Annual Report 2011-2012.pdf - Lane Cove 12ft Sailing Skiff Club

Lane Cove 12ft Sailing Skiff ClubJunior FleetThe juniors had another great year on the river,with some close racing, good times and greatcamaraderie. One particular feature was theimprovement shown by a number of junior sailorsas the year progressed; finishes got closer andcloser as the year progressed and nothingshowed this more clearly than the final clubchampionship race where the first three boatsfinished within 18 seconds of each other aftermore than an hour and a half of exciting racing inchanging conditions.As ever, the junior sailors were helpful andfriendly, and this made running the class apleasure. It was also very pleasing to haveparents helping each race day and with theadministration of the class. A special thanks toDavid Swadling for running the pointscore spreadsheet and to Margaret Glassock for her efforts inrunning the starts and the finishes.The weather was generally good, although it gotblowy a couple of times at the Friday eveningLearn to Race program, where quite a few of ourbeginners became familiar with capsize retrievaltechniques. We had quite a few sailors join thefleet from the Learn to Sail and Learn to Raceprograms and many of them acquitted themselvesvery well; Chanel Lai, Lachlan Cozzie, JamiesonBennetts, Lucy Lilley, Charles Lilley, Joe Ghiazzaamongst others fell into this category.As in preceding years, the Learn to Sail programran in October, December and January and wasvery well attended. We had wonderful assistancefrom parents and junior and senior sailors andalso Flying 11 and Cherub sailors including EmmaMay, Catriona Glassock, Chloe Jensen and KatWotherspoon who ran courses with greatSabot 2 Up Club Champions Henry Larkings and Eve Peel inGone in 60 SecondsSabot 1 Up Club Champion Gael Glassock in Babesuccess. Again, the weather was generally kind(possibly too kind!?). Thanks also – as ever - toJack Winning, who always does whatever isrequired to get kids on the water and organisesthe learn to sail program.The juniors demand much of the starters and theadministration function at the club. A big thankyou therefore needs to go to all who helped inthese areas. Lots of parents got out on the ribsand helped throughout the year; thanks to allthose parents too and to all of the others whohelped the juniors with the Learn to Sail programand the Learn to Race program. Thank you alsoto all of those who donated trophies – without yourhelp much of this wouldn’t happen.The juniors made a big effort to collect books foraboriginal kids on Palm Island. We sent six boxesof high quality kids’ books for young and earlyteen kids as part of a literacy initiative.Somewhere, even as you read this, there may bea kid in the tropics reading a book someone atLane Cove donated.The numbers for juniors this year increasednotably; everyone was again racing in Sabots.The fleet varied each week from five or six boatsto as many as 17; with the bigger fleets generallyout for the Club Championship races, of whichthere were five. Courses were generally set for aSydney summer nor’easter – a beat up the river toOnions Point, a reach across to the wing mark atWoodford Bay, a run down the river to theAlexandra Street mark and then another beat,reach and run before finally finishing. There wasmore harbour racing this year and the kids gotoutside the river a couple of times where theyacquitted themselves very well in the areabetween Greenwich, Cockatoo Island andwww.LC12ftSSC.org.au Page 19