WHAT’S NEW FOR 2011-12
Learn to Sail will now be run on Saturdays, and other sailing and racing on Sundays – check the calendar for dates, and info about how to express your interest, will be posted here very soon – watch this space. In previous years we’ve had a           waiting list, so we recommend you get in quickly.
Sailing for the Junior fleet (Starlings and Optis) has become a lot more structured, with coaching, racing, and visits to other clubs. Some of our sailors have made good progress over winter. Becoming involved in this fleet is a great experience for older children that want to get a bit more competitive, and who might want to continue sailing into adulthood .
The Senior Sailing Fleet gets better every year. We have a great fleet of Jolly Boats and we also now have several Lasers, as well as an Open class to include other types of boats that might turn up on sailing days – if you are keen to           sail, turn up at the suggested rigging time and talk to the Officer of the Day to find out the day’s format.
Learn to Sail for Adults – for 2011 we’ll be working with Elements Sailing School to run sessions at French Bay Yacht Club. It’s a great way to sample the sport and see if you like it – more details will be emailed out soon, or you can email sail@frenchbay.org.nz to pre-register your interest and be kept notified. There is limited space, and last year we had a waiting list. Priority is given to members.

NEW ONLINE CALENDAR AND WEBSITE!
Never be late for a race again – we have a great new calendar up on our website – check it out at www.frenchbay.org.nz – view it on your website or download it to your Outlook/Mail calendar. Very convenient!

The calendar is launched in conjunction with a brand new website, thanks to a lot of hard work from Matt at Pauaware – the site is now live and final tweaks and adjustments are being made.

UPCOMING EVENTS – AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER
Sunday 11 September (morning)- French Market
Friday 16 September – AGM – Arrive at 6.45pm for a 7pm start  at the clubhouse – meeting followed by drinks & nibbles – a great chance to hear what’s in store for this year and into the future, including a presentation of the club’s strategic plan. The AGM is not compulsory but probably should be! Critical business parts of the AGM will be finished by 8pm so that you can catch NZ vs Japan.
1 October Working Bee

Also look out for the first official day of sailing, Opening Day, which is on 16 October from 12.30-5.30pm (high tide at 1.30pm), and the O-Day, which is a chance for visitors to find out about the club and try sailing, is on Sunday 13 November, from 11am – 3pm. All other events at the club and which the club is involved in, are posted on the calendar too.

2011-12 MEMBERSHIPS – TEAMVODAFONESAILING PRIZE FOR EARLY RETURN!
The new membership form for the 2011/12 sailing season will be circulated shortly by email. We also have a TeamVodafoneSailing       t-shirt and hat to give away to a person/family who gets their form and payment back to the club before Opening Day. Be quick!

HELPING OUT – 2011-12 ROSTER
It takes 12 people to run each sailing day, and to make it run smoothly, we need every family to contribute some way. The new membership form will ask what tasks you’d prefer to do, and a roster will be drafted early in the season to spread the load and make it easy for everyone.

See you at the beach!

The Team at French Bay Yacht Club

Starling:Series Standing – 11 races scored

Maraetai Centreboard Regatta / Saturday 19th

Blue skies greeted the fleet on a day when the breeze filled in from the North opposite to that forecast at about 5 knots and then swang during the day around to the South, then South West building to an exciting 15 knots. Our sailors coped remarkably well in the very very shifty offshore conditions, reading the shifts and making sure the locals didn’t have it all their way.

In the Opti Green Oliver Stuart had a standout day in his first open meeting, placing 3rd in front of several high tech plastic Optis and only just behind two professionally coached girls from Glendowie. Results here. Oliver’s top results were a second and a first, showing real form. Well done Oliver, you made some excellent tactical decisions and shown clearly that smart sailing with a wooden boat can be as fast as the plastic fantastics.

In the Starlings, the day started badly for team McAllister who chomped on that old chestnut of gear left at home which meant Ailish missed the first race. With racing underway Megan, Hamish and Anton lead the charge against some pretty hot sailors … again, this was their first open meeting. The shifts and gusts meant that you could make up a lot of ground both upwind and downwind and inspite of a few capsizes the team finished well with plenty to learn from observing the tacking prowess of the event winner, Chid Tissinh from MSC who showed everyone what roll tacking was all about. Meg was the highest placed girl in 6th with Anton just ahead in 5th. Hamish got three 3rds and a 4th to come in 3rd overall. Results here.

In the Jollyboat fleet Don McBeth entered into a Battle Royale with two of the local Maraetai Pirates seeing them off in one of the four race series. Well done Don ! At the front of the fleet it was up to Matt to defend French Bay’s honour as our Jolly team were suffering burnout from the nationals the weekend prior. However in a satisfying day Matt finished 4 points ahead to take the series from the Maraetai locals for the first time in history. Results here.

Enormous thanks to Brendan, Amanda, Ross, Wendy, Don and Fergus for shore and on the water support.

Manukau Shield : Clarks Beach / Sunday 20th

The team of FBYC campers were very kindly hosted by Clarks Beach YC at the clubhouse on Saturday night as they celebrated their 40th anniversary.

Sunday dawned with a light Southerly and the smell of bacon and eggs and burnt toast as the fleet headed out into the last of the incoming tide to race on a harbour course. The team was augmented by Alexander, and Joe in the in Optimists, Renee, Paddy and Fergus in the Jollies and Thomas in his new Starling. Numbers count in this event we had some stellar performances in the one and only race of the day. After an insane start on a heavily port biased line the fleets got away. Slap on the wrist to Matt who only averted disaster at the top mark after some on the water coaching from his team mates. Most noteable were Thomas and Hamish who steered their Starlings through the fleet to beat two Lasers home across the line, with Megan only a few boat lengths behind. It was a good day on the water for team Thomson as Fergus backed himself as Matt and Mark Winters got locked in a duel going totally the wrong way and he sailed through to take the Jollyboat race by a country mile. After a modest wait for the results after packing up the boats it was confirmed that French Bay had retained the Manukau Shield. Well done to all the sailors and we’ll look to have a party to celebrate at the end of the season !

FBYC “home of the Manukau Shield” !

Registration 0800, Briefing 0900, 1st Race 1000, Google Map here

Some great prizes at this event and good racing experience for anyone who’s not done a proper regatta yet.

If you want to camp at Clarks Beach Saturday night and join the party the campsite info is here. Alternatively you can camp outside the club.

Clarks Beach / Manukau Regatta is on Sunday. Google Map here

NOR here, sailing instructions here

Set up 9am for 11am starts on both days.