Issue 61, January 2019

Happy New Year

What a busy time it has been. State and National Championships have been fought and won. Many kilometers have been traveled, a few tyres succumbed to the outback, even someone's ball fell off - a tow hitch maintenance lesson for us all to heed.

Reports will appear in coming episodes (won't they Class Captains) and do let me know of anything interesting you experienced on your travels.

Before you settle in for 'Rastravelmouse', a pictorial review of Da Easy Crew's trip to Adelaide...

Please act on the CPR refresher course. Now available to all members on Sunday February 17th. Contact Shirley as below.

Many thanks,

Boyd Newton, Da Easy Crew, Editor.

Important Info

Please look into the following as others may be relying on you to do so:
* Safety Audits
* Active Kids Vouchers
* CPR Refresher
* Australian Sailing - Login Required
* For Sale & Wanted

Dubious Info

I heard of a place you can sail on sweet, fizzy orange water. Could it be real, or just fanta-sea?

New Members

Two new members have joined the club since the last issue:
* David Howe - Windsurfer, returning to BSC after 2yrs overseas.
* Alizee Vanderveken - Race Official, has already been seen helping Anita on the start boat.

See you out there soon.

It's true that if you need something doing, ask a busy person. Luckily we have loads of busy people who will always step up. But what about all the little things that can be taken for granted?

Over time you realise that the same few who take on the high profile tasks, also pitch in on anything with a moments notice.

Every week I say "they will sort that out" or find something I had meant to do, somehow magically completed.

So a great big thanks to Laurie Hoffman

Laurie is our Club Captain, where she sits between the Board, Volunteers, Class Captains, ... a job as easy as herding cats!

Every week Laurie organises the Duty Class and Officer of the Day, often stepping into vacant roles. Many of the tasks on my list are done before I get the chance to forget - I know I'm not alone in this. No prizes for guessing who put the staple in your safety audit form.

Putting up with Richard ain't the most amazing thing Laurie does each week.

Lovely to see Adam Craven on the water after 6 months, David Howe is back from England and is in the process of becoming a member of BSC. Welcome back. These guys were having a blast! David West and friend Al (not Haynes) ex state champion joined in some training last week. Tom Plodr was also having fun on his raceboard.

Martin French, another Balmoral 80's sailor is back! Martin usually wavesails but really enjoyed sailing windsurfer again yesterday and is keen to buy an LT and come to nationals. My brother Andrew and family and friends windsurfed in the morning (2 adults and 7 kids from 8-12 years old). All did well. Andrew and Martin were good mates in our teen years. Shame you missed each other.

Alizee also hadn’t windsurfed for a few years and really enjoyed being back on the water and is keen to do some more windsurfing and volunteering out on the start boat today for club racing. Anita will be delighted!

Sirpa Hovi arrived from Finland and joined us for her first sail in Australia. Pretty nice conditions considering its minus 10 in Finland. She joins us for nationals. Lovely to have you with us Sirpa.

Cristelle from Newcastle had her first windsurf today after 20 years. Well done! She used to race mistral one design in France. Arnold continues to improve, Stuey arrived after BSC club racing so we did a few laps up to the YA mark and back. We were all playing dodge the skiffs!

Great to see so many people keen to windsurf. Please book the club board days in advance as it is in demand and I’m likely to be on the water!!!

I also hear Max Paul won nationals and youth championships currently on in Tasmania. Congratulations.

Nationals - Jan 24-27th - Toronto, Lake Macquarie

Due to the Nationals there will be no BSC twilight windsurfing on the 24th Jan or windsurfing racing on the 26th Jan.

Great to see the cross over of people from other classes for windsurfer nationals, especially some youth sailors, getting some big fleet experience. There are 95 registered for nationals to date so it's shaping up to be a very competitive fleet. Lots of old timers are coming back. There a few more yet to sign up… yes you if you haven’t already!

We have a Balmoral crew heading to nationals including Anthony, Mathieu, Dan, Arnold, Simon, Grace, Greg J (will be there but has injured his wrist), myself and maybe Katie. There may be more I have missed. If anyone else would like to join Balmoral Sailing Club crew, please let me know. We have people racing in cruiser division, youth, adult men and women and junior divisions.

It’s been absolutely stunning at Balmoral, I even saw my first huge turtle at Balmoral - straight out of Nemo!

See you on the water.

Melanie Webb, BSC Windsurfer Class captain
e: windsurfing@balmoralsc.com.au

Trip Report - Tasar National Championship

2019 Tasar Nationals were held in January at the Largs Bay Sailing Club, South Australia. Rastasarmouse & Da Easy Crew took the short way there, took the long way back, and took some pictures along the way.

Sydney > Grong Grong > Mildura > Largs Bay

Largs Bay > Broken Hill > Dubbo > Sydney

Some racing happened too. That report will have to wait for somebody who knows the finer points of sailing though...

Safety audits are due so please look into your requirements. For assistance or to return once completed please see your class captains or Laurie Hoffman :-)

Interested in becoming a race official?

Club Race Officer

Training costs $65 and is reimbursed if you volunteer as a club race officer. Conducted by Australian Sailing, the next two courses are:
* Tue 16th Apr 2019, 18:00-21:30 at Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club
* Tue 19th Mar 2019, 18:00-21:30 at Manly 16’ Skiff Sailing Club

State race officer course

Training costs $115 and will be reimbursed if you volunteer as a state race officer for the club. te next course is:
* 30-31 Mar 2019, 09:00-17:00 at Middle Harbour Yacht Club

For more information please contact:
Anita Daum
e: anita.daum@balmoralsc.com.au

Balmoral Sailing Club is a registered Active Kids provider. Parents of school children can obtain a $100 active kids voucher by logging onto My Service NSW at https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-active-kids-voucher

The voucher is submitted to BSC as payment or part payment for membership fees. The vouchers can only be used in the calendar year in which they are issued and cannot be used retrospectively.

They should be submitted to the club at the time a fee is paid. To use a voucher please provide the student’s name, date of birth and the voucher number to the Membership Officer membership@balmoralsc.com.au at the time of payment.

Please make a note in your diaries of the upcoming CPR course for volunteers to be held on the 17th of February 2019 at the sailing club at 0830hrs with coffee and refreshments available.

The session will finish early enough that you can still carry on with your other weekend activities.

Course is now open to everybody and it will be first in, first served if the numbers exceed the available positions.

Register your interest

Shirley Matthews
e: shirley.matthews@balmoralsc.com.au

BSC is in the process of moving its information on members from an in-house database to that used by Australian Sailing (AS). For this to be successful all members need to log into the AS database and review and correct their information and that of their family. For members who have not
done this here are instructions on how to do it.

Murray and Marco have put a lot of effort into this. Please get it done as soon as possible - or else!

Mirror Dinghy for Sale, “TRIM” - $900 ONO
Wood and Varnish finish. Gaff-rigged. Trolley, spare sails and spars. Racked at Balmoral Sailing Club. More info - click here.
Contact: Matthew White on 0414 185 798

Wanted - road trailer for Tasar.
Contact: tasar@balmoralsc.com.au

Have gear for sale or looking for something specific?

Send details to e: whalestales@balmoralsc.com.au