Apollo Bay Sailing Club

Tell Tales

27th November 2017

As sometimes happens in a sport that relies on the wind, our race on Saturday was cancelled. But a few did get out on the water on Sunday for an enjoyable casual sail.

So in place of our race wrap-up I will take this opportunity to firstly thank the organizations that made our recent upgrades at the clubhouse possible. The Colac Otway Shire provided the funds to put in a stove, kitchen benches and water tank. So many clubs benefit from their small grants scheme. Contemporary Kitchens joinery and glazing for the donation of the cupboards. What a wonderful local business this is and how involved in the community owners Gavin and Tina are. Not to mention their friendly staff. And to one of our local tradesmen, Dave Ferey, thanks for the advise and professional work.

Secondly this is an opportunity to go over what it is we actually do out there on the bay each weekend. First a couple of bits of jargon; Tack (port or starboard): bow passes through the wind and sails change from one side to the other, Gybe: stern goes through the wind when sailing away from wind and sails change sides. Beating; sailing as close to wind as possible on port or stboard tack. Running; sailing as directly away from the wind as possible. Reaching; sailing across the wind on port or stboard. Port Course: passing buoys on your left side; Starboard Course: passing buoys on your right side. And on and on and on…..  

Sailing races can be done on a variety of courses. They include Triangles, Windward/ Return (towards and away from the wind), Trapezoid or a number of others. Let’s focus on a triangle shall we as it is definitely our most common course. Often we sail three laps (depending on the wind). You start the first leg (after a five minute count down sequence) beating into the wind towards the top mark; often about 1.2 klms away. The upwind can often be very confusing for new sailors as two boats, on opposite tacks, can spend twenty minutes sailing away from each other only to come back together further up the leg, or to round a mark/ buoy which can be very exciting.

Once boats have rounded the top mark they head off down wind on a reach to the next mark (tip of the triangle) sometimes referred to as the gybe mark as you need to gybe to get round it. Then it is another reach back to the start (or downwind) buoy. A typical 3 triangle race is about 9.6 klms with a cut off time of 2 hrs. If you consider the zig zagging that goes on to sail up wind boats cover a lot more distance than that. Our fleet is made up of keel boats (larger boats permanently moored in the harbour) and off the beach dinghies and smaller boats that are launched every week. To make it competitive we have a handicap system which works pretty well.  

Thanks To Our Sponsors

Apollo Bay & District Community Bank, Great Ocean Road Trading Post, Waterfront Motor Inn, Café 153, The Fishing Co op, Surf-n-Fish, J&C Marriner Earthworks

Life is good. Come Sailing!

To find out more see our website or our Facebook group - Apollo Bay Sailing Club