Push the Boat Out - This Weekends Plan

The July interval season continues this weekend with Push the Boat Out on Saturday and a 6 Race mini Series on Sunday.

Saturday’s fun will start at 1pm with a lunch for members. Contributions will be welcome for food as well as money (please let me know if you have plans to bring food). The New Comers Race will start at 2pm and will be open to all ‘Tuesday Nighters’ along with experienced crew if required. The idea of the race is to introduce as many of our new members to racing and get them on the path to glory. We’ve got some promising young and older talent so let’s all help them make the transition.

After the new comers race we will be running a number of Olympic style races. The day will end with a BBQ from 5pm where we will be joined by members from Leeds Sailing and Activity Centre and the Model Boat Club. The aim of the whole day is to celebrate our national champions who will be going for Gold at the Olympics.

The Model Boat Club will be racing during the afternoon as well so courses will be picked to suit. They are holding an open day in the morning so any members wanting to try Radio Controlled sailing are more than welcome to go and give it a go from 9.30.
Don’t forget that prizes will be given to the best dressed boat in an Olympic Theme, so pick a country and funk up your boat to win a prize. Judging will take place at 1500.

Saturday Timings:
0930 – 1230 LSAC Have a Go Sessions and Model Boat Club Open Day
1200 - 1300 Olympic Parade
1300 – 1400 YSC Lunch
1400 – 1500 New Comers Race
1500 – 1700 Olympic Racing
1700 Onwards BBQ at YSC (Bring your own food & drink).

Sunday
On Sunday we are holding six short races for the Thornton Trophy starting at 2.30. Races will be a duration of 12-16 minutes only with three races sailed back to back then a tea break followed by three more back to back races! A real test of your starting skills perhaps but all good fun we hope and slightly different to what we normally do so we do hope you can join us.
In order to fit all this in we will be changing the starting sequence and possibly the timing of the starting procedure. Depending on the wind we may also be finishing on the water using the same line we started on to speed up the starting of the following race. A full briefing will be held at about 2.10/2.15 prior to the first race and revised instructions will be posted but you are strongly recommended to attend the briefing (please!) to try and ensure that things run relatively smoothly and avoid the race team of Howard, Helen and Ian Morgan looking totally incompetent.

Thanks

Tim Burnett
Commodore YSC
commodore@yeadonsailingclub.co.uk

Fun for all on Commodores Day

I'm sure those that attended will agree that the Commodores Days was excellent fun. Plenty of nice weather, games, sailing fun, food and prizes all round.

Everyone was able to enjoy a bit of boat swapping (and buying for some), a game of rounders (there were a few surprised faces when it was mentioned it would take place on the water. Rafting, canoeing, racing and of course the bottle race (although the wind made it an interesting game).

It was a day to learn a few new skills for some, new experiences for others and for most to just get very wet.

The day would not have been possible without all the great help from members such as Glenis, Mary, Jo, Mick, Gerard, Patrick, Gren and the team, Neil, Howard, Trevor and others. But the day would have been boring without the participants. So a big thank you all round.

The fun continues next weekend with Push the Boat Out. It will start at 1pm with a lunch for members (bring a contribution in kind or in money) then The first race will be at 2pm for the New Comers Race (experienced hands are welcome to help). Then Olympic style racing. Don't forget that prizes will be given for the race competitors and those that dress their boat the best in an Olympic country of their choice. The evening will end with a BBQ (bring your own).

Sunday brings a racing day of 6 short races, so get yourself along to have a chance to win big.

New Sails for Hard Working Boats

Yeadon Sailing Club took their new Pico Sails for a spin this week. The sails were purchased for the Picos following a kind donation of £500 from Leeds Sports Federation.

The clubs Picos dinghies are the workhorse of the training fleet and the 10 year old sails were beginning to show their age. These new sails will extend the life of these essential training boats and help those progressing to racing to keep up!

Tim Burnett, Commodore, said "Sails are an important part of a sailing boat, you can't do much more than float without them. These new sails will support our important training programme and help many juniors and adults from the local community of Yeadon, Leeds and Bradford learn the fun sport of sailing".

Yeadon Sailing Club has been heavily involved in the RYA initiative to promote sailing in the lead up to the Olympics. The fantastic turn out at the Tuesday night 'Have a Go' sessions reflects these efforts with 20 or more boats out on the water during most sessions. Real promise being shown by both adults and junior sailors.

Tim went on to say "Yeadon already has some international stars on its membership and some of the new juniors this year are really showing promise, anyone of them have the potential to be a future Olympic star, and investments like this make that happen!"

Yeadon's have a go sessions will continue until August 14th, starting at 7pm on Tuesday evenings. Anyone wanting to give it a go should check out the website at www.yeadonsailingclub.co.uk.

Yeadon SC is also taking part in the national event 'Push the Boat Out' on July 21st. Anyone wishing to try sailing during this event with the Leeds Sailing & Activity Centre should call: 0113 2503616

July Series Interval - Action from Saturday’s Sailing

Saturday was a busy day at the Club. It started early with the Junior training session, then it was Annual Ladies Race which was combined with the next race in the Junior race series and finished with the Grand Pursuit Race.

Well Done to Helen for winning the Ladies Race, Harriet was close behind Helen on handicap and won the Junior Race. It was great to see Tuesday Night Sailors Georgina, Trish and Catherine getting involved in the racing too.

Action from the Ladies and Junior Race

In the Grand Pursuit Race the early starter, Jo in the Mirror and David in the Heron, lead the way for the first couple of laps but were eventually caught by Bill in the Solo, Denis and Jo in the Enterprise, Alan in the Streaker. As the clock ticked down toward the end of the Race the wind went light and Denis and Jo managed to glide pass Bill to win the race by a boat length !

Denis and Jo passing the early leader Jo

A good day's sailing for all !

Commodores Weekend Plan

The Commodores Weekend is this weekends entertainment highlight of the summer. Come rain or shine all members and Tuesday night attendees are invited to come along and have some fun, food and if their lucky or I cheat... Prizes!

Each day officially will start at 12.30 but everyone will be more than welcome to come along before to help setup for the day.

The Plan

Saturday July 14th Starting 12.30

12.30pm - 1.30pm:  Boat Swapping and Free Sail.
1.30pm - 2.00pm:  Lunch, bring your own picnic lunch.
2.00pm - 3pm: Fun racing.
3.15pm: Charity race for Sailability - £2.00 min entry fee.
4.00pm The charcoal will be lit for a bring your own meat and veg BBQ.
7.00pm Approx 'Midnight Race' for the Candlestick Trophy.

Sunday July 15th Starting 12.30

12.30pm - 1.30pm Raft Racing.
1.30pm - 2.30pm: Commodores Lunch (£4.00), the Ladies will be cooking up a treat!
2.30pm onwards (until we're all too tired to laugh anymore):

• Famous 'Bottle Race' Bottles Wanted, Please Leave them in the club house!
• Canoe Racing
• Waterbattles
• Prize Giving
• Afternoon tea

Don't forget: More interval racing and Push the Boat Out July 21st

Tim Burnett, YSC Commodore

July Inter-Series Interval – Week 2

After the fun and games of rapid fire racing last Sunday this time it is the turn of the Juniors and Ladies to shine !

The 2.30pm race on Saturday is the Annual Ladies Race and the 4th Junior Race in the Junior Race series. So if you are not a Lady or a Junior please come down and support them !

Following that will be a Pursuit Race for everybody (men included too) this time, if Neil and Rachel can work out the Starting Sequence !

In a Pursuit race the slowest boats, on handicap, start first and then progressively the faster boats, on handicap chase the slower boats around the course trying to catch up. The length of time for the Race is fixed and if it all works out correctly, and everybody sails their boat to it’s handicap, then everybody should cross the finish line together ! We'll have to see how it works out !
So Mirrors will be the first to start followed by Toppers etc. and so on, with National 12s and Lasers being the last to start.

On Sunday Paul will be running a 3 race day for the F W Leeks Trophy, first race at 2.30 pm, best 2 out 3 to count. This will run as 3 short races, each about 30 to 40 mins each, with a tea break squeezed in at some point to suit.

Come down and enjoy  !

July inter series underway

The July-inter-series-interval officially started this Sunday amid general excitement and anticipation. Or might have done were it not for a rather cold and very blustery westerly wind. Still, several hardy souls sounded like they would be prepared to take part without any heavy coercion on my part. So, assisted by Ben, I continued with the plan for the day: six mini-races, best four to count with a cup of tea and a rest in the middle. The course was 8,7,4,1 all anti-clockwise start line to mark 6, the idea being that the only gybe required could be fitted in somewhere between 8 and 7 at an appropriate moment!

As we set off to the start only three helms intended to race i.e. David, Graham and Alexander. Dennis was experimenting with a diy reefing system, Terry was coming to terms with a new Laser and John Southall and Phil Hartley were going to watch and assess!

lesson #1 we anchored with a start line appropriate for three boats. In the event everyone opted in at the start so it was a little crowed. We then started to think about how we would conduct the race.

lesson #2 (obviously) this was later than we should have. I had intended to race back in and tick laps and finish people between the OOD box and 9. But as Ben said it was much more logical for us to stay where we were and tick people off as they came past. We attempted to communicate this to people as they screamed past us on the run however only David really appreciated that the finish line was between the committee boat and 3. After a couple of laps of fast sailing and earnest swimming (and a very spectacular death-roll capsize from Graham in which he appeared to fly thee metres through the air) we decided to start the finishing process.

lesson #3 to get three races into an hour the first finisher has to be at about 10 mins, the last finisher at 14 mins and the countdown for the next race has to begin immediately. This simple arithmetic should have been thought through before the race had already been running for 10 mins! In order for the first finish to be at 10 mins the decision to shorten course and blow the hooter has to happen after 8 or 9 mins.

lesson #4 some explanation of what the various hooter noises were for would have saved confusion among the competitors.

By the third race both John and Phil decided that if David could get round without even looking like he might capsize they would give it a go. John, however, had not attached his tiller and suffered the inevitable consequence of stopping steering on a windy day. Still the water was reasonably warm.

lesson #5: the start line that had become crowded for five was now carnage for seven, especially given the gusty and changeable wind. In general people honoured their 720 degree penalties by capsizing at the earliest opportunity and swimming twice round the boat. Then back inside for a cup of tea.

lesson #6 the course would have made more sense as a proper triangle, i.e. going straight from 1 to a gybe mark at 7 as there was no need to follow the normal YSC convention but I didn't think of changing it till we were back at the start. Also the tea break would have been a good time to make sure everyone knew where the finish line was.

Having taken too long over the first couple of races I decided that making the event best three of five races would be reasonable and the last two races were each only two laps. In the last race John got a good start and kept in front right to the end, if only he had done the first two he might have prevented David getting four firsts! The last race also had some added interest as both Trevor and Alexander managed to dredge amazing clumps of pond weed onto their masts or booms and Dennis' (very successful) reefed sail tore from reefing point nearly to the luff which meant he had to tack through about 160 degrees as he wended his way back to the jetty.

overall: 1st David, 2nd Phil, 3rd John
All in all a fun day out!

Patrick