Ready About

COVID Update: continue to follow guidelines on the home page of the website. 

Save the date: 

FYC Ladies Lunch – 12pm Friday 22nd January at Montalto

We are delighted to address the request of many FYC ladies and organise a Ladies Lunch in a COVID safe environment.  

The very hospitable team at Montalto have once again welcomed the opportunity to host us in their unique open air Piazza for this very popular event.  

We only can accommodate 40 ladies for this lunch.  So book IMMEDIATELY. 

Click on the Try Booking link to make your booking :- 

https://www.trybooking.com/BNZID

FYC sincerely appreciates the ongoing support and generous sponsorship from Montalto's owners, John and Wendy Mitchell, who are long-time members of the club.

From the Editor’s Desk

In a long lockdown deprived of our patch of paradise in Flinders, it has been extraordinary seeing our club thriving over January. As a volunteer at a few different organisations, it has been hard balancing engagement and COVID regulations, expectations and administration, now seeing us all back together again it has reminded me why we do what we do: to enjoy our sport, to care for our club house and grounds and enjoy each other’s company.

A bumper edition this month, with words from Alan Farrar, Rick Barker, Prabhas Singh Tomar, Geoff Barnett, Helen Kent and Tedd Warden. Big thank you to Tedd Warden, Peter Alexandrovics and Andrew English for their wonderful photography of club activities. 

Enjoy!

From the Helm

Dear FYC Members,

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

It was also a recent pleasure to welcome many members and guests to our annual Commodore’s Cocktail Party last weekend. You put your faith in our delivery team to provide a great evening in a COVID safe way. To that, I say ‘thank you’. We had magic weather, magic venue, great friends and excellent food. A big ‘thank you’ must also go to the organising team, headed by Helen and Ingrid. They delivered by the bucketful.

A full weekend was certainly on the fixture card. On the water our OTB team of eighteen intrepid sailors sailed to Balnarring for the annual teams racing event against Somers, Merricks and Westernport Yacht Clubs. Accompanying them appeared to be half of Flinders. A magnificent effort by sailors and supporters on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday also saw the keel boats off Flinders enjoying a light breeze and tough competition. However, at the risk of stealing their thunder if I say more, I will leave it with Rick and John to further describe the KB and OTB happenings.

Next weekend sees a full program on the water. However, our social activities are limited to ‘Picnic on the Deck’ on a Bring Everything & Take Everything basis with a maximum of 70 on the deck. The BBQs and Kitchen are not available. Please don’t attempt to use them. We want to avoid closure of the clubhouse as a consequence.

I look forward to seeing you on the water or on the deck at FYC.

Sincerely,

Alan Farrar
Commodore

FYC’s Commodore’s Cocktail Party – Saturday 9th January 2021
by Helen Kent

At last we were able to celebrate some form of normality and gather on FYC’s deck with our spectacular views, in the fresh air and enjoy the good company, delicious food, some good wines and great conversation. Hallelujah!

Now, this event, amid mounting COVID fears, did not happen without a lot of soul searching, checking and rechecking so can you all clap your hands in thanks to Commodore Alan and Stephen Kroker who put in the hard yards making sure we had all the ducks in a row to be COVID safe and compliant; and also to Victorians who played by the rules and saw us with four 00s in as many days preceding this event.

In deciding to hold an event, we had to ensure we met all safety checks re the food. I sought Trish Hurley’s ideas and she came up with the suggestion of food vans. I grasped that thought with both hands and found four vans that could meet the sophisticated palates of our members: Nem N’ Nem (Vietnamese), Roast N’ Roll (gourmet mini sliders), The Flying Calamari Bros, (local and members of FYC) and Luv Lee Ice Cream (homemade deliciousness). Add some Tuck’s wines (very big thankyous to John & Wendy Mitchell from Montalto), a variety of beers, some French bubbles, soft drinks and sparkling water to the list and we were almost ready to rock n’ roll. The final ingredient that made the night so special was the balmy weather and spectacular sunset. I would also like to thank Ingrid Alexandrovics, FYC’s Social Secretary for managing all the hard stuff, husband Peter for the music, Imogen Kroker and Alex Mitchell for being the fabulous Bar Team, Susan Matthews, Ingrid & Jane Morrell Kelly were our very busy ‘DB’s’, better known as Meet & Greeters, plus Joy Manners, my boyfriend Teddo, the Krokers, the Kellys, the Farrars (including their son Angus and his girlfriend Matilda) for helping set up. Peter and Ingrid were the tireless duo who packed up.

And finally, thank you all very much to those members, new and longstanding, who supported our first event in nearly 10 months and joined us on the deck.

Photos courtesy of Tedd Warden and Peter Alexandrovics 

Windward/Leeward

What a great Summer of sailing! We sailed all 6 Summer Series Races and All 6 Junior Championship Races, now we are into the Championship Races and looking forward to the Brian Coleman Cup on Australia Day weekend, hopefully Brian can come and defend his title from last year.

Final Results of Junior Championship:

1st: Lilly & Rose Fogarty (Club Pacer 3)

2nd: Anton & Meike Freuchtl (Club Pacer 2)

3rd: Liam & Gavin Vallely (470)

Great sailing Lilly & Rose!!

Final Results of Summer Series:

Handicap: 

1st: Karsten & Emma  (Club Pacer 4)

2nd: Warren Joel (Weta - Wetarse)

3rd: Warwick Mitchell in (Weta - Beta Weta)

Yardstick:

1st: Karsten & Emma  (Club Pacer 4)

2nd: Angus Cramond  (Laser - Mild thing)

3rd: Warwick Mitchell (Weta - Beta Weta)

Great sailing Karsten & Emma!!

We had a very successful sailing school this year with 67 participants, including a large complement of 11 adults and 5 fantastic instructors from the Boatshed! We welcome many new members as a result of their participation during the sailing school, so big thank you to FYC members for being so welcoming and encouraging new members to join our community. 

Our loyal sponsors Bendigo Bank once again sponsored the Annual Sailing School and we were delighted that the Manager of the Balnarring Branch, Mr Greg Hood, was able to attend the final presentation ceremony on 31 December.

Top left: our well-attended adults course preparing to go out on the water 

Bottom left: Tackers participants and club representatives at the final presentation ceremony 

Windward/Leeward – describes the position of a boat in relation to the wind, a boat downwind of another boat is the leeward boat and a boat to upwind of another boat is the windward boat.  It is important to remember that where two boats are on the same tack that the leeward boat will have right of way where it overlaps the stern of the windward boat, the leeward boat may luff up the windward boat (by calling “UP!”) but may not pass head to wind in doing so.  This is the most important right of way rule for boats on the same tack and worth remembering!

See you on the water!

Rick Barker
Club Captain

Westernport Teams Racing Regatta, 11th of January
by Rick Barker

After a very pleasant adventure sail to Balnarring on Saturday, that I think all the kids really enjoyed, 20 Kenn FYC sailors talked the adrenalin rush that is teams racing; 6 identical boats, 3 against 3 in 5 minute races. The Weather was fantastic with the right amount of puffs, shifts and lulls to make it all interesting.

Unfortunately no trophies for us this year, but well done all the sailors in our Beginners and Intermediate teams – Leigh, Lilly, Karsten, Meike, Angus, Emma, Dom, Fin, Liam, Rupert, Mischa, Luka, Alegra, Prabas.

In the Experienced Team, Charlie, Ed, Rick, Rose, Anton and Harrison performed really well winning all of our matches other than against the young guys from Westernport, we lost 11-10 in the two matches in the grading rounds and faced them again in the sudden death final.  A good start by Ed saw him get well ahead to take 1^st place but we needed to battle our way around against the very aggressive Westernport team to make sure we could take advantage as they will try anything to get a penalty. Charlie and Anton tried a few tricks and despite having to do a 720deg penalty were well up with every one coming up to the last turn, the Westernport team set up a mark trap which Rick and Rose managed to avoid (I think Charlie was distracting the umpire at the right moment) and we looked like we would manage a 1-2 finish assuring us of a win, unfortunately in the 10^th race of the day the Club Captain must have been a bit weary and stuffed up the last tack to lose the match.  I was really proud of the way we sailed, our strategy was sail fast and keep out of the way but we managed some really good come backs by good team work.

Thanks to every one involved, Linda as Beach Marshal, Lucy driving a course boat, Jim and Luca driving a taxi boat, Andrew for the photos and of course all our supporters. Thanks also to Dom, Peter, Fin, Jim, Karsten and Leigh for getting all the boats back to FYC safely on Sunday night. Thanks also to Adam Smith and Westernport YC for putting on the day, they ran 51 races on 3 courses, a fantastic thing for all the sailors!

Top left and bottom right: drone shots of the action at Balnarring 

Top right: Capt Dom White 

Bottom left: Luca Cave loving taxi duty

Photos courtesy of Andrew English 

The Action-Packed Experience that is Teams Racing by Prabhas Tomar

On the day of the races, there were many sailors present with various sailing experiences (beginners to advanced). Some who I had met before, and some were fresh faces. 

I had the pleasure of sailing with many competent sailors (Lee, Liam, Finch, Dom and a few others). I would like to also commend and thank the people that were taking part in the races, but not sailing themselves – umpiring, organising, and operating the safety boats. I cannot name enough names to thank them all for the support and encouragement they gave to me and my fellow sailors. Some of these amazing people I would like to mention are Rick, Linda, Lucy, Luca, Victoria, Peter and Ingrid.

It was such a vibrant, friendly and a fun environment. It was very interesting to watch sailors of all ages compete with each other in a most respectful and friendly manner. Even though some races did get competitive, it was not intimidating and everyone taking part in the races made feel like I fit right in.

I had the opportunity to crew 7 races, all with different skippers in my team. Experiencing these races really evolved my sailing as we had to be vigilant and efficient. 

The races were organised and composed very well throughout the day. After taking part in these races, I realised how much work and effort goes into organising an event like this for such a wide variety of people and experiences.

I would like to thank each and every person that was involved – sailors, organisers and even the people that helped us by driving us from one club to another. It is because of these people and the environment that was created, I am looking forward to coming back next season.

Top left: teams battling it out on the C division course

Top right: kids in the Salty Seals team discussing tactics 

Bottom left: The Salty Seals leaping majestically from the taxi boat 

Bottom right: parents and friends enjoying the racing from the bar

Prunings

Spring rain was great for our grounds, the embankment grass jungle was nearly two feet long and had to be hand slashed before final trim by the ride on mower. While getting the place ship shape for the Tackers was important, it was also vital for the Commodores’ Cocktail Party. There was a trial run adhoc gathering on New Years Eve (although few made it past 9pm). New member Duncan was put to good work moving the picnic tables and spreading the mulch behind the Control Tower with his Kubota Tractor and Bucket.

The OTB crew including Liam, Gavin, David, Warwick, Leigh, Rick, Anton, Karsten, Linda, Mark, Angus, Martin, Hugo Elliot, Dominic, Warren and Mike were a great help shuffling the boats in the compound for a proper mow and tidy up. This is a fairly big job that the KBers usually do, fair that the difficulty in moving boats with flat tyres is shared with those that cause the problem ;)

Mark, Clay and Andrew were awesome with their whipper snippers doing all the tricky bits. Although Andrew had done more than enough, he came back the next day to finish trimming Lacey View for a sharp entrance all the way to the CCP.

Ingrid and Peter also helped with window and web cleaning. Peter’s start line and security camera have already been useful recording dodgy-people incidents.

Don concluded the commissioning of his new winch, with calibration to a load cell connected to the Club Ute bullbar being dragged up the beach. Also involved was Jim from Yaskawa (pictured programming his controller), world’s biggest electronic control company, who with Don gave me quite an education in Process Control.

KBers have bound together to form the Flinders Lift Company (unincorporated) to maintain their boats to excellent effect. This provided a distraction over lockdown that will be most useful.

Point of all this is, many people make light work, thanks for your cheerful involvement.

And thanks to all for closing the boom gate after entry, and locking after last exit.

Teddo

Yard Boss

Top: Don working on the high-tech winch

Bottom: trimmed saltbush overlooking the Tackers optis

Welcome to New Members of FYC!
by Mark and Jacqui Kelly, joint Membership Secretaries 

We would like to welcome the new members who joined the Club during 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Welcome to new Family Members:

The Chambers Family

The Crisp Family

The Fitzpatrick Family

The Higgins Family

The Pearce Family

The Redward Family

The Whiteside Family

The Lawrence Family

Welcome to new Social and Senior Members:

L. Barnett

D. Fischer

N. Gaunt

R. Goller

C. Jaeger

T. Loton

A. Mannix

J. Smith

M. Smith

P. S. Tomar

J. Tracey

A. Oates

FYC Golf Extravaganza & Masters Golf Day 2021
by Geoff Barnett

FYC golf day was yet again another ‘roaring’ success, held in extra windy conditions, with some slow play issues (which in hindsight, were my fault) and outside players barging into the field and playing through groups and also being so bold as to take beers from the drinks cart, on the way through! 

We welcomed players from ‘Pathway to Golf’ and I inadvertently positioned some of them incorrectly in the early part of field. Sorry to all affected including the Slater/Hawkes group. Hope the encouragement awards helped ease any pain.

There were 50 in the field with many stories of fine shots and narrow misses! No player actually hit the 12th green for the nearest the pin, whereas some did on the harder par 3, 3rd hole.

Congratulations to the Annie & Pete Dawson, Jenni & John Sweeney group on a magnificent win, especially with a birdie on the last hole! Unfortunately, a group was disqualified for an incorrect score card, despite specific instructions about these issues - just like starting a yacht race with a yacht over the start line as the gun went off! Under the circumstances, the Kate Farrar, Max Findlay, Eamonn Cook & GB group took out second place.

The Beige Jacket and Silver Cup will be presented at the FYC Presentation Night.

Men’s longest drive was won by Eamonn Cook, whereas the Women’s longest drive had two claimants.

The drinks cart, sponsored by our kindly Commodore, was a welcome relief to many tired, and some irritated golfers. A big thanks to Jill McDonald and granddaughter Millie for providing such good service.

After golf drinks at Zigi’s bar were much appreciated and worked in well with the day. Hope you had a fun day.

C U all next year! 

Above: Our golfers enjoying a well deserved drink at Ziggy's Bar

Photos courtesy of Geoff Barnett

On Watch

How Windy is it at Flinders?
by Tedd Warden

The Navy told us to stick our head out the window, Marine Traffic stopped wind advice from channel bouy 8 and Cape Schank Light, Balnarring Bight is too far away, Willy Weather at Cerberus is useless, too protected. Rhyll is ok for north and east, not so south and west.

So, check out Victorian Channel Authority tide gauge with wind, at East Pole, right in the middle of our race track! In real time!!

https://vrca.vic.gov.au/quick-links/tide-gauges/

Thanks to Master Mariner Grant from Somers.

Above: KB and OTB sailing over January.

Club Captain reported to be in the brig after leaving wife behind at Westernport Yacht Club after Teams Racing Regatta.

Top left: Rick surveying Prabhas' new boat with Prabhas and Maria

Top right: the Watarse Warren Joel on the water 

Bottom left: Flinders is the best spot for Windsurfing! Or whatever surfing that is!