New Members

The Executive Committee and members would like to welcome the following new members to Safety Beach SC.  We look forward to meeting you at the club or on the water in the very near future.

• Cameron, Charlotte, Anabelle & Austin Howson 
• Darren Hayes 
• Greg Shenton

Save the Date

Challenge Walk

Please dig deep and give to this very worthy cause and the amazing trip that Mono is about to undertake for Challenge - supporting kids with Cancer. DONATE HERE - this is your last chance as the Big Walk gets underway next week.

What's On @ SBSC in August

On Water News

OTB Goes LARGE!

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. It started in this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.
And that my friends is where the similarity ends. Yes, there were millionaires, and their wives/husbands. I didn’t see any movie stars or backwoods girls (there was plenty of professors of BS though). The Skipper was brave and sure, but the mates; Andrew ‘Doc’ Taylor and myself were hardly mighty sailor men!

The tropic port in this story is Airlie Beach and the tiny ship is Tim Bardon’s Cygnet 20 trailer sailer ‘Cirrus’. “What!?” I hear you say, “That’s not an OTB boat!” Well, technically true but it’s pretty close. Cirrus is not much longer than a Sharpie, has no fancy winches, just ropes and pulleys, a lift up keel and a tiller. She does have a necessary esky, (but so does Greg and James’ Tasar).

Tim decided a while ago, as his boat was in storage in Noosa after two successful regattas in NSW to go the extra distance and take on the Airlie Beach race week. His original mighty sailor man crew, ie: John Wemyss of Anthea fame couldn’t make it, so Tim asked Doc and myself if we would like to come to the Whitsundays and act as ballast for a week. Hmm, OK, if you insist. Things didn’t start too well for Tim with car trouble in Brisbane nearly scuttling the adventure before it started. Luckily a rental Ute got him back on track and he picked us up in Mackay with boat in tow. Thursday was registration day, 190 entries, their biggest ever! A quick rig of the boat and a familiarizing sail and we were ready to roll.

Friday, race one and regatta management decided on a mass start with 190 boats of all 13 divisions from TP52 ocean racers to F18 off the beach cats all together on two parallel start lines 300 m apart - what could possibly go wrong? Well, how about no start lines 5 minutes before the first warning, a 20 minute delay then the wind dropping to zero just before the start. Can you imagine 190 yachts, big and small, all milling around in a very small area with no steerage? I thought the Sabre states was bad enough with 70 boats on one start line! Finally we got away (with no casualties) and I must admit it was an awesome sight, and those big boats do clear out mighty fast. Our course took us 10 miles upwind around two pointy islands named Twin Cones (after Madonna I think), then a long beat back. Three hours on the water and we were in first place by three seconds!

Saturday saw a nice short course in the bay due to light winds, much more our style. Did I mention that we were the smallest, slowest boat in our division? Third place by 8 seconds due to a boat not even in our group Lee bowing us right on the line- not happy Jan! Sunday abandoned due to light wind (which picked up 20 minutes later of course) then Monday was the lay day, nice wind but they couldn’t change things around. Something about a long lunch at the Sailing Club, hmm, we must be in Queensland.

We awoke on Tuesday to howling winds around 25 knts off shore. Perfect for those big boats, but not so good for us. Our course was 10 miles down wind to those twin cones (which had had the bra blown clean off them) then a 14 mile beat back again - not good, not good at all. After a team safety meeting we decided to launch and see what we thought before the start. Downwind not a problem, but as soon as we turned upwind we were knocked flat. As fat as Doc and I were, we still couldn’t keep her upright, so regretfully (ha ha) we pulled the pin. One hour there and four hours back with a small electric outboard as backup didn’t seem like good math to us. Once we radioed in our decision to pull out it started an avalanche of likeminded skippers and half our division bailed. Speaking with some of the other crews the next day brought tales of woe and hanging on for dear life- good call us!

Wednesday was a nice sail around the Molle Islands between the North and South. Very pleasant, good views, nice sunshine. “What’s that Skip? We’re supposed to be racing?” Oh yeah, that’s right. The tides around those islands and channels can make a huge difference to your times and to Tim’s credit, he picked our course well and in a lightening breeze we still managed to pick up third place. Now this was good, but all these scores were knocking our handicap way up and with one race left and a target on our back, things were looking grim.

Thursday came with 10-12 knts of wind, just right, and a good start - we were in with a chance. A quick reach down around West Molle (Daydream Island ) with the tide and with our shallow draft, we were able to sail over some sand bars the others couldn’t and gain a couple of places- good work Team (spelt Tim). Unfortunately all our hard work came unstuck on our way back as the wind died away and those faster boats with their honking great spinnakers were already crossing the line while we were stuck in the doldrums, bugger!

All back to the club for presentation (they ran out of beer!) and a catch up with the other SBSC members there. Rob Rainsford and crew on YKnot did a great job and ended up with first place in Performance Cruising Div 2. Well done guys and gals. Team Cirrus came in forth in Trailable Yachts Div 2. Not bad, we were happy. But wait - there’s more! The Queensland Trailable Yacht Association were holding a parallel event using the same scores and as it was a class handicap event, our (read Tim’s) superior sailing skills didn’t adversely effect our chances. So now we are the Queensland State Title holders for Trailable Yachts CBH - Division 2 (autographs available on request).

All jokes aside, it was a great trip with a terrific bunch of people and a really nice place to spend some time on the water. Thanks again Tim for the invite. And thanks John for pulling out and making the spot available (he ended up coming anyway and crewing on Y Knot with Rob for the win). All the results are available at ABRW 2022 Results
Cheers all,
Pete Chippy

This week's Racing

This Sunday we have the last of the Brass Monkey Pursuit Race for this season..  As with all out BMWS race there is the option to run a spinnaker.  If you intend to run a kite then please notify the SBSC tower when signing on for the race on VHF 69 and add 4-minutes to your nominated start time.

Start sheet is available at BMWS Start Sheet

MOB Training

Please make note of the dates for the Man Over Board Training Presentations being held at the club (see flyer below).  These are being presented by Simon Dryden who is head trainer for the ORCV.   Even if you have already undertaken a safety course or previously experienced a man overboard rescue, this is a great opportunity to refresh your knowledge or learn something new. Please encourage your crew members to attend – after all, rescue is a team effort! 

Bookings can be made via the Try Booking Link

HIRW Gets Underway