Sailing

Melissa Yeomans

420 and 470 State Titles

Over the weekend I was assisting at the 420 and 470 NSW State Titles out of MHYC.  What a huge weekend with BIG WAVES and BIG BREEZE!  On Saturday we actually set the course inside Middle Harbour!  Not something we would normally do but even there it was gusting 24 knots with swells rolling in every now and then.  Creating some great surfing opportunities for those competing.

On Sunday we headed into the Sound with a smaller start team on a smaller start boat!  Not ideal in a big seaway but certainly interesting.   Unfortunatly I had no chance of taking photos on the Sunday.   The breeze held steady at 15-17 knots and the swell was less than Saturday but still had some big moments.

470 Results

420 Results

A little video I took on Saturday when I had the time.

Photos from Saturday

This weekend is another HUGE weekend at Middle Harbour Yacht Club with the Sydney Harbour Regatta on.  Saturday morning sees the Sailing Chix Live on location kick starting things.  Let’s hope for beautiful sunshine and a Nor’easter!  They have been lacking lately…

Melissa Yeomans

Pittwater High Schools Teams Racing

Over the weekend I umpired over 60 teams races.   On Saturday we were lucky to have Arthur Spithill and Ian Humphries along with Murray Gordon and myself.  Sunday Murray and I were back and we threw Oscar Stranack into the deep end for the full day and he did a great job!  He even got to umpire two lots of Finals as we had a tie for 1st and 4th after two round robins.

Saturday we had to wait for the breeze to fill in and that was with a late start.  I guess I should not give the PRO a hard time as it was my father haha.   It was tricky conditions over the weekend with East to South East breeze flicking around a lot.  Sunday was fairly similar with more than a few course changes to make things interesting.

Breeze coming in – at Pittwater

The winning team came down to a best of three finals with Mater Maria and Pittwater High fighting it out and even though Mater Maria won Pittwater were in it till the finish.  It was great to see several Girls Schools out there competing as well!  There was even mention of a competitor helping out those new to the sport whilst racing against each other.  Fantastic!  There were several teams that had a few people completely new to the sport out there giving it a go.  And what a great looking weekend to do it.

Pre Start Chat among the team

I didn’t get the chance to take a photo but I must comment on the Jellyfish.  They were MASSIVE!!!

This week is a big week yet again with both my Co-Hosts from Sailing Chix with Nix having their birthdays!

Happy Birthday Chix!

I am also hoping to head over to the 18’s who are competing at the JJ’s with my good camera to watch for a day or two.   Then Sunday sees me back umpiring some Teams Racing again.  This time it is the Opti’s for just the one day.  For now I am in the office catching up on some work, designing some advertising for DeckHardware and catching up on the America’s Cup action from over the weekend that I missed.

Melissa Yeomans

An Aussie Weekend

What a weekend!  Saturday Morning as always started with the Sailing Chix on air.   It was a big show full of AC talk and lots of Match Racing, TP52’s as well as the up coming JJ’s for the 18’s.   There is plenty happening in the world of sailing this year that is for sure!

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Sunday was pretty big.   My first umpiring event for the year was the Marinassess Women’s Match Racing Regatta, won by Kathleen Stroinovsky and her crew of Lucinda Whitty, Samantha Boyd and Kate Brown, representing the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.  It was a very tricky day with the Southerly hitting early on and causing the breeze to be very shifty as well as changing strengths with the shifts.   Women’s Sailing has come a long way in the last few years and we can thank the Olympics for including Match Racing at the London Games.    It was great to see Lucinda Whitty one of our Silver Medal winners out there yesterday as that helps increase the skill of the competitors.   It is also great as the atmosphere at the event was such a friendly one as well as being competitive.  This goes for everyone including Competitors, Organizers, Race Committee and Umpires.   It really felt like everyone was there to grow and improve as well as having a great time out on our awesome Harbour.

Leaving the CYCA I managed to get home to watch the last 1.5hrs of the Bathurst 12hour.  The race could be watched online via the website which was AWESOME! The commentary was great to listen too as well. The weather was teasing so much with rain all around the Mountain making it extremely difficult to choose what car setup to go for.  I can’t wait for the V8’s to start up with the new teams mixing it up a bit!  Check out some of the video here.  Apparently I missed an incredible amount of Safety Cars in the morning part of the race as well as some of the crazy rain that had them doing 40K around the track on the wrong tyres.  I will definitely be checking out the highlight footage.  Great effort by those who put together the coverage and did the Commentary.  Loved it.

Now for another big week at DeckHardware followed by a full weekend of umpiring at the Pittwater High Schools Teams Racing this weekend up at RPAYC.  Summer truly is awesome.

Melissa Yeomans

16 Nationals

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Nath Wilmot on the Second Last Day

Yesterday I had the chance to head down to Manly to watch some old friends compete in the 16′ Skiff Nationals. Lee Knapton and the crew of Brydens had already taken out the championship. We actually talked to Lee that morning on Sailing Chix. In second place was my oldest friend Nath Wilmot who we also talked to that morning. He was sailing on Hubble with the skiff legend Peter Hubble.  Congratulations to both crews it is fantastic to see Lee and Nath still battling each other at the front of the Fleet!  Another title from Lee as this one just slipped out of Nath’s reach.  I am sure in the future he will get the chance to be the 16’s Champion.

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Brydens

The crew of Bryden’s had remarkable pace off the start line. They then ended up in the drink thanks to a broken shackle. The point of this story is massive. Even though they had won the series Lee was prepared as always and had a shackle in his life jacket. What do you carry? They were able to fix it and fight their way back through the fleet showing just how good they are.

It was great to catch up with so many of my old Flying 11 friends.  I grew up sailing as a teenager at Manly 16′ Skiff Club and I am still a member there so many years later.  This past season we at DeckHardware have supported the Fire Stopping team.  All very old friends of mine who despite this put together the best sponsorship proposal I have seen in years!  It wasn’t their regatta but it was great to see the three of them on the water together!

Link to the images I took on Facebook.

Check out the short video I took on the day!

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Start Line Action
Melissa Yeomans

Sponsorship feels good

How good is it to be in the position to support sailors who are off on adventure and love the sport of Sailing.  Since sponsoring the Australian Youth Championships we have announced a number of new sailors to join the DeckHardware Ambassador Team.  Currently it stands at:  Nic Douglass, Tom Freeman,David Gilmour, Lachy Gilmour, Brad Greenrod, Ben & Scott King, Alec Milligan, Michael Pfeffer, Dante Olivieri & Alex Marzano, Carrie Smith & Ella Clark and the Fire Stopping 16ft skiff team. 

We will be adding more names to this list over the coming days which is truly exciting!  At the moment the Fire Stopping Team are competing in their National Championships and we wish them the best of luck!  When looking for our Ambassadors we don’t just look at results, we look at their goals, personalities, love for the sport, sportsmanship and much more.

On another good note, last week I got the chance along with the Sailing Chix to head up to Wangi to watch the Moth Nationals.   Or was it the Worlds?  Talk about an incredible field!  We had the chance to interview Nath Outteridge,  Tom Slingsby and Iain Jensen.  A huge thanks to the guys for taking the time before a nationals race to talk to us along with a couple of others who we interviewed (Beau interviewed us).  I have been involved with their Olympic Campaigns as a sponsor and friend and it is great to see them jumping in a class they love and out on the water.   Head over to the Sailing Chix website where we will be loading the interviews for you to listen too.  The interview with Tom in particular who we had more time to talk to is fantastic.  Thanks Tom!  You really did sum up what sailing is all about and it was great to hear.  Congrats to Scott Babbage for taking out the Aus Title and Pete Burling the Overall Win.

The guys now leave Australia and head to San Francisco for the America’s Cup.  What an exciting year ahead for them.  Jumping straight out of Olympic campaigns which lead to Gold into campaigns in the oldest competition in sport the America’s Cup.  I can not wait to follow their journeys.

The Sailing Chix and I finally sat down last week to have a very long and overdue meeting.  Talk about big plans for the year ahead, do you think we can fit it all in?  Have you tuned in yet to listen to our show?  Stay tuned for big updates!  We are extremely excited to be on this adventure together.

Melissa Yeomans

Goodbye 2012!

It is the end of the year and we have certainly had an interesting one to say the least as it started great but that only lasted a short time.  It won’t be hard for 2013 to be better than 2012, bring on 2013!

Boxing Day once again I was on the Southern Line with my father.  I also had the Sailing Chix doing our live coverage.  We had a great day on the start boat and our next door neighbour joined us who is a non sailor and had a ball!  Lots of photos and video from the day are on the DeckHardware Facebook page.  Dad is now down in Tassie taking my place as I had planned to go spread the DeckHardware word and catch up with my Tassie based friends.   He is having fun getting friends to call me from his phone to guess who they are.  Liesl you sound NOTHING like Dad hahahaha.

With all the troubles of this year I have also been very lucky to have some amazing friends support me.   I am especially grateful to Nix, Nic and Lindsay who I started an amazing adventure with this year that has kept me going.  Our radio show.   It has been so much fun to get out there and promote our amazing sport with friends who love it as much as I do.  It certainly has taken up a fair amount of our time but the rewards have been well worth it.  Sailing Chix Rock!!!  I can not wait to see what adventures 2013 take us on.   Nix is already down at Dee Why now setting up for an outside broadcast to bring in the New Year!

The second highlight of the year was definitely all those late nights during London 2012 cheering on the Aussie Sailors!  You are all awesome and I am so glad I get to call so many of you friends and support your journey.   Bring on Rio!!!

Thanks so much to those who have stood by me the last two years. It has been a rollercoaster and I have learnt a lot about me and others. Bring on 2013, as I have had more than my share of bad luck and I am ready for the good!

Happy New Year everyone! 2013 has so many big plans already!  Lots of Sailing Chix with Nix, A trip to METS in Amsterdam for DeckHardware, More Umpiring and so much more.

Melissa Yeomans

Boxing Day is almost here!

Yeah ok we have Christmas first.  But Boxing Day is going to be just so exciting this year it is hard to not get excited.   We at Sailing Chix with Nix will be doing a live coverage of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race start on Boxing Day.   Once again my Dad will be the starter on the second line as well.  So it is a big day for us!

Sailing Chix with Nix will be LIVE on Boxing Day covering the Start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race!

Sailing Chix

Sailing Chix with Nix will be live on location for the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race based at Tania Park above Grotto Point on the Northern Beaches in Sydney! The Chix can’t wait to bring you five hours of interviews from yachts, specialists, weather gurus, the community and more to really bring the Hobart to life! We will kick off from 9AM and take you right through until 2PM as the boats leave the heads and start the journey South!

Want to know more about Sailing Chix with Nix head over to our website www.sailingchix.org

You can listen live via radio, streaming online or via the Tune In app – details below!

Radio: 88.7 or 90.3 in Sydney

Apps: Tune In

Tunein website

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone!

Bring on Boxing Day!

Melissa Yeomans

Sail Sydney takes over

I am sitting here trying to figure out what to say.  Massive.  Huge.  Epic.  Is pretty much all I can come up with.  I spent 4 days at Sail Sydney on the Start / Finish boat for Course area B and I am exhausted.   We had all sorts of classes including: 470, 420, 49er and FX, Windsurfers, Access Classes, 2.4, 29er, Moths etc.  At times finishing boats of such varying speeds was a little interesting.   It was great to work with some other start teams to see how they do things.

It was great to see Tom Slingsby and Iain Jensen get out on their Moths and have some fun away from their Olympic Classes.  Starting and finishing the Moths was certainly interesting.  Although we did have some very light air on the last day which meant low ride starts for the Moths.  Old School!  Thanks to those who put some DeckHardware stickers on their boats.

Sail Sydney was a huge event with over 460 competitors.  Amazing turnout!

Saturday was a pretty big effort.  I did the Radio show in the morning then rushed to MHYC to jump on the start boat so Dad could take me around to get on the WSC start boat.  I jumped into a RIB to transfer in between.  Literally going from one side of the RIB to the other as it was easier than transferring between the bigger boats.   Thanks to Dad for the delivery!

sailing chixSailing Chix with Nix is going amazingly well and appeared on the front page of Sailing Anarchy last week as a show to listen too.  We are being received so well in the wider community and had the chance to talk to Mark Richards and Carl Crafoord on Saturday about their Hobart experiences.  We are looking forward to Boxing Day and talking to them before the race start along with many others.

Listen to our live show this Boxing Day from 9am for the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race!

You can listen live via radio, streaming online or via the Tune In app – details below!

Radio: 88.7 or 90.3 in Sydney

Stream: Northern Beaches Radio (streaming)

Apps: Tune In is one of the best ways for those to listen outside of Sydney!

You can also catch our past shows, or keep up to date on news during the week via our social media!

Past shows

Melissa Yeomans

Umpiring has taken over

Over the last two weeks I have been extremely busy learning more about the world of umpiring. Two weeks ago I spent a couple of days umpiring up at RPAYC for the Harken International Youth Match Racing Champs. It was a good to see how things are done at another club. The wind certainly was very testing with more than a few postponements. I was great to meet some more umpires and see how they do things and why. Having not done a course yet everything I’ve learnt comes from on the water.

On the weekend I was unable to continue umpiring as Saturday Sailing Chix with Nix did our first on location show. 2 hours live at MHYC for the SSORC. We will be doing more of this sort of thing in the future and it was great the support we got from Scott at MHYC. On Sunday dad then asked me to help on the start boat offshore. Not a great deal of fun in 4 knots and once again I saw that postponement flag.

This past week I have been busy at the Musto International Youth Match Racing Champs. It was a different umpire team again with a handful of the same faces. Wow I have learnt a lot after two weeks in a row. I was lucky to have the support of some great umpires. The weather once again was inserting but the last two days we finally saw some great breeze from the Nor’easter.

It was great to see my friends from Musto at the regatta too. With Duncan out there on the last day to watch the action.

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It’s my turn in the warehouse now as Dad has headed down to Melbourne already for Sail Melbourne. He’s taken the DeckHardware van down with some stock and catalogues. If your there keep an eye out for him!

It’s that time of year isn’t it! Summer and Sailing! Love it!
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Melissa Yeomans

Yachting Awards and Sailing Chix

On Friday night the Sailing Chix and I headed to the Australian Yachting Awards!  For all the winners check out the link.  It is always a great night getting to see Australian Sailors celebrated.  There were more than 230 guests attended the event at the Byron Kennedy Hall in the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park, Sydney.  The three of us managed to catch up with friends along with spreading the word on our new Radio Show.  The feedback we had on the show was fantastic!  Thanks so much everyone for the support.  As a sponsor of the Australian Sailing Team the Yachting Awards is certainly a highlight.

Nina Curtis and Liesl Tesch certainly are two of our biggest advocates!  Love them so much!  Good to know we have some other awesome sailing chix wanting to see our new venture succeed.

Saturday morning we then woke up early to be on air!  We kicked off a little early and still did not manage to cover everything!  We will be backing it up in the next show.   Here is our show update from Yesterday:

Jam packed champion chat!

Well what a show we had for you this morning! So much went on last night at the Yachting Australia awards that we will just have to roll over the after party to cover more interviews for you next week!

Today we did chat to Cam Williams from Channel 9, Mark Spearman who took out the Youth Sailor of the Year award, and of course our great interview with one of the Volunteers of the Year, John Middleton and Mike “Fletch” Fletcher who was honoured with the Yachting Australia Lifetime Achievement award.

We did get to meet the Minister for Sport, it was great to hear about how her son fell in love with sailing at the launch of Discover Sailing at the Canberra Yacht Club last week. We are hoping to have her on the show in the next few weeks!

The Honourable Kate Lundy, Minister for Sport presenting the Sport Promotion Award last night

On top of all of this (yes it was busy here in the studio!), we chatted live to one of the winners of Yachtswoman of the Year, Nina Curtis of ONLY Racing and of course Randy from Bangin’ the Corners! Fantastic to have them both on the show! Beau of Bangin’ the Corners is of course “Nathan’s brother” – one of the recipients of the Yachtsman of the Year award last night, along with his crew Iain Jensen, as well as Malcolm Page and Mat Belcher, and Tom Slingsby. Yes a three-way tie!

It was great to see so many of our past guests up there taking out awards last night! Of course Liesl Tesch and Dan Fitzgibbon took out the Sailor of the Year with a Disability! What an awesome year for our Sailing Chix with Nix advocate! Matt Allen also presented the SOLAS trusts award, a great cause that we all need to support as sailors.

If you missed the action today, or want to catch up on what we have been getting up to over the past few weeks check out our Past Shows page. Today’s show should be up in the next few days!

As for next week, well we have interviews with Phil Jones, CEO of Yachting Australia, and we were also lucky enough to catch up with Victor Kovalenko the medal-maker himself! These interviews and more from the 16 footer States, the Farr 40′s and a number of development programs are all happening next week!

Massive thanks to those who chatted with us last night and today! Until next Saturday, enjoy the southerly stream this weekend, and look forward to talking sailing with you next Saturday from 8am EST!

Listen to the Show: