Issue 62, February 2019

That's Summer done with. And while the days may be getting a little cooler, the good news is the water temperature will hang in there throughout autumn and parking will be easier. Result.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the CPR course on 17th Feb, it was good to refresh or learn new skills. A special thanks to Shirley Matthews for organising this and monitoring our first aid supplies.

One of the highlights of the season

Get ready, be prepared and ready for anything because Saturday 9th March is the Marathon. Our annual Sydney Harbour marathon course normally runs from Balmoral to Quarantine, then via Shark Island to Fort Denison and back to Balmoral.

You shouldn't be put off by all the talk of Quarantine, Sharks and Forts - it's a lot more pleasant than it sounds.

Don't forget the start time is earlier than usual at 1:30pm

Club Race Officer Courses

Please consider the courses on offer below. We would be grateful if someone would take on the State Race Officer course and be willing to run events next year.

Boyd Newton, Da Easy Crew, Editor.

Important Info

Please look into the following as others may be relying on you to do so:
* Power Boat Corner
* Race Officer Courses
* For Sale & Wanted

Dubious Info

It's great to see our junior fleet growing in numbers and talent. Among this excitement, one little lad said to his mother "When I grow up I want to be a sailor".

"You can have one or the other!" she responded.

New Members

This month we added members with a variety of interests:

It will be great to see you all out there.

Tip of the iceberg

Murray Freeman has been a BSC member for many years. Even though he has given up his boat, Murray still manages our membership, billing and public officer duties. He's working on a committee to automate our membership payment and record keeping system. All this is just the *tip of the iceberg...*

Bergy Bits & Growlers

Murray also organizes the racking and billing for those racks - attends board meetings and facilitates board approval for our growing membership - recommends the BSC Membership fee structure for coming years (and follows up to get those of us who are delinquent on our membership fee payments to "ante up!") - helps coordinate the production of the membership handbook - does the AGM mailing to notify members in time to be able to attend and understand the agenda - there's over 6 related documents he has to organize for this yearly.

And when BSC needed to become a corporation he manged the voting process and now is the public officer for the corporation making sure we follow all the government and state rules for corporations.

Congratulations to all the crews competing at the MJ States at the Bayview Yacht Racing Association in February.

In this corner you'll find updates, hints and advice form the Safety and Start Boat Teams. So if you'd rather not figure things out the hard way then read on...

Safety

There is an old saying "one hand for yourself, and one for the boat". In other words hold on at all times with a good firm grip. It could save an accident, or in the worst case, your life.

If you're skippering, please alert the crew you're about to alter speed, be it up or down, and wait for a response before acting.

Boat Tips - "Balmoral"

Hooters - Sometimes the big hooters do not perform when the button is pressed. After much investigation, head scratching, chin rubbing, and muttering, the solution was found to be.....

Give the rounded rear part of the horn a 'technical tap' with something like a screwdriver handle (or Anita's purse). It may sound crude, but the reason is there is are electrical 'make and break' contacts to wiggle the noisy diaphragms, and the marine environment is not kind to them. A tap always does the trick (so far).

Navigation Lights - All the electrical switches on the right hand side of the dashboard have two positions. Left (to Port) for OFF, and right (to Starboard) for ON. So when leaving the boat all these switches should be in the left, or OFF position.

Except for the top most switch which controls the navigation and anchor lights. This one is a three position switch:- Left for 'Anchor Light', Right for 'Navigation Lights' and Centre for OFF.

When leaving the boat please make sure that the top switch is in the CENTRE position . Otherwise If the batteries are left on, as happens from time to time, the lights will be burning continuously. It could flatten both batteries if left like this for a long time.

Roly Webb

This years Moth Nationals were hosted by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron on Moreton Bay. With four Balmoral competitors at the event - Les Thorpe, Evan Gauci, Ian & Andrew Sim.

The event was faultlessly run with glamour sailing conditions you honestly couldn't have asked for better.

Balmoral now boasts the Australian Junior Moth Champion with Evan Gauci taking out the title. For those of you that don't know Evan came to the class strait from Bic's & prior to the event was yet to finish a club race, but starting the event with simple goals firstly of completing a race & then of completing the full number of laps in our lemans system completed 9 of the 14 races with consistent placings with a couple of 26th's in a 34 boat fleet against more experienced competitors. Evan finished 29th overall.

Les Thorpe also had the fleet running scared with blistering pace leading several races with unassailable leads (I'm not exaggerating) only to be run down as Les would attest sometimes its harder to be in front. Les finished 7th overall with his best placed 2nd two 4th's & four 5th's all counted races inside the top 10 a very consistent regatta.

Ian holding the most number of nationals attended (somewhere around 26 I think could be more!) had a wonderful time proving its not all about winning & it's great just to be out there.

Me, well we'll skip the first day collision with a former world champion (please don't mention this again, I'll never live this one down) although this actually brought to the fore the best part of the Moth class & I suppose sailors in general. When I was going to chuck in the towel & watch from the side lines every one pitched in to rebuild our boats & get us both back on the water, they wouldn't take no for an answer. I finished 15th overall with a best of 7th with six in the top 10.

The event was won by Josh McKnight, second Luka Damic (both on home built boats!!!) & 3rd Andrew McDougall who is also a grand master.

Andrew Sim, Moth Class Captain

Graham Hanna sent this in from his local rag...

An amazing effort from our own Moth Class Captain. You should ask him about the average speeds - bonkers!

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

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

Wanted, articles for Whale's Tales - $10/10ths of nothing
Contact: Ed Itor

Have gear for sale or looking for something specific?

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

Unsurprisingly, Brad (Vivace) knew what this was, and had several other names for it. It is rumoured that as a baby, Brad used one to measure the speed at which water flowed into his bath (and he still has the readings).