Easter at Gippsland Lakes

Hi all,

just some info on the GLYC Easter Regatta.

Program is around Raymond Island Saturday starting at 2pm. Results are Yardstick and Fastest time, currently held by a Mossie.

Sunday is a Classic 30 Nautical Mile Race, (It may take most of the day but has been finished just after lunch in the right conditions.)Starting at 10am. This travels around most of Lake King and Lake Victoria, great way to see the lakes, none of that boring racing around in circles.

Monday is a 10am start for around the buoy racing in Lake Victoria.

Should be great fun, will be mixed fleet of Catamarans racing, with a number of cats from Melbourne adding to the local Mossie fleet. Will also be Trailable Multis and Monos, Keelboats and Off the beach mono's racing. Weather is usely good at Easter, last year water was flat with maximum of about 20 knots for this regatta.

Hope to see you there, don't worry I will show you the way around the long races, just stay behind me.

Hi all

So Who is going, and with spin or not?
Im going with spin,
So whos coming, its going o be good

Matt

heading over to Bullen-Merri with the family.
good event but hasn't been advertised yet.

I think they have left it a bit late.

I am bringing the Lemon Peel without spin.
Here's hoping for good weather.

I'll definitely be there. the old man tends to get lost with out the aid of my young eyes B)

hey peoples,

just wondering if i can pitch a tent in someones backyard please, at Easter, i kinda left it too late, or other wise if worse comes to worse ill sleep in the back of the ute!

Matt

Hi Gary, Good to see you yesterday! As I said we should be bringing 5 big cats down to play! (no mozzies though)

Hi Matt,

youre welcome here, but dogs could be a problem with tent in back yard. Sure I can find some space for you, as long as you don't mind sharing with one of the grumpy old men, or the Beagle. Come to think of it as long as tent doesnt need pegging down, you can put it up in the shed or the BBQ area away from the dogs.

Matt you're welcome at our place. We have a dog free area and you might even score your own caravan. It is a 5 minute drive however!

thanks guys, ill i have been talking and found a place thanks again

Gipslands lakes is a great venue and regatta but I guess this means we won't see the mozzies at the F16 nationals?

Unfortunately I have a distinct lack of coloured cloth for that kind of thing.... !)

Hi Brett,

last time we spoke you said you may not be around for the F16's, that along with the total lack of communication from Australian F16 Assoc, nothing on websites etc, made the easy option of staying home even easier. I explained as much to Simon, I commited to staying home before he made contact.

Have to catch you another time.

Beautiful day for a sail today. 5-10 knots with Matt & I tearing up the lake with spinnakers awesome group of redundant catamarans rigging on the beach. looking forward to round the island tomorrow.

Hi all,

great regatta with good winds for this time of year.
6 Mossies raced against 2x Stingrays, 2 x Paper Tigers, Hobie 20, Nacra F18, QB3.

Around Raymond Island race, 10-15 knots. The Stingray lead most of the way upwind with Matt, Peter N, Neil and me having a go at second. With Neil and David Joiner first up with the kite it was good bye to the Stingray, I managed to just sqeeze past on the kite drop, but a loose beat home through the straits, once again saw Neil just too fast. Pizza dinner at the club and lots of bar chat with liquid refreshments helped to make it a great day.

Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny had left eggs on the trampolines, must have been a comfortable nesting spot, as the mono's didn't get any. . Classic 30 Nautical Mile race, was just that a classic, winds mostly 15 to 25kts. Without Neil to annoy me , I lead most of the way battling of Farrier Sprint Trimaran, Stingray and Nacra F18 and after a swim with the kite up which let the 35' Catamaran Spudgun catch up, I held it off to win by 50m. Race ended up only taking 3hrs. including one of the toughest longest spinnaker legs I have ever sailed.

Even Monday morning we where blessed with Trapeze conditions, 10-12kts, the Stingray won upwind again, but couldn't hold off the spinnaker Mossies, with me leading most of the way for a clear win.

I am sure the others will post more. I know Mitch M is on holidays how about it?

Thanks to the Redundant Catamaran Club for attending again, enjoyed the stirring and they don't seem to mind getting whipped by the Mossies. They truly do sail just for fun, looking forward to next year already.

Yes hughey behaved himself all weekend. Such a big group of friendly sailors made for a very good regatta. Only downer being my modification of tims sail.

now my patented pressure release valves go ok with a clifton but I think i got carried away with the Irwin.... thankyou again for your understanding Tim.

Nice report Gary.

Sounds like you all had a lot of fun. Might have to make the trip next year... I quite like a distance race

How did everyone else go?

**** o the lake)
Mozzi with spi were the first five on corrected time with mitch bayliss on stingray 6th these top 6 beat every other division on corrected time!: less than one minute increments seperating 4th from 10th on handicap

30 miler
Gary first line honours and handicap Peter Nikiten 2nd handicap and Mitch Bayliss 3rd after I had that now famous "incident" with Tims sail close to the last mark and Matt sailed the wrong course after starting the day badly putting it in with 5 knots of breeze.
Special mention to the hobie 20 which i think came 4th on handicap and just did it so easily in these conditions.

Round the buoys.
Gary, Matt, Peter then me on handicap once again top 4 mozzis with spi.

Overall
Gary 1st for the reagatta.
Peter Nikiten 2nd
Mitch bayliss and James Mare 3rd after mixing it with the mozzi boys all weekend, and james even came to the dark side after racing had finished on monday .

Next year's going to be the best regatta yet I sense

Well done to the other mossie guys who were all at the front of the fleet, leaving the Lemon Peel to hang around down the back.

The Round the Island race
As the only mossie without a spinnaker it was good to have the first third of the race beating to windward. While the others got away I was able to keep near to Mitch and felt that I was making a race of it. As soon as Mitch got the kite up he was away and that was the last I saw of him. I was happy with my result of 10th out of 14 cats.

30 miler
Wow, what a race. After a light wind start the breeze filled in and we were flying. During the beat from the compass marks to the tambo river I spent at least 15 minutes on Starboard tack, on trapeze, with the hull flying most of the time. Unfortunately, when I tacked the Port side trapeze line broke and I went for a swim. I was thankful to the Stingray crew who checked on me while the boat was on its side although it only took a few mins to get Lemon Peel upright. As I still have a second set of trapeze lines rigged (for sloop sailing) I was able to continue. Matt Stone had been for a swim earlier in the race and caught me just as I got Lemon Peel going again. We had a great battle from the Tambo through to Metung where his skill and superior boat were slightly surpassed by my extra 20kg on the wire. After the Metung mark Matt got the kite up and was gone. I spent most of the run along the rear of Raymond Island trying to slow the boat down. Even sitting at the rear of the tramp the noses would disappear under the waves from time to time with the boat doing at least 10 knots (very different conditions to Sugarloaf). After rounding the mark at Pt Turner it was a beat to the finish. On a few occasions I was on the wire with the windward hull in the air and the leeward hull was out of the water back past the front beam (what goes up must come down). Thankfully it all held together and I managed a result of 4th out of 10 cats (thanks to Matt and Mitch with DNFs).

Round the Bouys Race.
The less said the better. I was just slow and I think still recovering from the day before.

Overall
I enjoyed the regatta and my patches of good performance show how good an old wooden boat can perform. The social side was excellent and I enjoyed spending time with the mossie guys and the redundant catamaran crews. Thanks again to the race control crews for all the hard work to make the regatta work.

What a Regatta! The wind couldn't have been better, all conditions for all people!

The Redundant Catamaran Association/Club had 5 boats on the beach - All big cats, we even had to borrow a local junior to crew!

The round the island race saw a good 13-15 allowing everybody to stretch out and have a good bit of yeeha! As Gary mentioned I had a great start and put good distance on the mozzies... what he didn't mention is that I overlaid a mark by about half a mile... makeing it a mile long detour... dashed were my line honours hopes!

The 30 miler saw us take 45 minutes to get through the straights immediately after the start... With the exception of Gary you could have thrown a tea towell on the rest of the cat/tri fleet... Gary sailed brilliantly through the straight and probably had a mile lead by the compass swinging mark! 15-25 upwind to metung let us pass gary back along with the F18. After having to do some running repairs to trapeze elastic after I decided to step on mine and break it we still managed to round the mark ahead of Gary! Then up went his blue kite and he was GONE! The F18 repeatedly tried to carry their kite... but the high aspect rig couldn't quite sail the same angles as gary. We still managed to barrell down to Pt Turner having a ball!

In the end Gary, Myself, Richard/Bree (f18), and Chris/Libby (hobie20) finished fairly close to each other to round out one of the greatest days sailing I've ever had! (if not THE greatest)

Monday was just another round the bouys race!... It did however allow the Redundant cats to do a bit of crew/skipper switching... James Mare helmed half the race on the stingray, and Bree Collins helmed half the race on the F-18!

After the racing Much boat swapping occured with james taking out a mozzie, Qb3 sailors trying a stingray, Mitch trying an F18 and All of the junior sailors trying out a hobie20 AT ONCE!!! Mitchell managed to break a footstrap on the hobie as well.. first damage it has incurred ever!

Many thanks to the GLYC and the great attitude of all the cat sailors in attendance! Very much a series of fun first, racing second!

I heard last night the Redundant Catamaran Club camped at the club over Easter!

Very convenient, but how did you ever get away with it? You must have got the tents up before anyone noticed.

It's been tried before but the Shire Council would usually move in very fast to get the tents removed. Maybe the club will hear about it later!

haha Tim, it was very much kept on the down low as we were not even informed til friday arvo when packing up boats. Lofty has to be credited with this initiative which was a very positive thing for the regatta and the easter bunny of course.

The RCC did camp at the club over easter!

They (we) 'got away with it' by being completely ignorant to any issues it might have stirred as Mitch illuded to... Lofty was the man at the centre of the (mis)communication with both RCC and GLYC.

Glad we did get away with it and the Council weren't on top of their game as it was brilliantly convinient! It seems to be a good idea - The sailing community can be assured that any money saved on accomodation went directly over the GLYC bar, and the local shops did pretty well out of us as well!

Perhaps it's a "Tourist Initiative" - In any case thanks to the GLYC and I hope the 'site' is available again next year