The 2009/2010 summer sailing season is coming to a close at Kogarah Bay sailing club. Last winter there was a lot of consideration given to the program to enable all major Tasar events were accessible to our members.

The start to the season saw great enthusiasm with an increase in Tasar numbers in the club and the word that there were several other potential members. Seventeen boats make up the Tasar fleet with membership stretching from Wollongong to Harvey Bay and ages ranging from 10 years of age through to... well...let’s just say into the grandmaster division. With the World Masters Games in October, sailors were keen to get some early practice in readiness for the event.

The Masters games of course was a major event on the calendar with nine boats competing from the club. Prior to the event there was training afternoons at the Georges River sailing club and a great deal of boat preparation. Of course the unfavourable conditions for the week was unfortunate, all of our team thoroughly enjoyed the experience of competing in an event of that calibre.

Kogarah Bay SC participated in the annual “Try sailing day” with Tasars being available for people to be introduced to the sport on. Of course, the Tasars were kept busy with it being the preferred boat to get out on the water on. The club is also fortunate to have a Tasar available for training purposes. Bob the boat is available for use in club races by participants in the clubs learn to sail program or other competent sailors interested in obtaining a Tasar of their own.

Several members made the trip to Belmont for the traveller’s series in November which turned out to be a breezy affair.

Trevor and Lea (Rangamemnon) hosted our annual Christmas dinner in December. It’s the social events we have that highlight the friendships that the Tasars are so famous and proud of. The food was as always “splendid” with all the sailors present fairly handicapped for the racing the next day!

January saw a return to serious racing, and also a new club member in the form of a baby to Charles and Irene (Free and Easy). The spring saw a mixed bag as far as wind conditions with one day lost due to adverse winds so all members were looking forward to some more favourable conditions for the remainder of the season. Some Peter and Pia (One for the Road) represented the club at the Speers Point marathon and one boat went to Eden for the traveller’s series there.

Our second sprint series was affected by gusty winds with no boats lining up for the third race of the day. The re-birth of “turn it up (side down)” AKA “Doof doof” was short lived with the boat suffering damage on the day and Noel’s state title build up put on hold.

The Kurnell Cup was the next event on the program. The race around Botany Bay is always a popular event at the club and it attracts a good following of other Tasar sailors. This year’s event suffered from what could only be called fickle conditions. It took over 4 hours for the first boat to complete the course and our own veteran skipper Ted Moors with able crew Jenny taking out the event on handicap.

As the season runs towards its conclusion, we have the States at Georges River over Easter which is counted as home ground to many of our members. Then the final event being the Anzac weekend at Batemens Bay.

Throughout the year, all crews have improved to some degree. It is a common statement that “I know we are sailing faster but we aren’t moving up in the fleet”. Looking forward to next year we will be looking at further tweaking our program and our courses to suit our fleet of Tasars. Many sailors are looking forward to the Nationals at Woollahra so will be aiming for a good build up in the spring for this event. With this in mind, the Tasar group within the club will be looking to develop the sailing skills through coaching sessions throughout the season. We will also be promoting the class within the club and our local area and of course, aiming to have even for fun than last year.

Chris Johnson
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