CLUB NEWS

Scott Anderson wins the 2023 A-Class Catamaran Classic Division World Championships

Scott Anderson and Darren Bundock achieved global recognition in the A-Class Catamaran World Championships in Toulon, France in September 2023. Scott took first place in the classic division and Darren took 3rd in the Open (foiling) division. With Saratoga Sailing Club taking two top 3 places in the two race categories, we can rightfully claim to be the premier A-Class Cat club in the world!

Congratulations Scott and Darren, you rock!!

Source: supplied

COVID-19 updates

At SSC we are committed to the safety of our members and guests, and with our Annual General Meeting coming up we have made the following arrangements to comply with the latest NSW Government rules:

• We will send out a Zoom link by member email for virtual attendance at the AGM  
• We created an event attendance form to complete if you are attending an event in person (any event)
• We published our COVID-19 Safety Plan, which provides details of commitments to cleaning, social distancing etc.
• We require hirers to prepare their own COVID-19 Safety Plan for hall hire events
• We have relaxed our rules around hall hire to support a wider range of events with smaller numbers at lower cost, provided these events comply with the latest NSW Government rules

Whilst we endeavour to keep this information up to date, please read the latest NSW Government rules before coming to the Club and do contact us if you have any concerns

Hartley Association 

eTillerscope Official Magazine of the Hartley TS16 Association of NSW and ACT. Edited by SSC member Paul Pritchard

Open day 

SARATOGA SAILING CLUB AND DEEPWATER DRAGON BOAT CLUB OPEN DAY

We are opening our doors to friends, neighbours and interested members of the public on Sunday 7th April from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm

Read more and register

Tribute to WAGS

Wags, our old start-rescue boat was a yellow beacon on Brisbane Water for nearly 10 years. Built from wood, she finally reached the end of her working life at the end of last season and was replaced.

This album is a collection of photos by Saratoga Sailing Club and our members, some of who would likely still be adrift in Brisbane Water had she not been around to pick them up.

More...

America's cup 2021

Written in November 2018

The America's Cup remains of keen interest to Australian sailors following the now legendary win in 1983 with Australia II and her secret winged keel. For a while many monohull sailors lost interest when the multihulls took over and when they started foiling many thought was just silly. However over the last few years, foiling technology has come to mono-hulls with a vengeance. There are many designs from the 'foiling moth' which rides high above the water on a foiling keel and rudder, to the adjustable keels used to lift and stabilise ocean racers such as Comanche. 

The 36th America's cup, to be held in Auckland in 2021, has already revitalised our interest with a completely revolutionary design of foiling yacht. In earlier articles (below) there is a link to the original concept video, and below are two videos of training vessels that have so far been built in England (T5) and USA (The Mule). It certainly promises to be a spectacle!

Trailable yachts are in for a bumper year of events in 2018

Australian Sailing’s Victorian Trailable Yacht Division has an annual calendar of events making up the Trailable Yacht and Sports Boat Travellers Series. Two heats were sailed in 2017 and coming events include the following:

The Port Albert race was postponed from December with the state-wide extreme weather event forecast for the weekend. A good sized mixed fleet looks forward to sailing the pristine waters on the edge of Bass Strait next weekend.

Trailable yachts are included in this year’s Festival of Sails regatta at Royal Geelong Yacht Club..Race organisers have offered trailable yachts two options. Trailables may enter the Corio Bay series or participate in the 175th anniversary of the Melbourne – Geelong Passage Race to be held this year on Australia Day, Friday 26 January. This is the year to be at Geelong in a trailable yacht.

The annual Victorian Trailable Yacht and Sports Boat Championships regularly attracts around 30 boats and a number of class associations use this event to conduct their own State Championships. RMYS and MTYC have successfully collaborated on this event before. The facilities and waters of St Kilda provide an excellent venue to host championship regattas. Winner of last year’s Division 2, Mitch Bayliss sailing his Castle 650 ‘Pipalini’ will be keen to defend his title as will Brendan Brown, in Division 3 sailing his Boomerang 20 ‘Jaffa’.

The Marlay Point Overnight Race is hosted by the Lake Wellington Yacht Club (LWYC). This iconic race runs on the Victorian Labour Day in March every year. Starting at sunset, competitors sail across Lake Wellington, through the McLennan Straits into Lake Victoria for the run home to Paynesville.

Regarded as Australia’s premier race for trailable yachts and multi-hulls, about 4000 boats and 11,000 sailors have been involved over 50 years, making the Overnight Race a must-do on every sailors’ bucket list.

In 2018, the CH Robinson Marlay Point Overnight Race will celebrate its 50th anniversary. An achievement of which the small club (LWYC) is very proud. More than 200 yachts, and 600 crews, families and supporters from all over Australia, plus hundreds of spectators, are expected to converge on Marlay Point, 22km from Sale on Lake Wellington, for another spectacular sunset start.

This year the Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club (GLYC) will take a major role for the on-water and finish line responsibilities and the presentations as well as providing the after-race entertainment.

The Travellers Series finishes with the ever popular Four Point Race on Port Phillip near the end of April. There are a number of other events around the State offering trailable yachts and sports boats some great sailing opportunities. Check out the events posted on the Trailable Yachts Victoria Facebook page for further details.

Read More on MySailing.com

Team New Zealand designer 'a bit nuts' as radical new boat is rated​​​​​

EMIRATESTEAMNZ

Play Video

26 December 2017

Team NZ reveal a foiling monohull concept design for the 2021 America's Cup.

One of the main brains behind Team New Zealand's radical new America's Cup boat has been described as "a bit nuts".

Frenchman Guillaume Verdier has had a huge part in the foiling 75-foot monohull that will be used in the 2021 America's Cup planned for Auckland.

Verdier is hugely respected in world yachting and is being given the benefit of the doubt as the futurist design is digested.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE

Team New Zealand's French designer Guillaume Verdier has a reputation for thinking outside the square.

"Guillaume is right there with the best of the best because he has earned it. No razzle-dazzle. He's simply smart, creative, a bit nuts and works extremely hard," American ken Read, a Cup veteran and president of North Sails, told the New York Times in a lengthy article.

The 47-year-old Verdier, who has been with Emirates Team New Zealand since the leadup to the 2013 America's Cup in San Francisco when they shocked their rivals with the ability to foil the 72-foot catamarans in use then. Team New Zealand's refined foiling 50-footer, with the help of leg-power, won back the Auld Mug in Bermuda this year.

EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND

A concept drawing of the foiling monohull to compete in the next America's Cup.

Verdier believes there is time to make adjustments if required in what will be a design race for 2021.

"I'm sure if there are things that are not going to work, we will fix it with the time we have," he said of the new boat he continues to work on.

The class rule for the new boat will be released on March 31, allowing Cup syndicates to begin their design and build process.

Australian Cup veteran Iain Murray admits the new boat, which features giant cantilevering foils for both speed and stability, has him puzzled.

"I'm having trouble connecting the dots in my simple mind," Murray, the former Cup regatta director and skipper, told the New York Times, as he prepared for another Sydney to Hobart race.

"I do a lot of sailing on these 70- to 100-foot monohulls. I know how fast they go, and I know how fast catamarans have to be going to get onto the foils. They basically need to be doing 15 knots, and I know what it takes for Wild Oats, which is a 100-footer, to do 15 knots.

"I'm sure once the new boat is on the foils with stability, it will be great. It's just getting on and off the foils is the part I'm struggling with."

Murray conceded the reputation of Verdier and Team New Zealand to think outside the square needed to be respected.

"Guillaume hasn't had too many bad ones. So I think we've just got to wait and see. Many times in the past, people have questioned what they've done, and they've proven themselves."

Verdier revealed the seeds for the new design were sewn a while back when nhe worked on plans for a 38-foot monohull for a private client in New Zealand who was introduced to him Ray Davies, the veteran Team New Zealand sailor who was a coach of the team in Bermuda.

The initial drawing for that project still had a keel but that was quickly removed.

"We sat together with the client, and Ray said, 'Hey, come on! After all we've learned, you've got to get rid of this keel. It's looking draggy to have so much in the water,'" Verdier said. "And I said, 'Yes, but Ray, it's going to capsize too easily. We need some minimum stability here.' "

The solution was to propose putting the weight in the foils instead.

"That is completely counterintuitive because the foil is a lifting surface, so why put lead in a lifting surface?" Verdier said. "We need some stability before we start flying, so we make the foils like canting keels. This kind of boat existed in the past, with twin keels, so I said, 'Let's make a kind of twin keel but with foils, not too heavy, just enough so we can right it up at 90 degrees when we cant it the correct way'."

Verdier isn't sure if he is "nuts" but he doesn't shy away from hard work.

"My wife will say it's too much. I work a lot of hours, and I'm working from home, so that helps me. I'm very dedicated to the work."

One of Verdier's other projects is a foiling monohull durable enough to withstand the demands of the Volvo Ocean Race.

One of his standout maxis, Comanche, is a favourite for this year's Sydney to Hobart race.

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Grant Dalton fires back over America's Cup 'event fee' criticism

STUFF

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton says his syndicate won't benefit directly from any event fee with everything used to run the regatta's day to day operations.

Grant Dalton's office is in an upstairs corner of the spartan Team New Zealand headquarters in an old fuel depot. There's nothing that screams out "America's Cup winners" here other than a few framed photos.

The room next door has the designers – most on part-time deals at the moment - beetling away on computers to finalise the rules around the radical 75-foot foiling monohull to be introduced. Out of his window is a peak across to the Viaduct Basin and view of what might be.

The Team New Zealand boss is upbeat about the opportunities hosting the America's Cup will bring to Auckland, and the rest of the country, but says some of the criticism the team are copping over an "event fee" has been well wide of the mark.

EMIRATES TEAM NZ

What the favoured option for the America's Cup syndicate bases on Auckland's waterfront looks like in digital form.

"It could be the best ever America's Cup if we create the right environment with the event," Dalton says. 

READ MORE:
* Second Italian Am Cup challenger emerges
* Burling named best foiling sailor
* Johnstone: RWC 2011 lessons for 2021 Cup
* Cluster option favourable for Auckland Council
* Bermuda counts Cup cash

"You only have to look at Auckland 2000 and 2003. It is still talked about." 

RICARDO PINTO/ ACEA 2017

Team New Zealand believes there's a huge opportunity for the country to maximise its America's Cup win with careful planning over what's required for the 2021 Auckland defence.

The America's Cup looms as the only major international event on the New Zealand sporting horizon. Having so recently hosted the Rugby World Cup, the Cricket World Cup and the Masters Games, there's no chance of them returning soon.

The cycle of big events coming to New Zealand has run its course. And with France setting a new benchmark with a $407m hosting fee to World Rugby to hold the 2023 World Cup - dwarfing New Zealand's 2011 levy of $108m - Kiwis might never enjoy the privilege again.

But the Auld Mug, sport's oldest trophy, has indeed returned and needs to be maximised.

TEAM NEW ZEALAND

A concept drawing of the foiling monohull to compete in the next America's Cup. Released on November 21, 2017.

"If we do this right and get this separated between the team and America's Cup Event Ltd, then we can hang on to it. It's not like you are going to have to bid for it in 20 years time. It could be back again in three years time and the facilities are in place. We'd like to build a legacy even beyond the infrastructure," Dalton said.

On Thursday, Auckland Council will make its final decision on where the Cup will be based, with the Wynyard Basin "cluster" expected to win favour at a cost of around $132m.

There will be central government contribution towards covering those infrastructure costs and an event fee which will go towards the operational running of a regatta that will sail for three and half months from December 2020.

EMIRATES TEAM NZ

A digital impression of the 2021 America's Cup village proposed for Auckland.

It's that event fee – now an accepted ingredient in the costs of staging any global sporting extravaganza – that is adding heat to a yachting syndicate that is no stranger to money controversies.

Dalton bristles at some of the criticism his team have been copping, frustrated that people have seen the event fee as a handout to the syndicate and that they are perceived as holding the country to ransom over it.

Like many Kiwis, Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton loves his rugby so he's quick to draw All Blacks analogies as the controversy over an event fee for the next America's Cup in Auckland hounds his syndicate.

"To suggest that the team should pay ... firstly I have no idea how we could ... but that would be like asking the All Blacks to pay for the World Cup when it was in New Zealand. That just doesn't make any sense," Dalton says.

"Some people even think it's going in my pocket, not just the team, it's got that extreme in a couple of cases."

A separate company has already been formed to run the regattas, called America's Cup Events Ltd. It's a replica of the America's Cup Events Authority that ran the last two regattas and received considerable payments to do so – $30m from San Francisco and $80m by Bermuda.

The event fee will only cover partial costs of the Auckland extravaganza with Team New Zealand under pressure to find significant sponsorship to top it up.

"It's not a fee to host an event, an appearance fee, a royalty or anything like that. It's to run the actual event and all the logistics," Dalton insists.

He slaps down three A3 sheets of paper stacked with lines of print on them smaller than you'll find in your phonebook. They are the workings of a budget. The devil is in the detail – and there's plenty of it.

There's a need for 26 chase boats for race course perimeter control, umpiring, and health and safety. There are 10 cameras planned for every America's Cup boat and other substantial broadcast costs. Resource consent applications, portaloos, security, insurance, big screens, entertainment, traffic management, fencing, waste collection, a media centre... the list goes on and on.

"You think of anything that happens in an event and it's in our budget to run this thing.

"It's a golden opportunity to do this event well and get behind it. But to suggest Team New Zealand is trying to extort money out of the government for itself is just trying to cause trouble for no reason."

Broadcasting is key with Team New Zealand determined to return the regatta to free-to-air TV and a state of the art presentation for the digital age. It is a significant factor in the event fee makeup.

"One of our underlying beliefs is that all of New Zealand and anywhere else should have easy access to footage. In our heart we want everyone to be able to watch it."

Dalton won't be drawn on the actual cost of the final budget at this stage but scoffs at the figure of $116m that has been prominent in some of the misinformation doing the rounds.

"That's a farcical figure. It's not even a fraction of that and running the whole event from A to Z would never even cost a fraction of that."

Team New Zealand won't be seeking financial support from the government for their actual sailing programme from here after being handed $36m for the 2013 America's Cup in San Francisco and $5m bridging funds for both the Bermuda and current Auckland campaigns.

In terms of a national investment, subsequent figures showed the major handout out for the San Francisco campaign that fell agonisingly short was repaid in PAYE taxes alone as the New Zealand marine industry got heavily involved in work for several syndicates.

Projections for financial windfalls from the 2021 event are massive. But the the eye-watering numbers in costs and returns often hurt Team New Zealand in what is seen as a rich man's game. The fickle sporting public rally behind them once racing starts in a manner that might even be the envy of the All Blacks. But between Cup cycles they seem to get trolled. It pains the syndicate.

The hosting issue has even seen the possibility of New Zealand losing the regatta. Italy, where challenger of  record Luna Rossa are based, is a viable alternative if Auckland can't come to the party by August 31 at the latest. But there are no intentions to take up offers from Russia and the United Arab Emirates. 

"Those things are real in terms of inquiries, but we keep saying till we are blue in the face that it is not our intention to take it anywhere else," Dalton emphasises.

He pushes his black cap back and folds his arms. He has to rush to another appointment. It's a hectic schedule. Four years ago he was consumed by just his team, now the team is consumed by trying to set up the regatta structure as well as trying to keep ahead of their opponents on the water.

"Yep, it's busy. But it's in the 'nice problem to have' category because the America's Cup is in New Zealand and that's why we exist."