BWPS to Bird Island
BWPS to Bird Island
Club Marine Bluewater Pointscore Series The Bird Island race was held on Saturday and saw 14 boats compete, a great fleet to see! The fleet enjoyed the southerly winds to get them to Bird Island before battling to work their way home in a dropping breeze.
For Le Billet owners Mark Tinworth and Mark Waterhouse this BWPS Season they have handed the‘ keys to the boat’ to a team of youth members seeking to develop their offshore skills. The team will be competing in all the BWPS offshore races with the club and competed in the CYCA Sydney to Gold Coast race in July. Mark Tinworth says“ Its been great to be able to offer the run of the boat to the youth team, they have heaps of energy and are keen to learn big boat sailing”....
Mark Waterhouse says“ We looked back on the days when Perpetual Motion took YD to Coffs and we thought to ourselves, why is this not happening any more, so we got a few of the YD crew together for 2015 and 2016 race and we all had a great time. So then we decided lets get the YD crew to commit to the full BWPS and we will commit to providing some training for them, and we ended up with half the crew YD and half the crew Le Billet regulars. A big thanks to Rachel for rounding up the YD and doing the sell on them.
them up front. In fact we have oldies doing bow and mast. The YD’ s are super keen to learn stuff like tactics, navigation etc and of course Safety at Sea( particularly on overnight races). As one of the YD said,“ we need a few oldies on board for when it all goes to s #@ t”.
Gaining a 2nd in Div2 in Sydney to Gold Coast and a 1st on all handicaps at RPAYC BWPS was a great result. Whilst Bird Island was a little disappointing, the conditions were not ideal for a 12 tonne boat and we all get a chance to do it again in November.
Mark T and I and all our regular Le Billet crew have been impressed not just with the YD crew’ s sailing ability and knowledge( thanks Tommy) but also their commitment, enthusiasm and just all round great people to have on the boat.
Oh, and the other secret to success, unlimited supply of Tim Tams and snakes!!!
Congratulations to Pekljus, David Suttie for winning the PHS Division and winning Free Entry into the Bartercard Sail Paradise Series in QLD which follows the Club Marine Pittwater to Southport Race 2-6 January, 2017.
It has worked out fantastic, the key is to give the YD crew key positions on helm, main, pit and trim and not just send