Yesterday I spent the day on the MHYC start boat with a fantastic team including my Dad at the MHYC Sound Championships. The breeze however made it for one of my more interesting days on the water. Talk about shifts! We all know that Westerlies in Middle Habour make for interesting sailing and testing conditions. The shifts really are affected by the hill and can swing over 50 degrees on a regular basis. So setting course is difficult and really hurts the brain.
Then throw in the fact that half way through the day the breeze decided to do a 180 and come in from the EAST!!! Thankfully Dad finished the boats whilst I liaised with RIBS to arrange a new course so we could do it as fast as possible to get enough races in to have a series result. There was not much time to rest for the 5 of us on the start boat. Let alone get in some lunch!
With 5 short races and a fleet of Optimists and 420’s it was great to have a good team to work with on the start boat who knew what they were doing. There really were no breaks between the starts and finishes! Especially as the 420’s needed a couple of General Recalls.
Photos when I had the opportunity
to take them are here
I was very impressed with the majority of the fleet. It is fantastic to see so many young sailors thank the start team as they finished the last race. Some even thanking us in between races. There needs to be more of this to encourage more volunteers like us to spend their day on the water supporting our next generation of Aussie Sailors.
Right now I could not be more proud of Australian Sailing. Olympics, America’s Cup, Melges 24, Moths and much more are showing how good and how strong and varied Australian Talent is right now.
Melissa Yeomans 