HELP Sailing Club - Sailing Day !

Last Saturday 17th October was fantastic day for me, I was invited by Ai li to go sailing with her bunch of Help Sailing Club members and that kinda gave me a reason to wake up on a Saturday Morning.


It was a great day! For the sun was kind and the wind was blowing. There were lots of them,like around 15-ish people, and the lucky three who managed to go onboard with us are Jeff, Fred and Wei Wen.

We are suppose to instill sailing interest into them for this is their first time on board a sail boat! And what better boat to do just that than our Platu where everyone have to be involve to sail the boat.

All three of them didn't take much time to learn the basics of tacking and jibing maneuvers. Wei wen was on the main sail trim, while Fred and Jeff were taking care of the front sail.

On our way back we even managed to spot some dolphins,
and that really made my day, for all the time that I have sailed at port klang, this is actually my first time spotting a dolphin here.

Sean

Sunday 6th September, Sailing Day!

We had another awesome sailing day, and this is how we got it...

Started the day at the Royal Selangor Yacht Club, wind wasn't blowing in the morning,
this worries me a bit as we will be sailing with six today with pik yi coming on board,
and to add, there is a change to the sailing plan, Jeremy Camps our club Sailing Secretary decided that we should do some match racing too.
Off we go, Today we have Vincent on the helm, yew on the Trim, Pikyi and Simon sharing the pit, Hoe on the main and me as usual on the foredeck.



Race 1, fleet race - Wind went up to around 10 to 12 knots , and the left side of the course looks favor with its shallow water, current is about lets say 2 knots . Wind and current both from south east.

We started well but Jeremy camps had the best start, with the strong current everyone was heading to the shallow water first. Those who didn't got left a little behind. Nearing the Windward mark, we are one of the 3 boats in contention to round the windward mark first. We had Jeremy but somehow Tom managed to sneak passed us rounding the mark first with us close behind. Down at leeward mark, we tries to get room, Tom some how had some problem with its spinnaker. We capitalize on it and never looked back.

Race 2, Match Racing - Us against Ayin's Team, Ayin will be taking helm for Team AsianYachting.com for the Malaysian Monsoon Cup qualifier later this year, we were on port side, Ayin was late coming into the line, we sailed pass her and went straight behind the committee boat, and then we were circling each other by doing tacking and gybing. Hoe needed the warm up as its has been quite sometimes since he trim the main this much. Ayin was too into it, and didn't realize the time, we started ahead, she made a mistake of going to the right side of the course first instead of getting into the shallows first. We won the race.

Match Race 2, we were on bye, as we rested we observed the other teams. All of them rounded the mark on starboard as oppose to port as written on the Sailing instruction. Though Match Race are normally done on starboard rounding, it is not at all unusual to do port rounding. Always read the Notice of Race and the Sailing instructions. I received the NoR for the Malaysian Qualifier the other day, perhaps I shall share it here another time.

Race 3, Match Race, Us against Tom, Tom is a very good sailor. He will be one of the entries for our club, is it not known whose his crews are, I do hope he gets to bring his own crew.

We started against them with a dial up, he move from the dial up and made a mistake of sailing to the port side, the pin end. we bore off fast and tried to keep him on the pin end, yet we were slow and we started circling, moments passed and we were push to the middle of the starting line by the current. 1 minute left, we were both on starboard tack, we were the leeward board, we had overlap and tried to push him off the line, but then the wind swung towards the east backfiring our plan, and he started ahead of us with us following closely, we only mange to caught up in the leeward mark, where we managed room, and got ahead after that, but Tom was sailing really fast with them taking the lead back on the windward mark. But he had no idea wind swung again to the east, now the wind is blowing north east. He made a mistake of gibing first to take advantage of the current. Vincent realize the wind condition and asked us the hold as we are on a tight reach to the finishing pin already! Tom realizing his mistake and gybed back. But it was too late as we took the 3rd bullet of the day.


4th Race - Fleet Racing - Its a sail back to the club, it would be a spinnaker run back to the club, but the wind had been swinging to the north. therefore it could be too shy to fly the spin.

We started with Jeremy below us and Tom above us on windward, he was the first the hoist the spin as we decides to wait. Bad idea, Jeremy and us immediately pulled ahead, with having to sail a few degree lower than us, half the course, yew decided its time for us to hoist, by this tim Tom have already downed his spin and trying to sail high. We hoisted , and Jeremy pull away sailing higher, yew reasoning was, we sailed the shorter course. Anyway we caught at the erm..river junction to the club. now we are both on a square run, starboard tack with us covering them with the wind and current favoring us.We went ahead and ends our day with another bullet!

Still talking about the mark rounding after the race.


We Improved our leads to 3 points!!

I had the wind behind my back..3 months of updates

I know I have not been writing for the past months, I have been in a somewhat an overdrive, where I have been committed to sailing , work , family (mostly to uncles and aunties if you're reading this, Reese ) and also my social life. But this blog is about sailing, So this what I have been doing ,

Heritage Bay Cup (June 2009)
I was thrilled when I was invited by Mira to become a casual coach for the heritage Bay Cup, personally I am not a very good coach, communication isn't really my forte, so there is something to be learned in this trip to Pulau Duyong. And yes I learned heaps in dealing with new sailors from Dave Mills, not only that, I went back to the basic of sailing and strengthens it.

I also caught up with Nurul Ain, 2008 Malaysian Match Racing Winner! Managed to put some interest in her to join us, Mata Hari for Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta this coming November 2009 and from I last heard she is very likely to join us as our Trimmer.

Phuket Race Week 2009 (July)

This time I sailed with Niels on Pheonix, and then we have Pik Choo, Martin, Alex, Pierre and also Ai li on board, we came in third overall in our class. The highlight of this trip was my performance on foredeck which was good as I avoided all major screw ups, kept the skipper worried free of the foredeck and also my stay on Cateleya a 40ish footer cruising catamaran. It was fun staying on a boat, but it can get really boring for I am basically stuck there as it is anchored out in the sea. But nevertheless I had really good fun racing! Thanks to Niels and Pik Choo for the invites!!

Matahari 's Delivery 2009

Kinda ashamed to say, that this is my first delivery for Mata Hari having sailed on her for the past 4-5 years. So I got to do this, and luckily for me this delivery turns out to be a cruising trip.
It was fun and it was really tiring as we got in on a Monday morning and I went straight to work!

We started out with Vincent, Mat Nor and me, Our first stop is Penang, where we picked up Gweyn and Mel, then we continue through the stars and storm. Next Stop Pangkor, we arrived in the afternoon, stayed a night, big dinner and start sailing again the next day to Port Klang, not much wind, kinda slowed us down, but rewarded us instead with a beautiful sunset.

In between then and now, I was in a few club races, some highlights are we manage to have Sing hoe back sailing with us on platu, and we are leading the current platu series with Vincent taking helm. And on the last platu race on Sunday 23rd August 2009, it was really fun with us reclaiming the series leads after taking 2 bullets.

I am looking in to updating this blog more frequently now, with more details into our platu races.
and also more updates on our team development for the Malaysian Match Racing qualifier , we are proud to announce we have just confirm our participation after missing out last year.

RSYC Platu Series 31st May 2009

Today we have Wilson and Kok Fu with us, Wilson is a first timer while Kok Fu have had a few outings with us before, then we have Simon, yew and me. So with pik yi out of the picture we have an all guys crew, something we have not been for quite sometimes. I was thinking of a few bullets today; but we only got one out of three races

Race 1, The wind was blowing south west with windward mark at bearing 240; Wind was at 5-6 knots, but gusty at 8-9 knots,It was a bias starting line at boat; After screwing up a strings of starts 2 weeks ago; we were determine to get our record right; we had Tom barging from windward, and that spoils our start. Anyway south west wind is always shifty here. With all the boats regrouped close to each other at windward mark, we rounded it first and got the bullet.

Race 2, Again our starting line was screwed, this time by Aili's platu; anyway as we set off, we were leading until a shift changes everything. boats on the inside are now sailing higher than us, Tom , and Jeremy Camps. Jeremy rounded the windward mark first and never look back, as he took the bullet with us finishing second.

Race 3, We finally managed a good start, rounding the windward mark 1st, but in the downwind we allowed a separation, in which Jeremy took full advantage of, as they rounded the leeward mark 1st,
A few mistakes leaving the mark left us about 2-3 boats length further away, we manged to closed the gap; but still we finish with another second again today behind Jeremy.



With the Result; Jeremy now leads the RSYC Platu Series 2, on 18 points ,with us second also on 18 points.

RSYC Platu Series 17th May 2009

Again This week, the wind was blowing from the north west, around 12- 15knots.
This week, Sing yew skippered, we have pik yi, Simon, Hui Min and Hui Mei onboard,

There were three races, first race was rather straight forward, we didn't have the best of starts,but anyway with a few wind shifts we were second, Tom took the race and we finish second.

Second race, It was a tight one, with us not certain that if we were over the line at the start but nonetheless we went back, started last. And of course we play our usual wind shifts, and got our self back in. The wind was shifting more to the north today, therefore the right side of the course was definitely the good side. We were second leaving the wind ward mark, on the second leg to the leeward mark, we were dumb folded again, it was not a finishing, it isn't the first time we mistook the flags for our platu races. A Windward leeward flag with a numeral pennant 2 doesn't means, 2 rounds. In our club Platu races it means 1 + 2. So we screwed up here. we retired from race 2.

In race 3, it was a race back to the club; having not won a single race today, we were determined to win it. It was a spinnaker start, therefore i needed to play my part right if we were to win this race, In the last 3 minutes of the starting sequences, yew called for a switch he wants a port hoist instead. Well i did it for him. and we manage to start off the line, sailing nicely away from the rest who were on startboard hoist. They were sailing towards the right side of the course . Where the current were stronger, but the right does look good in terms where we did spot a few puff and gust over there, so as usual, we spent some time trying to convince ourselves that we are on the correct side,which is left; and finally we decided to hold our course. We were right. We took the last race.



Sean

RSYC Platu Club Series

Last weekend, we were given an opportunity to sail on aili's platu for the club series. She had some homework to finish therefore yew, Pik yi and I decided to race her boat for her, we have with us also Michael, ai li's regular crew.

Wind was really soft on Sunday around 2 to 6 knots perhaps. First race we got into a good start and took the lead right from the start, we manage to leave Tom ( the series leader) behind, and then we left them even further after the windward mark, as the other platus seem to have problem hoisting their spinnaker in the light air ,for the record there were a total of 4 platu out on the water . We finished race 1 with a bullet.

Race 2, wind got even softer and showing sign of dying off, we were off to a good start again, manage about a boat length lead from the nearest boat ,Tom. But then in the last downwind back to the finishing line, we got complacent;

Pik yi was reminding us about how good the club's fried squid was and kept repeating that we must have some when we get back; and then that is when a puff of wind came from behind, and brought Tom, leveled with us, and with the momentum he gained, he took us on line. We finished second in Race 2

Oh well, the weather were nice for sailing as the sun was kind in the afternoon and it started to drizzle a little on our sail back ; we did have the fried squid; but it could have tasted a lot better if we had won both the races. It was a great light workout for yew and I after we have not sailed since Thai platu Open. Pictures to come once I get it from pik yi.

Sean