The Notice of Race for the Schnapper Point Youth Regatta, Victorian Junior Carnival and the '9er State Championships being held at MYC on the 15th and 16th of February 2020 has been released.

***The fun 'Free Freestyle' event is still part of the regatta too!

For all information - including the Notice of Race, head over to regatta HQ

** If you can assist us with your time for this regatta - either on land or on water, please contact the office

Sailors are generally a superstitious lot, and nothing happening this year is stopping me from becoming more superstitious. In the last few weeks we have had the harbour blanketed in thick smoke, red rain which covered our boats in mud, gales last Thursday causing yet another abandonment due to too much wind. Then just top things off, Saturdays trophy race was abandoned due to no wind !! Barring a plague of locusts who knows what lies ahead this season!
I am putting it down to one or all of these (and believe me there are plenty of sailing superstitions). Please review this list and take any suitable action :

• There must be a boat storing a case of bananas onboard.
• There has clearly been an imbalance in the number of “red skies in the morning” compared to “red skies at night.
• There is too much whistling around the club.
• Too many boats have been renamed.
• Stop annoying any albatross.
• Someone has been mis-treating their cat.
  
• Skippers do any of you have a crew member called Jonah.

So, here’s looking forward to better luck with the weather for the season ahead.
Even given the lack of wind there was a great turnout on Saturday and the light winds threw up some interesting battles. Some of the smaller light weight boats were proving more than competitive with the bigger boats. Unluckily there was not enough time for the course to be completed, but I am sure there would have been some very interesting results had we been able to complete the course.
Well done also to all the MYC boats that competed the Festival of Sails over the long weekend. The posts on the MYC app and social media certainly showed some good results, great sailing, and even greater socializing over the weekend.

Saturday Racing Report 18th January 2020

I pride myself on being fairly resilient, but if there is one thing, I have trouble coping with, it’s the gusty North Easterly that blows from time to time at Mornington. It’s the type of wind that generally blows continuously for several days, creating a messy chop in the harbour and making it unpleasant to be outside. Our Jack Russell Kel hates it also and can always be found seeking refuge under our bed when the wind starts to howl and the house creaks. The wind was so bad on Friday afternoon it even blew my glasses off!

You could imagine my enthusiasm when the forecast for Saturdays Hovell Pile race was for 25 + knots from the North East – Yeah !

After a blustery night, sunrise brought with it quite mild conditions and a more positive mood. A great turnout on the deck for Steve’s informative pre-race briefing and mediocre joke was indicative of the strong fleet that would head to the start line. A fleet of 29 boats including  9 visitors that headed up from MCYS and SBSC joined the MYC boats for the start. In near perfect conditions the race got underway with a classic spinnaker start that must have been a dramatic sight from the shore (who said sailing isn’t a spectator sport). The fleet quickly split into 2 groups with Division 1 and 2 heading to R1 and Division 3 heading to the South Channel 24. Both fleets made very quick time heading south under spinnaker with all divisions converging at South Channel 24 and rounding in very close company, this must have caused a high workload in the tower as boats completed their scheduled radio reports. Whilst there was hot competition between the big boats reaching to the East Cardinal mark,  one of the smallest boats in the fleet, Zip, was already on her way home leading the fleet the whole way. Colored sails were replaced with upwind sails for the trip back to Mornington. The fleet split into 2 groups with half heading inshore looking for flat water whilst others stayed out to sea. Tight racing in Division 3 saw lead boats challenged at the finish by those boats that stayed out, making for a tight finish as the wind became fresher and shifty closer to Mornington. Thankfully all boats and crews were safely back on the club deck, analyzing the days sailing before the North Easterly became unbearable again. Needless to say, Kel was under the bed again when we got home later.

Final Results

Line Honours

Division 1 : Javelin: Mark Nicholson
Division 2 : YT2:  Stuart Gooley
Division 3 : Zip: S.Shafer & C.Ferris

Handicap Results

Division 1

1. Vincitore : Peter Russell (SBSC)
2. Belligerant : Dianne Lynch
3. Trim: Tony Grundy

Division 2

1. Friday Harbour: Kon Cili
2. YT2: Stuart Gooley
3. Beau Ciel: Alison & Terry Clough

Division 3

1. Zip : S.Shafer & C.Ferris
2. Tub Thumper: G. Heard & A. Creed
3. Messin About: Paul Copeland

AMS Results

Division 1

1. Windsong: Jim Watson
2. Javelin : Mark Nicholson
3. Morticia: B.McDonald, R.Kurz & G.Alexander

Division 2

1. YT2:  Stuart Gooley
2. Tonic: Ray Harvey

 

CBH Results
 
Division 3

1. Zip : S.Shafer & C.Ferris
2. Endless Advice: Rob Harrison
3. Moonshadow: Scott Robertson

 

There will be lots of activity and we need lots of help please

As well as “on course", we need help please with:

Catering - lunches and BBQ
Yard - preparing and putting back
Off-loading Saturday and Uploading on the Sunday
Beach Marshalls especially Saturday

Please let the office know when you could help!

Would also love to hear from any potential sponsors

Over the first week of the new year Mornington was home to the 420 National Championships. The club had many members across the fleet with 7 boats competing from Mornington. As well as having great participation from the club there was also many great performances with James Jackson and Lachie Caldwell finishing in second place overall and Chloe Harper and Anna Cripsey placing as the first females and eighth overall in the regatta. There was plenty of great sailing and fun to be had across the fleet over the 5 days. It was also great to see the younger MYC members of Sassy and Arabella and Jay and Digby completing each race and doing so with big smiles on their faces.

We would really like to thank all the members and volunteers at the club helping both on and off the water and with them it could never have run so smoothly. As always Chris Jackson did an amazing job at PRO being the face of the regatta and on behalf of the rest of the competitors we would like to congratulate him for all his hard work in the lead up to the event and all the planning involved.

Sophie & Will McKenzie
MYC Junior Club Captains

Over the last week the Australian Youth Championships was held down at Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club over 4 days from the 10th to the 14th of January with over 240 boats from across Australia and overseas with 13 of which coming from Mornington. The weather conditions over the week where very variable with the first day bringing big winds of 20 knots + with the second day being 10 to 15 and the last two days had a mixture of light winds, strong tide and large amounts of smoke leading to both of them being called off leading to a two day regatta. Despite not sailing on the final two days of the regatta we still had a lot of fun spending time with our friends from both Victoria and interstate.

Even with the unfavorable conditions MYC still had some great performances with James Jackson and Lachie Caldwell placing 3rd in the 420s, Zac Heyes and Ethan Hosking placing 7th in the 29ers and Jack Eickmeyer placing 12th in an extremely competitive laser radial fleet ahead of the world championships taking place at Sandringham in February.

Sophie & Will McKenzie
MYC Junior Club Captains

Mornington put on light winds, a fantastic race management crew and an amazing group of volunteers for a very successful regatta.  Some of the days were smoky and the racing was tight & competitive. We had competitors from New Zealand & Japan and around Australia.

The NSW boys Daniel and Jack took out the Australian Title followed closely behind in 2nd place by Mornington sailors James Jackson & Lachlan Caldwell. Chloe Harper (MYC) and her skipper Anna Crispy took out the female Australian Title. MYC sailors Will McKenzie & Harrison Chapman had a great regatta coming in at 11th, Sophie McKenzie & Claudia McMahon -21st, Kate James & Brooke Hutchison - 24th, Sassy Taylor & Arabella Henderson- 27th and Jay James & Digby Taylor -29th. With two heats to go the third placed boat could not catch second so it was a race for first and second.

The feedback about the regatta was very positive, with national & international competitors commenting on how welcome they felt at MYC, how well the Regatta was run and what a beautiful location we have. A special thank you to Jacqui Crawford for coming from the fires in Gippsland to be our chief race officer and to our jurors from TAS, Geelong & New Caledonia. Thank you very much to Ashley Dugan and Peter & Kim Karay for making the jurors so welcome in their homes at this busy time. Our fantastic partner and tenant The Rocks did a fantastic job of both opening and closing dinners.

Our race management crew worked tirelessly on water day after day. A huge thanks to Steve Bolton, Jo & Cam McKenzie, Tania Lawson, Gary Woods, Tony Hutchison, Greg Martin, Bill Bennett, Trevor Neate Tim Donaldson, Brett & Kelly James, John Taylor, Anna Kliss, Chris Harper & Peter Danks (DBYC) and Suki & Andrew Scade.

As always, the Mornington volunteers did a brilliant job working together and raised funds for MYC in the process. Pam Lane worked tirelessly day after day cooking on the BBQ & purchasing supplies. Thankyou to all the volunteers who worked on the BBQ and to those making lunches ,manning  sign on/off & registration : Kelly James , Barbara Nash , Belinda Hutchison ,  Jo McKenzie , Maureen Sharman ,Carmel Farr ,Barbara Nott, Peter Martin, Annie & Maddie Bennett ,Tarryn James ,Doug Bell , Fiona Long ,Gayle Brandhoff, Michelle Whitbourne , Kerry Larder ,Kate Harper , Sue Heron ,Caroline Leslie, Kate Johnson , Cath Richardson & Michelle Jackson.

A big thanks to the tower team, Steve Bardsley, Dave Beeson, John Dusting, Maurie Edgington ,Richard Trembath and other members of their team. We also note the considerable effort over a number of weeks that Mel Hitchen Haw contributed.

Stuart Richardson , thanks for your hard work on  measurement and  Cathy Richardson for arranging trophies.

Sonia thanks  for the great photos.

Andy’s ‘hydration station’ was a great success, thanks Andy & Michelle Whitbourne. Thanks to Greg Martin for the fabulous 420 towels. Jo McKenzie contributed over many months and Cam McKenzie did all the results as well as being on the water each day .Steve Bolton’s contribution was as always considerable across a large range of areas.

Last but not least thank you to Graeme Taylor our assistant PRO & safety officer and to Chris Jackson PRO for taking on the Regatta and also the endless hours of preparation with sailing instructions, race management equipment, jury arrangements etc etc.

Please forgive us if we have missed you, so many did so much.

Great job team MYC !

Saturday Racing Report Xmas and New Year 2020

Its been a few weeks since the last Saturday racing report. Tuesday tattler has been in recess and I have been on a break with Lisa. During that time, we have had 3 weekends of sailing scheduled around Christmas, New Year and the 420 Nationals. So, I think to kick the year off I will combine all my observations over that time into a single report and get back on schedule next week.

Saturday 21  December
 It seems a while ago now, but we did have racing scheduled on the last shopping weekend before Christmas. Lisa reminded me that clearly men are responsible for putting  the sailing calendar together, as no woman has time to sail at this time of year. My response was that as men we don’t need to start Christmas shopping until Christmas eve at the earliest ! Thankfully for everyone’s sake another Saturday gale stopped any racing plans, and all those desperate for a sail retired to the deck. Just as we were all about to pass on our final Christmas wishes to each other, Ant Creed noticed something in the water out past the pier. We all put our beers down and concentrated our attention and then it became clear there were 2 swimmers out near the start line in large seas whipped up by the southerly and they were in trouble! Fortunately, a duck was in the water and Lisa  was quick to get to Graeme Alexander and Cam McKenzie out on the water and into rescue mode. The 2 swimmers were rescued just in time as a few minutes longer and it could well have been a different situation entirely.


Saturday 28 December
A good fleet of 13 boats turned out for an aggregate series race, in what turned out to be great sailing conditions. 15 knots at the start built quickly to 20 knots of breeze. The smaller boats in the fleet were on the limit of their large sails and looking to de-power. Our fill in crew member was feeling the strain after the race from winching the No.1 in all day. Some shifty ESE winds on the way home made the beat to the finish challenging, seeing a few positional changes in Division 3.
Well done to Obsession in Division 1 taking line and handicap honors. YT2 doing the same in Division 2. Division 3 saw Dark Side of the Moon get line honors and Mixed Nuts picking up handicap honors.


Saturday 11 January
After the 420s had moved on from MYC it was back to some club racing in the combined series with SBSC and MCYS.  25 knots of breeze and big seas greeted those planning the trip south to the middle course.  Unfortunately, the trip down took its toll before racing even started with several boats deciding the conditions in the harbour were far more preferable to those on the way to the Mt Martha.  Well done to the 7 determined boats and crews that made it to the start line. The MYC boats were joined by 6 MCYS / SBSC boats and racing got underway in what tuned out to be a very quick days racing with most boats completing the course in under 1 ½ hours.  Grant Chipperfield in Joker on Tour from MCYS took the handicap honors in the combined series with MYC boat Morticia coming home in 2nd position on handicap. Whilst those out racing had their hands full, those that had retired to the deck were also kept busy with, yet another rescue required. This time a club RIB had run out of fuel.  Hysport was quickly launched by Geoff Heard, Ant Creed , John Underwood and Tim O’Grady. The rescue was completed much to the excitement of the students who thought it was all part of the tackers program.

Just goes to show that my mother was wrong. She always said nothing good could possibly come from hanging around on the club deck drinking beer. 2 rescues completed and barely a drop of beer spilt.