July 30, 2013 Melissa Yeomans

How many clubs can I visit?

It has been an action packed time for me. I have spent time at RPAYC, BSC, SFS plus my home clubs MHYC and M16’SSC. Most of this has been for Seminars, Meetings or Umpire dinners etc. It has been a busy month and I think my head may have exploded a few times there trying to take it all in and learn even more.

Last weekend was the Start of the Sydney to Gold Coast Yacht Race. What a slow start! The video will give you a great idea of what the conditions were like for the race, given how long it took to get out of Sydney Harbour and head offshore.

I only took a few photos of the event. Yeah ok more than a few but it wasn’t my normal effort as I was also trying to post on Instagram at the same time as well as video too! Here they are.

This weekend I am back in Umpire mode as we have the Club Marine NSW Youth Match Racing Championships on both days at the CYCA. They will be long days on the water and hopefully the weather will play nice as it is our first event with the new boats!

Who would have thought this is winter? I have been so busy! What on earth will spring be like with all the Australian Match Racing Championships happening at the CYCA. Plus over the next few weeks the America’s Cup will be a good reason to wake up early to watch all the racing online as it ramps up into semi final mode for the LVC. Good Luck to the boys on Artemis!

June 18, 2013June 18, 2013 Melissa Yeomans

Sydney Harbour

I am so lucky to live in Sydney. Days like this remind me why that is as winter turns the sky an amazing blue. The Harbour too shows off the varying depths and colours. I could watch the Harbour for hours as it changes through the day.

I am hoping the weather stays beautiful as once again this Saturday I am umpiring at the CYCA. Last week was week one of the Capt John Piper regatta with this week the finals. It has been a busy few weeks as prior to that we also had the East Coast Champs at MHYC my home club. Which was a full weekend on the start boat and in the protest room on a Sunday night to hear a couple of protests.

The conditions on the Saturday of the East Coast Champs were interesting with light breeze and a big seaway out on the sound as the video shows.

May 26, 2013May 27, 2013 Melissa Yeomans

Umpiring takes over again

Last weekend I spent the entire time indoors with the umpire team doing a seminar. Huge thanks to Gary Manuel for his time and effort in putting together the seminar! Thanks to Erica Kirby for making it happen too! A room full of umpires and I am sure you can imagine the topics and discussions that occurred.

This past weekend we got back out on the water which was much needed. It reminded us of why we love to umpire. How lucky are we! Amazing harbour, blue sky’s and sunshine… If only the breeze could behave haha, there is no chance it is winter breezes! And to think this is the off season if there were such a thing, match racing is just starting up. It’ll be a big year for match racing in Sydney with some very special anniversary events at the CYCA.

May 13, 2013May 14, 2013 Melissa Yeomans

Sydney Harbour turns it on

On Sunday I was on the water for the NSW High Schools Teams Racing Championships. It is days like this that make me well aware of how lucky I am to be able to spend time on Sydney Harbour. It was a very long day but views like this make it worth while! I am extremely lucky to live in a city with such an amazing Harbour full of sailors enjoying the beautiful sunshine. To think this is the CYCA Winter Series sailing past? So lucky.

The photos were taken with my iphone using a waterproof casing for on the water and not the best for photography.

What more can I say? I had a little play in Instagram

The fog starts to clear to show Shark Island

April 22, 2013April 22, 2013 Melissa Yeomans

CHS Sailing

The CHS is an amazing event that I did for many years as a teenager. One that attracts a huge variety of classes each year.

Here is a little story on the special event that was put together during the CHS by the DeckHardware team. When I competed in the CHS there were several different functions during the week and I decided this year to put one together. It was a great deal of work but something that was well worth it as the night was well received by everyone. I can not thank those enough who helped me out with the function. I especially wish to thank those who attended as special guests: Liesl Tesch, Karyn Gojnich, Lindsay Stead, James Burman and the Sailing Chix – Nix and Nic. I couldn’t have put together the night without your support and enthusiasm along with those who could not attend but wished me good luck telling me to go for it.

Series results

For a bunch of photos head over to the DeckHardware Facebook page.

April 15, 2013 Melissa Yeomans

Special Event planned for CHS 2013

One of the many fantastic things about being involved in the sport of Sailing is being able to inspire the next generation. I hope the special night I have planned for this years CHS does exactly that.

March 4, 2013March 4, 2013 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…

February 18, 2013February 18, 2013 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.

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.

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.

February 11, 2013 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!

858063_10151247469366721_418321516_o

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.

January 20, 2013August 24, 2023 Melissa Yeomans

16 Nationals

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.

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!

Melissa Yeomans

Sailing, it's a way of life.

australian sailing