deciding to back off from racing two up Zea kept the fleet company throughout the race.

So ends another year our Classic racing for 2014.

After conducting Classic Yacht racing since 1997 and this years Summer Series with 29 entries including 7 Tumlarens, and more to come, listed for the current Summer Series plus 8 consecutive Cup Regatta Classic Yacht racing the respect from all the port Phillip senior yacht clubs. The challenge to the CYAA is to maintain the standard of our now world class Classic Yacht racing.

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

Results Link

Sorry no fleet photos. Everyone is to full on for any spare time. However the sight of the day has to be Sayonara with her 20 stout hearts of movable ballast creaming her way through the chop to almost eat up Marie Louise III.

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Below are links to the “Pre race notes”, start times and sailing instructions for Race 4 of the Summer series.

Race 4 Pre Race Notes December 11 2014

Race 4 Pursuit Dec 14 Entrant Group Start Time V1 10_12

Race 4 Dec 14 (Pursuit) Sailing Instructions (RYCV) V1 10_12

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Race 3 November 30 Post Race notes.

Attached are the Race 3 results plus the Series aggregate status

Congratulations to the Tumlarens Zephyr and Dingo for their light wind performances. It’s interesting that both took either side of the course to make the weather mark indicating similar sea and wind hole conditions all round. Even though the spread of corrected times was wider than usual due the light conditions, there were still tight grouping that showed mistakes were to be paid for.

Throughout the race images Classic Yacht racing of old were seen. From Sayonara and Acrospire III in full rig to watching Frances fly her “Big Red” for the first time in possibly 20 years.

The race committee made reference to being on hand to watch another big and on the button Classic start with no problems. Frances, Sayonara and Zephyr were committed at full speed with 2 seconds to go. Shortly after the start Avalon and Loama were seen at the head of the fleet, Renene was also going well. Avian was the first to throw on to port for clean air while Acrospire III came through after the start on port for clean air.

Boambillee unfortunately found a wind hole when approaching the Windward mark that Zephyr managed to avoid. Throughout the race Acrospire III led the fleet but Frances with the Big Red flying managed to close up when Acrospire III used downwind gybing to keep going in the light. On the reach to R4 she cleared out from Frances.

Sayonara also kept her speed with downwind gybing.

Both Bluejacket and Snow Goose put in noteworthy performances. Not sure what Mike Hurrell was up to on Snow Goose but being the shipwright who bought Snow Goose back to racing condition Snow Goose obviously enjoyed his company.

One sight to see was Blackadder steaming up to the weather mark. Unfortunately with a dying breeze both Blackadder and Avalon knew the game was up after rounding the weather mark for the run down to St. Kilda.

The results have been left as published by Hobsons Bay Yacht Club. Next race the finish time will be lengthened by another 30 minutes. There was a consideration to lengthen the finish time but we have to stay with what was published in the Sailing Instructions for the race 3.

One more race for 2014. Race 4 on December 14, a pursuit.

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

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Attached are the entries, allocated handicaps, sailing Instructions for Sunday.

The attached Race 3 pre race notes pdf has comments about.

1. Ettrick looking for Crew
2. Changes to the SI’s Time limit and safety re. Decision to race management.
3. 2013/2014 AGM and need for crew members to be Association members.
4. Support of a Rotary event at Docklands on Sunday with Mercedes III after Sunday’s race.
5. Cup Regatta Trophy engraving images
6. Christela now at Sandringham YC with image
7. Serifa’s new engine image

Regards and all the best for Sunday

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