Hi all,

The major event for the coming season is the 41st running of the Mosquito National Titles at Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club, Paynesville, from Saturday 29th December 2012 to Thursday 3rd January2013.

This will be the second time that GLYC has hosted the National Titles for Mosquito’s in my 23 years in Paynesville, the first was back in 1999-2000. I was in my second? season on sloop rigged plywood Mossie number 1111 “Perfect Score” with son Ben crewing (turned out to be the heaviest, heavy weight boat in the fleet), Tim S was in his first full season on the high tech? (fibreglass-foam sandwich)“Whiteside Express”, Neil J had just bought the oldest ply Mossie in the fleet to sail cat rigged in the National Titles and of course Peter N was visiting from Loch Sport on the radical? air craft ply, cat rigged Mossie “Red Alert”. None of the local boats where new, all where far from it, but we all learnt a lot, enjoyed the Nationals and camaraderie of the class and have continued to sail Mossies.

My point is I guess, if anybody else is thinking of taking advantage of the opportunity to buy a Mossie or sail in the Nationals for their first time at Paynesville, just remember you don’t have to have the latest and greatest to get out there, enjoy yourself and learn heaps while you are at it. You never know, you may even win something, between outright, mk1 & mk2, heavyweight, handicap, first ply boat, masters, youth, best female and more, nearly everyone comes away a winner. One thing I can assure you of is if you do attend, you will get plenty of help from the current Mossie sailors to help you get the most out of it and really that is one of the most enjoyable parts of sailing, learning how to get the most out of what ever boat you sail. The current GLYC Mossie Fleet despite the impression of high performance from high placed championship results, still has many far from new boats in it. In fact the re birthed “Thrice Bitten” started life well before the 1999-2000 Nationals and raced at Paynesville as a Sloop Rig under the name of “Pitch Fork”. “Catalyst” was also at those nats, known as “Moggie Power” (can’t understand why Mitch changed the name) and raced Sloop rigged and “Karma Cat” formerly known as “Karma Chris” was the boat to beat at the 1999-2000 Nats and couldn’t be, winning the sloop rigged title and a few before that.

So come on, get a hold of a Mossie of any age and join in the Nationals, I guarantee you won’t regret it.