middle harbour yacht club

Melissa Yeomans

Huge weekend on and near the Harbour

Friday started off with a First Aid course run at Middle Harbour Yacht Club run by Splint-All.  Fantastic course with references to sailing throughout.   So good to do and I recommend it to everyone as it was very hands on and not all theory.   With real fake blood and needles sticking it of people in mock scenarios and more!  This is something I have been meaning to do for a long time and I am glad to have finally ticked it off my list.

Saturday saw me heading out on the water for the first day of  The Captain John Piper Match Racing Regatta out of the CYCA.  This time I had my own whistle!  In the morning there were three of us onboard so for the first time I got to hear Umpires talking to each other which was extremely helpful.  In the afternoon it was just Erica Kirby and I which was fantastic as I got to step into the role properly and have a great time doing so.  The sunshine and awesome Sydney Harbour Winter weather certainly helped make it such an awesome day out there.
Sunday I ended up at my favourite club, Middle Harbour Yacht Club.  Phil Clinton the club Vice Commodore, Phil Yeomans aka Dad the club PRO and myself took out the club start boat Hugh George.   Dad was giving us lessons on how to drive the boat so that we will be able to in future.   It meant we got to head our of Middle Harbour and down the Main Harbour round Shark Island and back.   We ducked into Rose Bay to watch one of the sailors we sponsor Nic Douglass who was out training with her Dad in the Taser as their Nationals get close.

Sydney Harbour certainly put on a show for us.  What a perfect winters day!   Awesome clear blue sky, crystal clear water and a greats breeze.  How lucky were all those out there today!!!

The CYCA fleet was out in force and looked fantastic packing the Harbour and looking amazing.   They gave me so many chances to take photos as we headed down the Harbour towards the CYCA start boat to say Hi.

As we packed up the boat to head home one of our other Ambassadors Georgia was heading out in the 420 with her skipper for a spot of training as well!   You are all awesome!

A busy week is in my sights as we get into boat show preparation mode for the big Sydney International Boat Show which is sneaking up on us.   Plus I will be heading out again next Saturday to learn even more about umpiring!

Check out the photos and videos from today at the DeckHardware Fan Page on Facebook.

I also took some video of Nic and her Dad Rob out on the Taser heading out for their training session.

Melissa Yeomans

Another birthday gone

Over the weekend I celebrated another birthday.   Not sure that celebrated is the word though.   I spent it with friends out on the water which was a nice way to do it.   I was lucky enough to be surprised by a friend who was over from WA as well!  Being the only day off last week it was a really nice way to spend the day.   How nice is the view at the end of the day!

The breeze from the South around 15 knots with some stronger gusts certainly had us on our toes with plenty of action on the water.   Plenty of capsizes and unfortunately one broken mast.  They almost managed to sail home as it was bending but we ended up towing them the last little bit when it completely broke.   Nice boat handling!

A few of the Heron Sailors were missing crew and decided to go out one-up which was fun to watch in that breeze!  They did an awesome job especially the young girls!   Nice work girls!  I am about to load the videos to our YouTube page.

I made myself a yummy cheesecake to celebrate and it went down very nicely for lunch with those who joined me.   There was a plain vanilla/lemon one and a cherry with chocolate base version.  Big thanks to Goughy, Liz, Kate and Ben who dropped in even though they weren’t sailing!!!

There is so much going on at DeckHardware at the moment.  I really need to duplicate myself I think!   Phil is back in the office for the week before he heads off yet again this time to Melbourne!   Then when he gets back he will be at the Access Worlds and I will be at the Combined High Schools Regatta.   So much to prepare to get ready!   Lots of signage and stock to pack.    Oh and yeah we are also still working on website as always.

Did I mention Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show is coming up?  Good friend Ben is coming up to stay in the house we have rented to help us out for the second year on the stand!  Thanks Ben!   There is a bit of work involved in getting ready for this one with sooooo many new brands to show off!  I can not wait!

ps.   Don’t mention the Manly game last night….

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

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

Animus, 30 Knots, Sushi and Rum

Thanks to Jen, Marlene and Kate for sticking by me and helping defend the title. It was a great sail as always on a great boat. A damn shame the race was shortened as we had decided to set a kite to Manly on the longer leg. That would have been one hell of a ride with just four chicks on a 10m!

Thanks to Marty for taking some amazing photos and to the start team including Dad and John Hurley.

Apparently Hijinx recorded 36 knots and the start boat recorded 40 knots on the way back to the club. A nice day for a ladies day…

Race Name: HARKEN LADY SKIPPERS RACE

Date: 5/11/2006

Division/Class: SPINNAKER & NON SPINNAKER

Handicap: PERFORMANCE HANDICAP

Start Time: 12:30Hrs

Wind SSE 20-25 Kts

DIVISION 1 – All Lady Crew – Spinnaker

Sail No Yacht Name Skipper Elasped Time H’Cap Corrected Time Place

MH12 ANIMUS MELISSA YEOMANS 1.46.59 0.895 1.35.45 1

7027 ESTATE MASTER LISA HILL 1 DNC

3838 ZEN KIM KETELBEY 1 DNF

AUS193 WILDFIRE MICHELLE WARNER 0.735 DNS

DIVISION 2 – Mixed Crew – Spinnaker

Sail No Yacht Name Skipper Elapsed Time H’CAP Corrected Time Place

6449 CARINA JULIA SALT 2.15.49 0.79 1.47.13 1

6544 ARROW SARAH WILMOT 1.53.45 0.953 1.48.20 2

8935 HIJINX JILL KEYE & RUTH LAWRENCE 1 DNF

DIVISION 3 -Mixed Crew -Non Spinnaker

Sail No Yacht Name Skipper Elasped Time H’Cap Corrected Time Place

6502 SAGACIOUS ANNE MULLER 2.18.54 1 2.18.54 1

Photos

Melissa Yeomans

Crew’s Red Hot Regatta

After an AP of 3 hours we were able to go out and compete in 3 races with the wind flicking from 155 to 175 to 200, for each start. By now the wind had abated to 15-25 knots in the puffs with rain at times. This was hard sailing in the short chop making upwind conditions difficult. The girls did well to get the weight as far out as possible considering there was no toe rail to keep them onboard.

During the June long weekend MHYC sent a team to compete in the RMYS Women’s Keelboat Regatta.  This was in response to a generous invite from the owner of the Adams 10m Rollercoaster, Ken Simpson. We brought our own Spinnakers (3), Mainsail and #1 Genoa to make sailing on an unfamiliar boat slightly easier.

The three days of the regatta provided a range of testing conditions:

Day 1 The weather today, 5 degrees Celsius (coldest June day for 13 years), wind 2-4 knots and thick, blanketing fog.  Visibility was no more than 1000m at the best of times.  Often no more than 100m with a runabout appearing on the course from Williamstown, which is on the other side of the bay, lost and having no idea where they were.  The breeze was swinging between 40 odd degrees, with no chance of setting a course.  After nearly 4 hours floating around the race officials decided to pull the pin for day.

Day 2 Again the crew were up bright and early, for our 7am briefing with John Hurley.  However the weather was now proving a handful with gusts reaching 40 knots from the south-west forcing a delay in racing.  We went for coffee with one of the Melbourne sailing teams that were competing in the event.  After finding out racing was still delayed we then decided to do the girlie thing and head for the Markets.  Liz, Rosie, Kate and I walked a little further as they decided if they could not go for a sail on Rollercoaster they would go for team bonding at Luna Park on the Rollercoaster.  Unfortunately the Rollercoaster was not operating so back to the Yacht Rollercoaster for hopefully an afternoon of racing. After an AP of 3 hours we were able to go out and compete in 3 races with the wind flicking from 155 to 175 to 200, for each start.  By now the wind had abated to 15-25 knots in the puffs with rain at times. This was hard sailing in the short chop making upwind conditions difficult. The girls did well to get the weight as far out as possible considering there was no toe rail to keep them onboard. The fleet was mixed with the main competition coming from Salamander III (Adams 10m), Horizon Sprint (Radford 10.9), Alien (Lidgard 11m) and Hush (Cavalier 35).  That night we all watched the Wallabies play England in the Motel Lounge Bar and continued our team bonding, with our English members of the crew.

Day 3 Race one saw us use all three spinnakers, starting small and ending up with the big masthead.  It was great to see how fast the crew had become in the Spinnaker hoists as well as being able to read the sailing instructions.  This saw us getting the gun in the first race of the day.  The racing was as close as ever with only seconds separating some of the fleet.  With many headsail changes between the #1 and #3, Kate is now very experienced at headsail changes not having done any prior to the event.   We were able to get three races in, breeze 10-18 knots with the occasional gust of 25.

Following Monday’s racing, the crew enjoyed a sit down dinner presentation with many prizes and a great attendance of approx 200 competitors and friends.   The evening was hosted by the RMYS Commodore who announced during the night that next year’s event would be known as the Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta.

Congratulations to the overall winner on VYC Hyperactive (J24) Kirsty Harris.  Our overall results were VYC 5th, AMS 2nd, IRC 2nd.  We were also awarded best start trophy for one our starts.  A great result using a borrowed boat sighted for the first time 1.5 hours before the start of the first race.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank John Hurley for his Coaching and support during the regatta, the next thankyou goes to the MHYC members for their very generous support at such short notice. Thanks to all the companies who supported our raffle efforts including the Sydney Swans and DeckHardware Australasia who supplied our major prizes. Special thanks to my parents, Robyn and Phil for driving down with my sails.  A very special thankyou to Nigel Holman for the loan of his inflatable vests making the sailing more comfortable as we were required to wear lifejackets in this event.

Thanks also to the team pulling together with minimal training on Animus – Jen Rezek – Main, Liz Gazzard – Trim 1, Julie Hodder – Trim 2, Rosi Winn – Pit (plus everything else usually done by mainsheet hands in Sydney), Kate Cooper – Bow and Mast.  And to Qantas thankyou for finding Julie Hodder’s sailing gear, her bag had decided it did not like the Melbourne weather and that the regatta should be held in Cairns.

During the Regatta we enjoyed incredibly close racing with Salamander III. It is hoped that they will be able to join us in Sydney for the next MHYC Ladies Day, as we will be able to arrange an Adams 10m for them to sail.  We all had great fun and I encourage all Sydney women to think seriously about taking part next year.  As well as competing in the Women’s events on Sydney Harbour, they are always great fun.

Photos

Melissa Yeomans

MHYC LADIES DAY RACE 2004

Even though the weather was not on our side the day was just as good as the last time we all got together.

The fleet made up of 3 all female and 10 mixed crews, with several Sydney 38’s, J24’s and Adams 10’s competing against each other.  Nigel Holman was good enough to lend his brand new Match 42 Cuckoos Nest to an all female boat which was later renamed to The Harken Angels as Pam Fagence and Akkim Lim from Harken were on board with Halos for the crew and wings for their skipper Vanessa Dudley.  Harken staff were also represented onboard the Match 35 Fordified by Greg Butchart who had flown in that morning after attending the Harken University in the USA.

 

Animus – Melissa Yeomans, was decked out with Tiara, sequenced and ribbon hair elastics with a token featherboa on the backstay as it was too wet to wear them.  Marita Wilmot flew in from London that morning to present the crew with shirts embroidered with the Harken Logo and race name.

 

Uncensored – Simone Grout, the third all female boat also had bags of goodies but were unable to dress for the occasion due to the weather.  Seeing this you would have thought that the onwater competitiveness would not have been of a high level.  Well you soon found out this was wrong as once the start gun went off there were almost several collisions.

In a light easterly the course was set between North Head and Balmoral for three rounds with a very hard run in tide and a small confusing seaway to compete with.  Nicky Bethwaite soon settled in and led around the Edwards Beach Mark. 

The Commodore did not fare as well as they were required to recover from a MAN overboard incident.  The two small boats of the fleet Innamincka and Kaotic (J24’s) kept intouch with the fleet of larger yachts in the light conditions to come 1st and 2nd in the mixed crew.

In the second half of the race there was some very close racing between many of the boats including the leaders This Way Up steered by Nicky Souter, Estate Master – Lisa Hill and Eve’s Delight – Nicky Bethwaite.

The Harken Perpetual Trophy was presented by their representative Robyn Yeomans to Animus steered by Melissa Yeomans.  With the Ron Hyde Memorial presented to Innamincka steered by Amanda Cook.

 

We would like to thank MHYC, Oregon Scientific and Sturrocks for joining with Harken to make this a very memorable day for all.

Photos