Ready About

Saturday 3rd April 2021
Join us at the Easter Celebration BYO Dinner on the Deck. All members and guests are welcome to this family event, games for the kids start at 5pm. Hope to see you there!

Photo: Luca Cave

From the Editor’s desk

Sitting in between Point Leo and Shoreham at Sunday’s Montalto Marathon, experiencing sunshine, wind and rain, with a spare rashie pulled over my head as a makeshift hood, I remarked on how a long day on the ocean is tempered by good company, good laughs and seeing our sailors enjoy the day.

In this issue, we hear from Alan Farrar, Rick Barker and Trish Hurley. Enjoy!

Battling wind and rain at the finishing line.

From the Helm

Dear FYC Members,

It is a pleasure to welcome you to our March issue of West Headings.

With just a few more weekends of racing, our season is quickly coming to a close.

We commenced the season with more than a little Covid trepidation. Thankfully our concerns for racing did not eventuate and we have enjoyed great racing on our home courses and at other venues.

Recently, our crews have flown the FYC flag at the Pacer State Championships with excellent results. Our “Off The Beach” and “Keel Boat” Aggregates have seen close and spirited racing without clear cut winners until the last days of racing.

A magic climax to our season was the inaugural Montalto Marathon staged in good conditions in the south western waters of Western Port Bay last weekend. Over 50 boats from Somers, Westernport, Merricks and Flinders Yacht Clubs participated. We took 1st place in both the KB and OTB Monohulls divisions.

To ensure that I don’t steal any of our Captain Rick Barker’s thunder, I direct you to Rick’s words in Lay Lines for more details.

While our formal social activities have been Covid curtailed, we have enjoyed plenty of informal dining on the deck and I look forward to seeing you at another great night on the deck on Easter Saturday.

Sincerely,

Alan Farrar
Commodore

Photo: Luca Cave

Lay Lines
From the Club Captain

Again - some really nice sailing days recently, especially last weekend for the Inaugural Montalto Marathon.

The Club Championships and Aggregates are done and dusted and we just have the Easter Racing and the Autumn Series to go so make sure you get down for a sail before it gets too cold!

See https://www.flindersyc.com.au/Sailing for full results.

Photo: Peter Alexandrovics 

Somers Sassy Regatta:

Lilly, Misha, Meike & Emma attended the SaSSY (SheSailsatSomersYachtClub) regatta on 28 Feb and gained valuable experience. Lilly and Misha managed to win one of the races in the afternoon and were just pipped in the second. Mischa was so excited by the experience she told Andrew they just had so go to the Pacer State Titles the next weekend!

Pacer State Titles:

6 FYC Boats attended the State Titles March 6-8 2021, the Sailors were: Andrew & Mischa Englisch, Karsten, Meike, Emma and Anton Freuchtl (all in their first Regatta), Ed & Harrison Wright, Lilly & Rose Fogarty and Rick & Lucy Barker.  Support Crew were Victoria & Linda and Jim Fogarty drove a rescue boat as one of the Somers drivers fell ill.

25 Pacers attended in total, as well as about the same number of 125s. The weather was generally light southerlies and all boats had trouble with the strong tide.

Results were as follows (skippers first named)

Ed & Harry - 2nd in Non Spinnaker and 6th overall
Lilly & Rick - 2nd in Junior/Senior Category and 9th in spinnaker div
Rose & Lucy - 5th in non Spinnaker
Karsten & Emma - 6th in non Spinnaker
Andrew & Mischa - 7th in non Spinnaker
Anton & Meike - 10th in non Spinnaker

A great experience for all concerned, particularly for Jim in the race management/boat driving/course setting pressure cooker! Also a great advertisement for the quality of sailing at FYC at the moment, the association wants to talk to us about hosting the event.

Pacers and 125s lined up on Somers beach awaiting some wind. Photo by Lucy Barker 

Championship & Aggregate Series:

Some very close racing and the scores were tight for the winner and places right up to the last weekend, great to see our young sailors coming to the fore and the family teams well represented, there is no batter feeling than to participate/compete as team with your kids!

OTB Championship: 

1st Pacer 2733 "Firefly" Harrison & Ed Wright

2nd Laser 211572 "Ocean Oddity" Rick Barker

3rd Pacer FYC4 Karsten & Emma Freuchtl

OTB Aggregate:

1st Pacer FYC2 Anton & Meike Frechtl

2nd Laser 211572 "Ocean Oddity" Rick Barker

3rd Pacer 2733 "Firefly" Harrison & Ed Wright

KB Aggregate:

1^st – Montalto – John Mitchell and Crew

2^nd – Valkyrie – Peter Dawson & Clay Manners

3^rd – Act of Faith – Tedd Warden & Crew

Photo: Peter Alexandrovics 

Montalto Marathon

A great day of racing 15 Flinders boats entered and 53 in total from 4 Clubs. The day was about as perfect as we could have imagined when planning for it, a steady 12knots from the west (and a couple of squalls to make it interesting!) and not too much swell.

Flinders well represented in the results:

1^st in OTB Monohulls – Harrison Wright & Ed Wright in Pacer 2733 Firefly

1^st in KB Div – Andrew Kings & Julian Barlow in J70 Soixant Dix

4^th in Junior Skippers – Lilly Fogarty & Mischa English – Club Pacer 3

3^rd in TY/KB Div – Montalto – John Mitchell, David Wilkins & Crew

Big Thanks to Lucy, Luca, Angus, Marcus, Linda & Rick for the race management and Rescue Boat Duties on the day and thanks again to Montalto for the support of the race.

Lay Line:

The “Lay Line” the imaginary line where you will be able to round the windward mark without tacking again. The further you are from the mark the harder it is to estimate and the more chance you will “overlay” the mark and end up sailing too far - tide effect and wind changes will always be a problem.

Hint: Don’t get on the lay line too early, tack before you get to it so you still have tactical options later in the leg.

See you on the water!

Rick Barker
Club Captain

Capturing Kennon Cove
Trish Hurley

Artist Basil Kouvelis has lived on the Mornington Peninsula all of his life. He learnt to surf at Gunnamatta Beach and says he's 'still learning' and his first job while at high school was picking apples at Montague Orchards-now a Montalto vine growing area.

Basil and his partner, artist Nadine Jolley, live in Flinders and will be participating for the first time in the Peninsula Studio Trail where artists across the Peninsula open their studios to the public at the end of May.

While the FYC sailors were working hard getting home in last Sunday’s marathon sail to Balnarring and back, Basil set up ‘en plein air’ on the beach sand and painted a number of oil seascapes on canvas and boards. 

Both the senior and  junior sailors were  intrigued, as were the dog walkers and beach walkers; from a distance, many thought Basil was ‘cooking’ on the beach a la ‘Surfin’ the Menu’ but he was painting and capturing the beauty of Kennon Cove on what was quite the perfect Flinders autumn afternoon. 

Photos: Trish Hurley

Our very own FYC member Janice Johnston has reactivated her art practice and has recently painted a playful series of watercolours based on ‘Life on the Bay’.

These two paintings were completed after seeing the last day of Tackers 2020. They are available in very high quality giclee prints in various sizes. Please contact Janice for more details. 

Janice will also be participating in the Peninsula Studio Trail on the last weekend in May. You will be able to visit her studio and see a large array of recent watercolours and linocut works which will be for sale.

Instagram: janicejohnstonartist

Mobile: 0419 268 220

Usually held in November, but postponed due to COVID-19, the Peninsula Studio Trail will have an open weekend on 29th and 30th May.

Basil and Nadine’s studio and gallery space, Studio@74 is at 74 Cook Street (enter from Stokes Street).

All members are invited to view Basil’s new work reflecting local beaches, the cliffs, vineyards and the Peninsula hinterland. 

Check out all of the artists here: https://www.peninsulastudiotrailinc.org/

On Watch

Fantastic to see Peter Alexandrovics and Prabhas Singh getting the Flying Dutchman on the water!

Angus Farquhar, Marcus Cave and Prabhas Singh retrieving the Ant Grage after the Montalto Marathon. Photo: Luca Cave