Lindisfarne Sailing Club

27/03/2025

Last Saturday seven yachts took part in the LSC North Sails Channel Race. The course took yachts to Green Island with the finish line off Kinghorne Point. The fleet was split into two groups with three of the bigger yachts completing the full course whilst the second group had their course shortened. Dalliance was the winner in Group 1 whilst Fizz Four won in Group 2. After the race yachts anchored in Quarantine Bay and enjoyed a bbq ashore. The next morning after a very calm night at anchor those taking part returned independently to Lindisfarne

20/03/2025

Pennant recing resumes at LSC this Sunday. After last week’s wild weather, Sabre skippers will be delighted to read Sunday’s forecast for mild weather and a light SE breeze.
Matt Pearce will be looking to defend his top billing in both the elapsed time and handicap standings. Matt has a 3 point lead over Chris Boon in the elapsed time standings and a similar margin over Andrew Bradshaw on corrected time. One point further away overall is Matt Westland whilst on handicap Shayne Lindsay trails by 4 in 3rd place.
Lighter breezes will favour Shayne, Matt W and the always consistent John Cerruty. Watch for them to move up the standings!

With a drop the pennant is super tight. 4 races to go and half a dozen boats could win it. Matt Pearce is still in box seat as he has no bad results so can afford to have one shocker and still hold on. Matt W and Chris have a bad one each, so need to be consistent to topple the leader. John Ceruty is a strong contender and shouldn’t be ignored. Close racing for sure.

The day begins with our ever improving green fleet kids taking to the water. Sunday’s forecast will suit them perfectly. Seeing these youngsters in action reminds you of the sheer joy of being on the water.

With only 3 race days left for the season, you’d better get down to LSC and make the most of it. There’s a long, cold winter looming!

19/03/2025

More pics from our keelboat twilight races. Great to see so many sailors out enjoying the late summer evening.

16/03/2025

Start race 2 today….

16/03/2025

Report on 2 Pennant races 16.3.24

The forecast was for a moderate SW with 10 Sabres taking to the water. Right from the sail out to the course, it was clear the breeze was flicking wildly with patches of little wind. RO James was stuck with a wind which wouldn’t co-operate and we took a while to get a course in. As we went into a sequence the breeze was dying and at the gun there was next to nothing. Standing up and looking for the smallest puffs as well as minimising boat flopping about allowed Matt W to work away from the fleet and be first into the building SW. John was hot on his tail as they raced neck and neck for a while. On the first reach Shane worked up higher and hooked into a building SW puff. He said after the races he should have gone even higher which may well have put him in front. Matt Pearce was unlucky to get stuck on the start line with no wind for ages. Very frustrating. Matt W managed to hold on for a win with strong challenges from John Ceruty in second with Chris Boon making up plenty of ground on the sausage to grab third from Jason in fourth. Jason tried hard to capsize in two knots of wind when he got tangled in the boat after getting up right forward. 5th to 8th place were only 8 seconds apart at the finish which showed the closeness of the fleet at times. The race was shortened by one triangle probably to ensure a result. Rod Andrewartha easily won the handicap result by over a minute from Shane in second place.
Race 2 was changed to a windward leeward course which allowed RO to easily shift the top mark in the weird wind. The race started with a decent breeze that had clocked around to the NW. It was still patchy and flicky in direction with chris Boon ,Dan and Jason working best on the first sausage. It was up at the top mark for second time that the fun really started. A SW raining cell was bearing down on the fleet and most boats were quickly thrown into survival sailing on the run. Chris Boon somehow managed to brave it dead downwind but he soon capsized. Most sailed angles in the steady 35kts! Dan was unlucky to have his boat cartwheel away from him in a dramatic capsize. Once Jason also capsized, Matt W and Matt P thought they might get the gun but as they approached the bottom mark the race had been abandoned. It was hang on to your hat to get downwind back to the shore. No damage to people but a few boats suffered. Scott managed to bend his tiller at 90 degrees and Andrew’s mast collapsed with no damage to the hull. The start boat recorded a 40 knot gust in what felt like a serious breeze. Plenty of tales back at the bar. I figure it is a testament to the brilliant class we sail which can handle such a breeze. Matt Pearce was clear in front on overall pennant scores but after the one race today, Chris and Matt W are threatening

16/03/2025

Whilst conditions were pretty wild today, our keelboat group enjoyed perfect conditions on Friday night.

16/03/2025

Things got pretty hectic this afternoon. After a frustrating afternoon of varied winds, the weather deteriorated terribly. Gusts of up to 40 knots were recorded and racing was abandoned.
Skippers had an extreme challenge, sailing downwind to make it back to shore. Several took swims!
Full report to follow…

13/03/2025

With 4 race days remaining before the end of a challenging, but successful summer, Pennant racing returns to LSC this Sunday.

After 4 races, the consistent Matt Pearce leads both elapsed time and handicap standings. With solid SW winds forecast for Sunday, it will be interesting to see if Matt extends his lead, or is challenged by the chasing pack.

After a week off for the long weekend, it would be tremendous to see another strong turnout of skippers. Last time out, we set a season record of 15 starters. Can we better that before the end of the season?

Get down to LSC@BYC on Sunday and join in the action.

04/03/2025

LONG WEEKEND DINGHY RACING AND TRAINING CANCELLED.

SUNDAY KEELBOAT RACING IS STILL ON!

LSC is not running dinghy sailing this Sunday March 9, due to the long weekend & insufficient numbers to warrant racing.

Learn to sail has also been cancelled.

KEELBOAT RACING WILL STILL BE HAPPENING, AS USUAL, ON SUNDAY.

LSC will be back in full swing for pennant races 5 & 6 as well as learn to sail on Sunday the 16th of March.

04/03/2025

WHO SAYS THE HANDICAPPER IS AN IDIOT??

An interesting side note from Sunday’s short course series. Many skippers, the world over, have bemoaned the quality of handicapping systems of various types.
Sabres are of course a one design class, the best skipper wins on elapsed time. But a handicapping system allows all contestants to measure their performance relative to the fastest boats. Finish close to them and be rewarded with a good handicap placing. Sail poorly, and your placing reflects this.
On Sunday, in our 4 race series, there were 12 opportunities to gain a handicap placing in the first 3. Amongst our 15 contestants, 9 skippers scored placings on handicap! Only 3 skippers managed to do it twice. A 60% success rate across the fleet. Of the 6 who missed top 3 placings, two managed a 4th place result and two others only completed 2 races.

Given the range of conditions, this is a pretty serious validation of the quality of the racing, our handicap system and the overall quality of our skippers.

03/03/2025

Varied, and at times very challenging conditions greeted 15 Sabre skippers (a season high number) at LSC @ BYC yesterday. A 4 race short course series offered something for skippers of every weight. It was great to welcome English visitor Tom Curran and new owner of FOMO, Scott King to the fleet.

PRO Jim Thorpe and his team had a challenging afternoon as the breeze swung wildly in both direction and velocity.

4 races were completed in everything from near drifting conditions to winds well over 20 knots.

Race 1 saw the most chaos as a 70 degree shift not long after the start turned the first leg into a wild reach, with several skippers taking unscheduled swims as they arrived at the first mark. This caused following boats to have to take dramatic action to avoid overturned boats and swimming skippers, leading to more rollovers! Paul Rayner, in Steamboat Willie was actually airborne as his boat violently rolled, flinging him into the air.

Conditions settled (mostly) in later races, rewarding skippers who correctly picked the next major swing in direction and those who best handled the steep chop as wind fought current.

Chris Boon in BBB continued his dominant season, recording placings of (1,5,3,1) to finish 3 points clear of the consistent Jeremy Fish in XS (6,1,2,4) and Matt Pearce in 2XS (4,4,1,5)

Handicap placings were very similar. Again, Chris Boon was too consistent (2,11,6,3), followed by Jeremy Fish (10,3,2,7) and Dan Followes in HALESTORM (12,2,4,4).

With 15 boats on the water and several skippers unavailable, it would be great to see a record fleet nearing 20 in the near future.

02/03/2025

Beautiful conditions for a relaxed LSC keelboat twilight race on Friday night.

02/03/2025

Kangaroo Bay was awash with colour yesterday, as our juniors took to the water in big numbers. Every week, these kids learn more and improve their skills.

02/03/2025

Pics from todays racing. Thanks to a James Pinelli and John Mills.
John reports that lots of cars were parked along the Esplanade with interested spectators most intrigued by the racing.

02/03/2025

02/03/2025

15 Sabres on the water today, including English visitor Tom (the Pom).
We hope you had a great day, Tom!
Full results to follow…

02/03/2025

Lots of boats racing today.

01/03/2025

Short course racing returns to LSC today. After Last Sunday’s “demolition derby”, more moderate and shifty W-SW winds should provide an interesting test for skippers. Boat handling, starts and mark roundings are the keys to success in these short races.
Racing kicks off, as usual, at 1.30, with a briefing at 12.
Our juniors will be on the water early, so there is plenty of action all day.
If you’re travelling from the western shore, make sure you allow for bridge closures this morning, due to the Run The Bridge event.