Few words.  Ill send a link to a drop box for photos

Nov 2nd and 3rd the junior Bic fleet travelled to The Royal Yacht Club to represent Lauderdale with the help of a few Bics from Kingston Beach in the BMW Showdown Regatta.

The weekend was exhausting for the kids with everyone on the water at 9:30 until 3:30 both days, (no breaks). However they all did Lauderdale and Kingston Beach proud with up to 11 Bics sailing making up one of the biggest fleets on the river, including possibly the youngest skipper on the water at 8 years old.
Conditions were less than ideal and not what our youngsters were used to with wind ranging from 0 to 20 knots and a very solid current. The courses were long with over 70 boats participating on the same course from Optimists to NS14s. The top mark was often chaos and challenging. The effort of all sailors was highly commendable and the experiences gained sailing in big fleet on a different patch will be invaluable.

The regatta was run in strict accordance to the rules with the first race abandoned once the wind died and the second race abandoned as the first boat took 65 minutes to finish. All in all 3 of the 7 races were cancelled which was frustrating for the kids but that’s all part of the regatta experience.  I was personally really pleased to see how well all the sailors handled the traffic on the water and the trying conditions. There we no collisions and our sailors understood their rights and were aware when they did have right of way. Apart from the occasional port tack starts (Silas we can work on this) it was pleasing to hear them calling starboard on bigger faster boats and some of the group starts were really good to see. It was even good to get a couple of OCSs (False starts, or “On Couse Side”)  showing the endeavours of everyone to get to the line.  Another great learning curve for the kids to develop further. 

Notwithstanding that 3 races were abandoned due to time outs or a drop in wind, there were good efforts from everyone who sailed.

Ned Davidson (from Kinston) who managed to effectively win 2 of the 3 cancelled races.
Josh Faux for a third in one race and second in one of the cancelled races.
Eliza Gardner for third places in one of the timed out races and for competing as one of the youngest skippers on the water.   
Amelia Cooper for a couple of well sailed second places.
Emma Sullivan for consistent good starts and first legs. The current and traffic at the top mark unfortunately seemed to catch out those earlier to the buoy. 
Emma Gardner returning to lodge a couple of solid results on the second day to make up having to pull out early on Day one and carry 2 DNCs. 
Will Faux with his great attitude in frustrating conditions.
Phil Cowles (From Kingston Beach), who was constantly at the front of the fleet.  
Angus Watson for his 4th place on the last race of Day 1. Great effort to stick it out all day.
Tom Williams for is great effort to get on the water after a boat shortage mix-up.
And Eve Cooper. Consistently well sailed and was only beaten once by Emma Gardner (Race that counted)

Final results

Eve Cooper
Ned David
Emma Gardner
Amelia Cooper
Phil Cowles
Angus Watson
Josh Faux
Emma Sullivan
William Faux
Tom Williams
Eliza Gardner

Big shout out to Richard Eveleigh for the Bic transport cradle and for Davin for bringing the boats to and from the club, Unlikely we would have had as many involved with out this. Apologies to Thomas and his parents for the boat shortage. Defiantly something to work on is the communication from junior parents when registering as we don’t want to end up with a similar issue of someone missing out again. We can only carry 8 boats, so we will need to look at a quick check-in system. Thanks to Shaun for assisting when there was the boat shortage to try to get an extra one to Sandy bay.
Thanks you to Alice for filling in for Silas to provide some non-biased sailing tuition and to Rod for driving Rescue 3.  Davin, Martin and myself made up the rescue crew, and we did have to get wet once. Thanks to all.

Thanks also Scotty for his presence on the start boat, hopefully a bit of the Lauderdale spirit rubbed off.

I hope all involved have something positive to take from the experience

Dr. Mark Gardner