Our Sailing News

Justin aBeeeeeeeuy a Try Sailing lesond James will inspire your workmates, consider the boys for your next corporate day.Biugo
 Buya yyy
 "CrossinJustim g the Ditch" is a great story, you can go to the link on our blog to buy the book or DVD on line. Pacific Sailing School helped the boys with courses including Safety and Sea Survival training before crossing the ditch. 
 


Buy the book, a great Christmas present and a great read.

Pacific Sailing School helped the boys with their training , including Safety & Sea Survival and Radio courses.  Terry and Geoff were first to meet the boys 140 k from new Plymouth in a rescue boat to ensure a safe landing.

or go to our Specials  page for some great Christmas Sailing Gift Ideas  

International J24 State Championship 
Sydney Harbour
2009

Click here for the full story and the results

Winds - flukey and very hot, a 16 boat fleet.

The race was away on schedule at 12.30 with many close calls at the start. 

About two minutes into the start  3 guns were sounded, which mean't the race was abandoned due to a major windshift at the top mark.



Simon Grain our national President from Melbourne suggested we sail in Melboune with a little less traffic. ha ha.

Four boats travelled up from Melbourne and one from Adelaide for this event.  Several ex national champions returned to race with the very hot J24 fleet. Eventually late Saturday 3 races were completed with two little bingles on Starpac and Blackjack. Our best result was a 4th with Leon skippering Jagged Edge then Sean on Starpac with a 5th. Pacatack was sailed by a South Australia team with a second place showing our fleet are right up there and fast. Blackjack hopefully will do better today with Terry on board with the works (all staff) team.

In the evening RANSA hosted our magnificent evening dinner with roast pig and beef on the spit, a competition drawing on the white paper table cloths with crayons and triva night and lots of lovely wine. (hopefully that will slow some of the competition) Three races today and we will see the results and a new state champion.



Day 2

Congratulations to our new State Champion Doug Mcgain and his crew on Code Violation, a Sydney Yacht.  In second place Ben Lamb (last years winner) in Kaotic with John Crawford third on Inaminaka. Racing was hard with the unusual conditions, smoke from the bushfires and a large ship parked on our race track.   

The day finished with a sausage sizzle at our very friendly host Club RANSA. The interstate boats were craned out of the water onto their trailers to hit the the road for the long drive to Melbourne or Adleaide.

We thank all competitors and the guys who travelled so far,  making it the great event that it was.  We can't wait until we hit the road for the National Championships in Melbourne starting on 2nd January 2010. 

We take this opportunity to thank the Lapstone Hotel group for their sponsorship for the J24 Nationals in Melbourne. 




 The social entertainment heart of the Blue Mountains - Click here



Sooo much Fun!

Good Luck Jessica



Jessica sailed out the Sydney heads yesterday on Pink lady in her attempt to sail around the world. In a week or two Jessica will have her tracker up and running.  This is the same as Justin and James had when they kayaked to New Zealand and the same as we have when we do the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.  We will be able to follow her every nautical mile of the way.

Join us tracking and supporting Pink Lady. 



Safe Sailing Jessica.

Congratulations to brothers Hank and Brett Beyer


Friday after prize giving

PSS Instructor Hank Beyer (right) with brother Brett & his daughter Tara.

Hank started training just a few months ago on his Laser.  The lead up included many hours midweek training.  Terry followed in the rubber duckie a couple of times videoing the tacks and gybes. After sailing Hank studied the video and then back out on the water to train again. His dedication resulted in a finish in the top 10 of the best laser sailors in the world. Congratulations Hank on your 9th at the World Masters Games.   

Brett won Gold, incredibly winning every race at the World Masters Games. Brett has sailed Lasers for about 25 years and is the Olympic coach in Singapore.

Picture at Woollahra Sailing Club in front of Crown Prince Frederik Christian’s boat.

Wednesday

Hank Beyer is coming 10th after 4 races.

A huge fleet of Lasers are racing on Sydney Harbour this week.

On Tuesday winds gusted to 40 knots on the Harbour with many boats capsizing, breaking masts, booms and sails.  At the day end I dropped in to see Hank and even after two swims he was still smiling and waiting for the overall results.

By 6pm we had the results, a very happy Hank is coming 10th so far.  The last race are expected on Friday.

We will keep you posted

Laser World Master Games


Check out Our Instructor Hank here

Start Racing - Sooo much Fun!

Everybody on or around the harbour is getting ready for the summer season of 2009. Racing yachts are slowly making their way back from up north, so they’ll be on time for the start of another racing season.
Every weekend more students at Pacific Sailing School try their luck at mastering the spinnaker. Faces lit up when students were asked during the debrief how the spinnaker course went. “Thrilling”, says one. While a female student says that “it is one of the most exciting things I have ever done.” Most of the ‘spinnaker tragics’ are getting ready for the racing weekend in Gosford at the beginning of October, which, once again, promises to be a fantastic event, full of wild racing and even wilder partying.

If you can’t join us in Gosford, don’t worry. There’s plenty more racing on offer this summer. The Twilight Races start on the 7th of October, while the Bluewater Pointscore and the Ocean Pointscore races start respectively on the 25th and 26th of September. So book your spinnaker course now and get into racing!

Guess Who!
Training for the Laser World Master Games
First person to email  the Spinnaker Course Instructor in the Pic will get a free pair of Musto sailing gloves  -
And No - it is not Brett Beyer



Clue - In 2007 at Terrigal

Brett Beyer (AUS) was the first winner announced today, successfully defending his 2007 World Championship crown in the Standard Apprentice Master finishing the final day with a win and a second place. “I’m very happy. There wasn’t much wind, maybe 10-12 knots, and the racing was very close as usual,” said Beyer on winning an unsurpassed sixth Apprentice world title.

Beyer finished the nine-race series on 10 points, remarkably finishing only once outside a top two results.

Crossing the Ditch is now Available!! 

No one had ever successfully navigated the Tasman by kayak from Australia to New Zealand. Two young Australians, James Castrission and Justin Jones, reached the sand at New Plymouth — and a place in history — on 13 January 2008, sixty-two days after they’d set off from Forster on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. They were sunburnt, bearded, underweight, physically and mentally wasted … and, most of all, happy to be alive.

Justin and James completed Safety courses with Pacific Sailing School prior to their departure and Terry was there to meet them. 

Read the book and watch the documentary.

Available at all good book stores and from www.crossingtheditch.com.au.

Some video Courtesy of Fairfax media

Operation Safe Landing

Is it possible to sail a J24 by yourself?

That is a question often asked by students on one of the instruction boats of Pacific Sailing School.

“Sure, no problem”, is generally the instructors answer.

I recently had the pleasure of talking to Jessica Watson, a 16-year old girl from the Gold Coast, who is about to set off on a solo trip around the world. If she succeeds she will be the youngest person ever to sail solo around the world and take the record of fellow sailor Jesse Martin. Not bad for someone who was scared of water at the age of 8.  Watson plans to start her 23,000 mile quest in mid-September.

“That gives me plenty of time to reach Cape Horn before winter starts and hopefully enough time to be back in Australia before my 17th birthday”, said Watson.

She will be sailing on Youngestround.com, a 34 footer, which is only ten feet longer than a J24.

Family groups have criticized Watson and her family by calling the solo trip dangerous and irresponsible. Watson finds the comments somewhat amusing. “Everybody has an opinion, but they forget that it has taken years of preparation and I’m not a reckless person, anyway. I’m not someone who jumps off a cliff just for the sake of it.”
In the next few months Watson will be doing all kinds of courses, from survival courses to diesel engineering, to finishing off her preparation. And that is the moral of the story: as long as you are well prepared you can deal with any situation, whether it is Watson on Youngestround or a student on a J24. 

By Instructor  Marc van Dinther of Pacific Sailing School

Pacific Sailing School support  women in sailing and sponsor an annual  ‘Women on Water’  trophy for the J24 Association. In addition Terry's eldest daughter Elizabeth completed in many sailing events from Cadet Nationals to a J24 World Championship before she turned 16 and sails the schools J24s singlehanded.

Asia Pacific J24 Championships 2009.
6th – 8th June 09:
Starpac – Aus 206
By crew member Venetia Heesom

Team:
Sean Kirkjian – Skipper
Tim Briggs - Pit
Matt Whittingham - Trimming
Venetia Heesom - Mast
Zoe Kimberley – Bow
Jo Pinder – Monday replacement for Venetia

Shore Crew:
Terry Wise - Boat delivery captain and breakfast chef

Venue: CYCSA - Adelaide

On offer - a 3,300 km round trip from Sydney Harbour to Adelaide combined with a bit of sailing. This was surely an adventure not to be missed.

With Starpac de-rigged and on the trailer Terry and Venetia set sail, well not literally, for Adelaide. 1 ½ days,  850kms and with a crew still 6 kgs over the 400 limit for racing J24’s, we arrived in Swan Hill (VIC) to pick up another crew member and our sponsor Tim. Courtesy of Tim, the Lapstone Hotel Group & friends, we were wined and dined at the Federal Hotel. While Venetia and Tim chose their dinner with care opting for lean Kangaroo fillet and salad, Terry enjoyed the extra trimmings, because he could!

Early Friday morning we made a start on the final leg of the journey to Adelaide. Wrapped in black bin bags and with the heater gradually turned up to maximum, we turned Terry’s Patrol into a sauna. And it worked! I think Terry even lost a few lbs too! We finally completed the 1,500km journey, arriving at the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia at 4pm on Friday where we were put straight to work, quickly transforming ourselves into ‘boat builders’ rigging the boat and polishing her hull for maximum speed!

Soon we were joined by the remainder of the Starpac crew (Matt, Zoe, Sean and Jo) and it was straight to registration and the weigh in. The Starpac team weighed in at 397.2kgs. We’d done There was no time for celebrating though, we needed to ‘carb-up’ and headed straight to the nearest hotel for pasta and steaks after which it was back to our unit for a final ‘de-brief’ before an early night.

Day 1: 3 races were scheduled for Day 1. All were windward/leeward courses on the waters off North Haven, Gulf St. Vincent, Adelaide. Conditions for the day were mild with 8-10knot breeze forecast, literally a breeze you might be thinking. Race 1: In a fleet of 21, you can imagine the packed start line. Heading down the line away from the committee boat, 3rd from the pin and we were racing on a port tack. 2 phrases that summed up the racing weekend were “hike out” and “think fat”! At times it was essential that we were as far out as possible and legal as it was partly our weight that was helping Sean to steer. 2 races (both 3 laps each), 6 spinnaker sets (and a few mistakes) and 4 hours later, clocking up 6th and 9th places respectively, lack of breeze forced the 3rd race to be postponed. Therefore, with the fleet retiring off the water early, there was only one thing to do next and that was to ‘de-brief’ and mingle.

Dinner was in an Italian restaurant recommended to us by CYCSA locals. Suffice to say that it lived up to its reputation. And so did the red wine! Music, red wine, music, dancing, music, beer later, and a weary Starpac team
hit the hay at about 1am on Day 2.

Day 2: Conditions for Day 2 were significantly more challenging than the first, doing just about a 360 turnaround over night. The breeze had ramped up to 20-25knots, and combined with big swells and rain, we had definitely been given a challenge. The first and second races (both 3 laps this time) came and went with more of the same mistakes we’d made on Day 1 leaving us all feeling disappointed with our efforts, but we picked ourselves up and
prepared for the 3rd race.

The third race was probably the most exhilarating of them all and where our respect for our skipper sky rocketed. Having crossed all the start lines so far on a port tack close up by the pin, this time Sean was to do the opposite, heading off on a port tack over the start line, quickly tacking onto starboard. With the entire fleet (except us and another) on a port tack, we were cruising towards the top mark in a league of our own. For 15 minutes we were winning! Suffice to say this did not last due to more forced errors!!

Day 3: News of a broken down committee boat delayed the start of the 6th race however a replacement boat was quickly found. In conditions similar to Day 2 with storms on the horizon we were lucky to get a 6th race in (for which we fittingly came 6th.) Storms overhead caused the 7th race to be abandoned, however we had a regatta, thus a winner, with the minimum of 4 races being raced.

Starpac had hit our target goal (which was to come within the top 10 bracket) coming 9th overall and, despite our errors and frustrations, this was a result to be proud of. After being reminded that we were sailing against crews who’d been sailing together for 20+ years and had a combined experience in excess of 80+ years, we gave ourselves a bit of break! 9th was ok!

‘Sail, practice, sail, de-brief, sail, have fun, sail’ seems to sum up the long weekend perfectly!

Thanks Terry.

Quote of the Weekend:
• Zoe’s e on arrival at the ‘weigh in’- “This weekend is my partner Richard and my 7 year anniversary and here I am on the scales, in my underwear in Adelaide!”  (Who said sailing was uneventful?)

The return trip
Starpac is secure on the tow bar and the map of Adelaide has disappeared.  Our new navigators Joe and Tim with some help from Soo (one of the Korean crew)  who has hitched a lift to see the Opera House. We head north and turn right just in time to drive through the Barossa stopping for a little wine taste and somehow fit a case of the finest red into the packed car.  What a sight a yacht through the valley must have been, we stop again at Swan Hill overnight and for lunch at the Carnago Hotel (famous for the 6000+ utes party each year). A cockie (bush talk for man on the land)  welcomed us as he said we must have bought the heavy rains they had over the past days. He said when we have rain and its good on the land it will be good soon in the city. He is right and it was a great adventure, with the memorys of excellent sailing and the start of new and strong friendships we look forward to sailing again soon.



For full story from the J24 Association please go to  www.j24australia.com.au
And for more pictures go to  http://www.j24southaustralia.com/Asia-PacificChampionship.html




 

Our two big boats, Cadenza and Kioni are racing each Sunday in the  CYCA/Audi Winter Series.  Everyone is getting to know one another and many friendships have been made, especially after a few drinks at the end of each race. Happy Hour on Kioni last Sunday was a great chance for the rival crews to mix and share stories over a few glasses of wine!  The Kioni crew are now waiting for the opportunity to drink all Cadenza’s wine this weekend!

Kioni, having had a few small navigational issues, will have Paula on deck as Navigator, seeing she has been out of full sailing action after an unfortunate accident with a student falling on deck and breaking her foot. Paula reported that it was an accident and he is paying dearly in champagne!!  Paula commented that the idea of sitting at the back and telling Damien (the skipper) where to go is quite appealing!!!! 

Both crews have been faced with some strong winds and also some very light breeze so far. Things are coming togeather and  different things have been learn't from the varying conditions. There have been lots of laughs, sore muscles, uncomfortable trips up the mast in a bosuns Chair, and a thousand questions. A lot of these will be answered on Tuesday at the Racing Rules evening where we will also partake in one of Terry’s legendary barbeques afterwards! 

But the best part - some great results with Cadenza getting a 6th place week and Kioni have had a 4th , so with crews improving all the time, and extra training this weekend, we are hoping for some prizes soon.  If your keen, call the office, we have some spaces available.

Happy Racing!

 

 

  

A big thanks to the Lapstone Hotel group
who are supporting our team racing on Starpac in the International J24 Asia Pacific Championship in Adelaide in June 2009. 

www.lapstonehotel.com.au/sponsors.htm