Melissa Yeomans

Funny how life changes

So a few years ago I was happy working two jobs and sailing 3 -4 days a week in Summer and 2 days a week in winter.  Then everything changed.  I got a call that changed my world and went to work for DeckHardware full-time.   It was not long after this that my family made the decision that we would like to purchase DeckHardware and that would change my life for ever.   I would end up working even more jobs to help grow the company and doing more hours and unfortunately have to sell my beautiful Animus so that we could buy more stock and bring in new brands.

As much as I miss the girl she has gone to a flat water home that she deserves after 30 years of hard racing out of Middle Harbour Yacht Club on the sound.  In an easterly she was unbeatable as one of the softer and oldest hulls still racing.   I was so lucky to be the third owner of such an awesome boat and it truly was a privilege to be allowed to drive such a fantastic yacht. It was also a sad day when she left our extended family as back in 2002 with good friends, my father and uncle aboard we had won the Adams 10m Nationals.   It was not long after that I bought her from family friends the Whites.

Owning DeckHardware has changed my life completely.  I have had the chance to travel to Europe multiple times visiting Ireland twice, London three times, Germany twice, Amsterdam Twice and Paris.  I have also had the chance to go to America several times visiting California as well as Washington DC and Annapolis.   I found myself until last year pretty much working 24/7.  Which is how I have found myself sitting here on a beautiful Saturday working away on the laptop instead of being out on the water. Seeing DeckHardware grow and change has been worth it even if it has been one hell of a ride and continues to be.  Along with all the experiences and friends I have made as a result.

I now make sure I do spend time on the water which has reminded me why we bought DeckHardware in the first place and why I love being a part of the Sailing community.

My parents tell me as a kid my personality would change as we approached my grandfathers yacht.  I was lucky growing up as one grandfather had the ocean racer and the other the 1920’s ketch with bowsprit and all which we restored.  The 1920’s yacht Thistle was kept on a mooring and apparently when I would step from the carpark to the grass to row out to the boat I would change completely in personality.  I even worked out how to go Wednesday Sailing for School sport with Adams 10 legend Pat Carroll during my teenage years acting as my coach.

For me I am at home on and near the water.

So sitting here with my laptop looking out at the ocean I better get back to work so I can enjoy it tomorrow…  Enough reminiscing and reminding myself why I push myself and work two jobs.   As my crew who are still in my life always say to me when they help out at Boat Shows and in the warehouse: one day you will own a boat again for us all to go sailing on.

In the meantime I have a pretty awesome company that I believe in and love to work for that needs all my attention to keep growing and I am proud of that.

Melissa Yeomans

Sailing Photos that rock

Some days you just know there will be the chance for some awesome photos.  Looks like yesterday in the 18’s was just one of those days.  This photo of Thurlow Fisher Lawyers who won Race 3 of the Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour is just one of those shots that everyone is talking about.

Check out the other images

or read the story on MySailing

I was lucky a few years ago to spend a day on a headland filming the 12′ skiffs.  It was one of those days that I could not decide between video and still images.  The 12’s are another class which are known for getting just a little bit of air.  They even have a miners trophy.

To read more on the 12′ skiffs visit their website

Photo album of some 12 action that I took.

I think it is time I tried to find another one of these days and hit the water or closest headland!

Melissa Yeomans

Footy season is almost here

What a way to start a weekend.  Waking up and turning on the TV to watch Manly play in the World Cup Challenge.  I can not wait for the season to start and to go to some Brookie home games.   Manly did not get the win but after a rusty start showed they were getting back into the swing of things in the second half.   I must say I know they have short in goals over there but seriously what was with the state of the ground?  Talk about sand!   And to think they get rain over there?   In fact it was raining during the game…   Just glad it looks like there were no major injuries despite playing on a ground like that.  Pretty sure there were some complaints about other grounds last season that looked much better than that…  Oh well it is done now.   Manly just have to defend the Premiership and get back there to give it another go!   They won last time against Leeds just wasn’t to be this time.   It was actually pretty surprising the amount of rain during the game.  You could hardly tell in the coverage except when they showed one angle of the sky.

For those of you wondering I am a Sea Eagles Supporter born and bred.   Working and living so close to Brookie how could I not be!   Check out their memberships.  I have been told that my family would bleed maroon and white  haha.  We are one of those houses that in the last finals series had flags out on the front deck proudly flying.  Growing up my parents always had Grand Final Party’s as during my childhood Manly made and won some great grand finals.  But there is nothing better than standing on the hill with your closest friends when Brookie is at ground capacity.  A suburban ground at its best.

Now for the rest of the weekend.  A bit of work today whilst taking it easy and possibly if it is not too warm I might make a batch of my favourite cup cakes.   Choc Chip ones with chocolate icing.   yummy. I make them every now and then and put them in the freezer so they do not get eaten all at once!

Then bring on tomorrow, a day on the water.  No doubt it will rain and not be a black noreaster…  A girl can hope though!

Melissa Yeomans

How important is coffee to your day?

I have a coffee machine at the warehouse and one at home and I know I am pretty lucky.  They are the same machine so that I can make the coffee with my eyes closed.

The weather in Sydney lately has been pretty predictable.   It will rain at some point each day without fail.  In fact the storms coming through each day have almost been like clock work.  So this morning I had to feel sorry for someone who clearly was so desperate for Coffee he had gone across to the mall and not taken an Umbrella.   That was a big mistake as it is not under cover at any point and crossing a pretty busy road as well.   Needless to say the rain came through pretty heavy, so much so that there was minor flooding on the roads around the mall.

I just hope his coffee warms him up…

Over the weekend I drove back from Gosford in very heavy rain on Saturday afternoon and Sunday we were packing up after sailing in the rain.   Sunday was a beautiful morning but even still I took out my wet weather jacket on the RIB just in case.  I thought myself crazy but it was needed after all.

You would think we are getting use to it but then again this is meant to be summer in Sydney Australia.

Melissa Yeomans

V8 Supercars – Nissan are back

There seems to be something about sailors and motor sports.  I have known a lot of people who do both sports and love both sports as do I.   It has been no secret over the last 24hrs that Nissan are joining the V8 series.  What is a surprise is Kelly Racing!   I guess they get to be a real factory team now.   It will certainly make things very interesting as they have been growing their profile a lot lately and have a real support base out there.

It will be weird to see Nissan on the Grid again.

Story here on the V8 site

Melissa Yeomans

Who am I?

It has been a while…

I have been a part of DeckHardware for over 6 years.  Growing up sailing on family and friends yachts as well as competing in Manly Juniors and Flying 11’s out of Middle Harbour Yacht Club.  At 22 I purchased my first yacht Animus an Adams 10m.

I plan on talking about my life of  boat shows and sailing regattas which can be a little different.  The main boat shows I attend are the Sydney International Boat Show and the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show.   I also get the chance to attend overseas boat shows and have been to Annapolis, Dusseldorf and London.   The main show I attend as often as possible is METS which stands for Marine Equipment Trade Show which is in Amsterdam.

METS gives me the opportunity to see the majority of our suppliers at DeckHardware in the one place at the one time.  Along with meeting prospective future suppliers.

Unfortunately I do not do as much sailing as I would like to as I have Hyper Mobile disorder which makes it a little tricky.   I still try to spend as much time on or near the water as possible.

Melissa Yeomans

The Estate Master Womens Sailing Team entry in Womens Challenge

This is our story, we would love to hear the other crews stories. Whether it is in Division 1 or Division 9. Every crew has a tale to tell.

The Estate Master Womens Sailing Team came out in force for the Manly Yacht Club Musto / Sturrocks Womens Challenge last Sunday, 22nd of March. The initial challenge was to assemble a team of talented women to get the Grand Prix Farr 40 around the race course. In doing this I am very lucky to have the support of Martin and Lisa Hill who have allowed me to steer their boat for several years.

This year I stepped aside from the helm to enable Sarah Hill to be our skipper for the day, which broadens the skill set of the Estate Master team, but I was to call tactics so not much of a move! Sarah has sailed on Estate Master over the years and has a background in top class rowing and we were both excited about the new approach to this years Women’s Day challenge.

Several of the crew for this year have sailed together on Animus (my Adams 10m) for several years and a few have been onboard Estate Master but not all together as a crew. A Farr 40 is an entirely different beast to control! This did not make them a novice crew, far from it but it was a team who had never sailed a Farr 40 or anything like it together before. Bearing this in mind we allowed for over an hour of training before the race which is generally enough to iron out the major kinks, to help the crew to gel and for Sarah and I to find a rhythm. To complete the triumvirate of brains trust at the back of the boat we had Estate Master newcomer Kristen Short on mainsheet, someone who I have sailed with for over 5 years and trust implicitly.

Rounding out the crew were from front to back, on the pointy end we had Katrina Ham who was a first timer on a Farr 40, previously a stranger but now a friend to us all who impressed us greatly at the tricky end. On the mast was Rosi Winn someone who has a great reputation from the Adams 10m fleet and she backed it up here. In the middle of the boat pulling the strings we had two ladies who need no introduction but for kicks we’ll do it anyway! Lisa Hill and her partner in crime Sam Phillis. No kite went up, no headsail came down without their say so. They combined wonderfully as usual and made life easy for the rest of us. Running the engine room we had three very talented trimmers, Cate Barry, Katie Cooke and Liz Gazzard. They shared the duties of trimming, as it should be on any good boat, and they powered the boat upwind and downwind and communicated beautifully with Sarah and I. This made the job of steering Estate Master to the double of line honours and handicap a joy for us both. Sarah Hill did an amazing job steering this complicated beauty for the first time and I might have picked a shift or two but then again boat speed makes you a wonderful tactician eh? Might I add it was a pleasure to sail with all these awesome women.

The Musto / Sturrocks Manly Yacht Club Womens Challenge is a fantastic event co-ordinated by Ivana McAlpine and the team at MYC. There are over 50 boats sailing across nine divisions in both all womens and mixed crews. In all womens sailing finding enough women who can sail is easy; finding enough to fill every position is the hard part. This is one of the reasons for us to compete in such events, the chance to try out a crew slot you might not otherwise get and to improve the skills and experience of women in sailing. As a skipper and boat owner it is important to me to increase the numbers competing in our sport and if an all womens event introduces new people then it can be only seen as a positive thing.

Firstly the Estate Master Womens Team would like to thank Middle Harbour Yacht Club for allowing us to use their start boat, Hugh George, as our support boat for the day to entertain our sponsors, friends, partners and family. Onboard were such luminaries as Martin Hill, Commodore of MHYC and owner of Estate Master, Chris Williams reknowned Sydney Harbour sportsboat sailor and all round top bloke. Phil Yeomans from DeckHardware and regular MHYC RO and Duncan Curnow from Musto Australia. During the course of the day they combined their talents to assist race entry Zen (a mixed crew Sydney 38) from the tricky spot they found themselves on the rocks in Taylor’s Bay. They also provided the love, support, affection and a little bit of pre-start coaching that we needed.

Thanks go to Manly Yacht Club for hosting a wonderful event and their excellent race committee. The sponsors of the event Musto (employer of our own beloved Sam Phillis!) wonderful manufacturers of wet weather gear. Sturrocks, equally wonderful supplier of wet weather gear and all your other sailing wear needs, a big thank you.

Finally a massive thanks to Martin and Lisa Hill for providing the continuing platform for the Estate Master Womens Sailing Team to perform on.

Melissa Yeomans

Animus is actually sailing!

Who’s turn will it be this year? We will have to wait and see. After all you have to be in it to win it!

Two years ago Animus missed the Adams 10m Nationals due to a broken mast, this year it looked like we would miss out again. Animus has not sailed this season due to work commitments and doing the Nationals just went into the too hard basket. With no regular crew and some maintenance required there was a lot to do. This is when Live Sail Die stepped in and asked what it would take to make sure we made it to the Adams 10m Nationals at Lake Macquarie.

After calling one of my regulars Tom Freeman who has sailed with me since the Flying Eleven days we decided to give it a go at putting a team together. He made a few calls and managed to get a mate of his who he sails Farr40’s with as well as match racing in the youth fleets. Dave Chapman was in which makes three.

It was then that I called Big Dave Nelson. Dave was part of the winning crew back in 2002 when Animus was known as SSV under the ownership of the White family. I was part of the crew then along with my father Phil Yeomans and Dave has sailed with us on many occasions since.

My good friend and Two-handed partner in crime Kate Cooper was in “if we really needed her” even though she should be finding a new place to live. I did try and now with just 5 days to go Kate is definitely in.

This is where the internet came into play with Facebook and 12′ skiff sailor Brad Greenrod saw that I was putting a team together and sent me a message that he was interested. We now have a crew!

Next step was to get Animus up to Lake Macquarie and looking at Seabreeze a week delivery would have been very wet bashing into strong Noreasters. So Sunday morning with the help of my father and our shorecrew (Mum) Animus arrived at the lake. It was a very long motor without much breeze. I managed to take just a couple of photos during the trip. If you have never been into the Lake check out the the video on the Adams 10m Website. I did not take any photos or video going up the channel this time around as we were warned by the Coast Guard twice that several boats had to be pulled through the day before. In fact they had already had three that morning and whilst we were going through a smaller boat along side was not paying enough attention and ran aground. It is only about 1.2 to 1.4 metres deep in parts at high tide so it is a bit of an experience to say the least when your draft is 1.8m. Let alone the rushing tide through such a small channel.

So Animus is now at LMYC ready to compete in another Nationals. This is something I have done since I was a kid as my Uncle and Father have sailed the 10’s my whole life and now I do. It is always remarkably close racing with as many as half the fleet a good chance when they are having their good day. Ben Nossiter after roughly 20 years of trying finally claimed victory at last years titles. Animus is out defend our title, the ‘Pat Carroll Memorial Trophy’ for the first placed timber seat yacht. However as we have proven in the last 10 years just because we have timber seats does not mean we won’t be up there at the front of the fleet.

Who’s turn will it be this year? We will have to wait and see. After all you have to be in it to win it!

Melissa Yeomans

Home for now

What an amazing trip. Visiting the rope factory was good for work and getting to see snow was fantastic.

Unfortunately I got sick on the way home thanks to people who were sick on the plane. Very typical really and not a great surprise.

Lots of work to do now to catch up and pay for this holiday. There are plenty of more places in the world I would like to see. I would also like to get back to Ireland as I really only got to see a small piece of a very beautiful country.

Melissa Yeomans

Liros Rope

Well I have arrived here in Germany and spent the day wandering around the Liros factory watching how they make all our rope. There really is a lot that goes into it!

The most exciting part though is the amount of snow and fog. It is also fairly cold but a nice cold unlike Paris which was just windy and very cold.

My last day in Paris was fairly typical of the tourist.. As you will see in the photo.