26 November 2012
The NSW Fireball program for the season follows the general pattern of previous seasons with travelling events at the ACT Dinghy Championships in November, a visit to the Mosman Sailing club in February and finishing up the season at the Batemans Bay Regatta in April. In addition to these, we plan to sail at Dobroyde sailing club in March to support the boats there. The State Championship events will be held over three days, two days in December and one in March.
We held a training day in October for a boat from Singleton. These guys sail on Lake Wallerawang and were pretty new to the whole planing spinnaker boat thing so we were able to help quite a bit with rigging, tuning and sailing tips.
Two boats travelled to the ACT Dinghy Championships over the weekend 10 and 11 November, hoping for the great sailing conditions we experienced there last year. Unfortunately the wind was a bit lighter but the constant changes in strength and direction made for interesting, absorbing racing. We were racing in a division including Contenders and Tasars so there was not very much likelihood of a win on Yardstick on a day when we were unable to use the spinnaker or trapeze to full advantage.
The main fleet sails from Gosford Sailing Club where we have been getting 3 to 5 boats on the water most weekends. We have experienced good winds for the start of the season and so everyone is keen to get out on the water most weekends. Tom and Mark Jarred won the GSC Fireball Championship last year in Wave Walkabout with Mark on the helm but this year he has let Tom take over so they can get a bit more weight on the wire and let Tom have a go as helm. It was good to see Iain and Kaitlin Millar back after a time away from fireballs.
Currently, with two races sailed in the GSC Fireball Championship this year, Rob Hughes and Tony Wilkins in Temeritous have a ein and a DNS while Dick McCulloch and Glenn Stuart have a first and a second. Rod Hookway and Grant Ireland have a second and a third so the competition is shaping up nicely.
