Port of Yamba Yacht Club in Yamba, New South Wales | Sport & recreation

Port of Yamba Yacht Club

Locality: Yamba, New South Wales

Address: Yamba Marina 2464 Yamba, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.portofyambayachtclub.com.au

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24.01.2022 Another great regatta hosted by Big River SC, our neighbours up the river! Three PYYC boats made their way up to race - Welsh Dragon, Taken It Easy and Circe - only one other boat in the yacht division, Shades of Grey from RRSRC. We had two companion yachts - Felice and Io. Mel and Minky bided their time on Felice while Jeremy raced on Circe and Scott from Io, joined the crew on Circe on Saturday and Welsh Dragon on Sunday. Changeable conditions throughout the weekend with... some gusty squalls but generally light winds. Circe went up Friday evening and after passing through a relatively short thunderstorm and heavy rain, emerged to enjoy an awesome sunset light show. The regatta attracted 67 entries (or thereabouts) and 100 or so people enjoyed a BBQ meal catered for by Big River SC members in their new, bigger, better, re-built clubhouse! Good times - thanks to all at Big River! Here's the storm front (a bit concerning when one is thoroughly soaked and hanging onto a metal wheel and there is lightning about) & another sunset pic at Harwood - so pretty! See more

23.01.2022 Absolutely shocking conditions anchored off Big River SC - Annual regatta tomorrow - I don’t think I can take much more of this....

17.01.2022 Getting up to date (pant-puff!) here's this week's race report: A sailor’s thoughts are never far from the weather. In recent times local sailors may have been excused the odd bemused look. We’ve had gale force winds, chilly weather, rain squalls, and who knew what would come next? The BOM forecast for Wednesday was for 11-12 knots of breeze from the south-south-east and a mere 10% chance of rain. Thus emboldened, eight boats set sail. Bill Grainger, reinvigorated by his S...ydney luncheon shindig, set off in Triton at 13:00 as the scratch boat. (Another stern chaser; oh, I do love ‘em!) One by one, at times set by the handicapper, the others followed in hot pursuit. Some of the heat, it has to be said, was much dissipated by some very ordinary starts. There were boats (no names no pack drill) that were as much as three minutes late crossing the start linehow that may have changed the final outcome! As Bartender (our start boat) wallowed at anchor in the sizeable swell, we watched the fleet gradually closing up. By the end of the second lap it seemed apparent that no-one was going to catch Triton. And so it turned out. The finish was, to the handicapper’s credit, extremely close. Four boats finished within one minute and three seconds of each other. Triton 15:34.49 Welsh Dragon 15:35.37 Taken it Easy 15:37.41 The next three boats all crossed the finish line by 15:38.44! What a race!

16.01.2022 OOPS! That was very remiss of me, I forgot to post the race report for the 11th of March. So, rather belatedly, here it is: It’s funny how an off-hand smart-arsed comment can have a galvanic effect. When I reported on the race on the 5th of February, I made the following observation: Taken it Easy opened up an impressive lead; first round the first buoy, first round the second then well, the skipper and crew have to be commended for their positive contribution to bar taking...s! Ooh, that must have stung, because Taken it Easy has won every race since! Admittedly we missed a few because the flooded river was sweeping logs and other debris before it, but today makes three in a row for the big cat. Today was another stern chaser. Triton’s skipper was lunching in Sydney (the lifestyles of the rich and famous!), so our scratch boat was Pintado. Off at 13:00, all he had to do was stay in front of the pack for two and a half hours. With a good, fresh breeze, one by one, the boats crossed the start line and joined in hot pursuit. Welsh Dragon looked unbeatable, rounding the eastern end of the centre wall, all she had to do was run up the river to the finish at Dart Island. But who is that, her black sails almost hidden in the dark rain clouds? Taken it Easy, with the wind behind her, on her best point of sail! Welsh Dragon tried to push her up and retain her lead, but when the cat went to leeward it was all over. Taken it Easy first, Welsh Dragon 1minute 33 seconds later followed by Pacioli. And here's Pintado off to a good start.

16.01.2022 Sailing on the Clarence River 2020

15.01.2022 Today was a classic example of why, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I love pursuit races. For those who may not be intimately involved with yacht racing I’ll briefly explain. With keel boats, a bigger, longer boat will sail faster than a smaller boat. Think of a Mini Cooper S racing a V8 Supercar. So, in yachting we have a handicap system and, in general, there are two types of races. In one, the boats all start at the same time and finish whenever they do. The times are ...recorded and, back at the clubhouse, the handicapper works out who actually won the race. In the other, the handicaps are applied at the beginning, and each boat starts at a time that reflects its handicap, and then the first across the finish line is the winner. Handicapping is part science part art. Our handicappers do a pretty good job. With forty-four minutes separating the start times of the slowest and fastest boats, after about two and a half hours of racing, the final result was: Position Boat Skipper Finish Time 1st Taken it Easy Rob Laurie 15:43.50 2nd Pintado Dennis Blackburn 15:45.21 3rd Triton Bill Grainger 15:46.35 4th Pacioli Victor Holmes 15:46.52 5th Welsh Dragon, Graeme Fleming 15:47.15 6th Sure Thing Stuart Hancock 15:49.04 7th Circe Lea Foster 15:54.49 Now, who says yacht racing isn’t exciting? If you’d like to join us, come along at noon on any Wednesday. No experience necessary.

13.01.2022 Happy New Year to all! Did you eat and drink too much...? But did you get enough sailing? If not, then it's time to fix that! The four Holiday Races start 8th Jan. All who are interested in sailing can contact us via 'Messenger' to join in with club members. We are hoping for a big season ahead so let's get it started with some fun races. There are a couple of novelty events so bring your enthusiasm and sense of humour!

13.01.2022 First race of the New Year! Hawaiian theme and everyone got into the spirit - we had fun on Circe - great day, heaps of wind - second place in the race by a mere 20 seconds!

11.01.2022 Pacioli with the wind up her skirts!

09.01.2022 They say the reason we have economic forecasters is to make the weather forecasters look good! The weather forecast for Wednesday was for a light north-easterly breeze. The only part of that they got right was light! While we’re talking about light, we were a little light on for contestants today. Regulars such as Pintado, Circe, Go Back and Sure Thing were conspicuous by their absence. Nevertheless, we had a fleet of five willing to tough out the ten-knot south-easterlies! I...t was a handicap start, sometimes called a stern chaser. The handicap is applied at the start of the race so, instead of all starting together, all of the boats start at different times determined by their handicap. I like stern chasers because the outcome is determined by the order across the finish line; no need to wait for the handicapper to work it all out back in the club house. If the handicaps have been well formulated and correctly applied, all of the boats should be very close together at the finish line. And so it was: Triton, skippered by Bill Grainger crossed the line first, followed by Pacioli (Victor Holmes) a mere one minute and three seconds later and, a minute and a half after that, Another Dimension, with our very own Scooter of Scooter Sails & Shades. Well done all, a great race! If you think you may be interested in sailing, ring our Vice Commodore Graeme Fleming, on 0414 281 699 and visit our website: https://portofyambayachtclub.com.au/ all are welcome.

06.01.2022 We’re a hardy lot, we sailors. Well, they are. As I gathered the blankets around my shoulders, this chilly February morning, I also gathered to me the various weather reports. It’s going to pour! Surely there’ll be gale-force winds; the racing will be cancelled; I won’t even need to get out of bed. No such luck; twelve knots east-south-east and, actually, only a 50% chance of rain. Ah, well, they’ll all read the weather forecast and won’t turn up. So, we had six yachts conte...sting, (and, don’t forget, we’re not in the holiday silly season anymore, things are getting serious!). Tony and I zoomed around the river, in Bartender (the start boat), laying the buoys for the course, then we anchored opposite the Marine Rescue tower to create the start line. What a great start! Everyone crossed the line within thirty seconds of each other. Taken it Easy opened up an impressive lead; first round the first buoy, first round the second then well, the skipper and crew have to be commended for their positive contribution to bar takings! Because it was a scratch start, the finish line meant nothing. The finish times were recorded, and then it was a dash back to the marina to get Bartender out of the water, before the rain finally started to fall. Too late, we all got wet! But, never mind, there’s a beer in the fridge at the club, and, while we were putting Bartender to bed, the handicapper was working out the official result. Pacioli (Victor Holmes) first. Triton (Bill Grainger) 37.8 seconds later and, a distant third, (2 minutes later!): Pintado (Dennis Blackburn).

03.01.2022 Wednesday racing begins again on the 2nd Sept - keep an eye on the weather. If you are in the Yamba area or new to the region and fancy a sail please message this page - there is the opportunity to try sailing with skippers of Port of Yamba yachts - spring is here! - get out on the beautiful Clarence and take in what the Yamba and Iluka area and the mighty river have to offer - see you there!