Harbour Happenings

[Aces]

Gday guys/gals.

Was wondering if there is a website out the dedicated to information on events ect happening in Sydney harbour?

Last saturday went fishing and i think every yacht in NSW was out there lol, would be nice to know about whats going on in the harbour before setting out.

Cheers Dan.

[jewgaffer]

........Was wondering if there is a website out the dedicated to information on events ect happening in Sydney harbour?

Last saturday went fishing and i think every yacht in NSW was out there lol, would be nice to know about whats going on in the harbour before setting out.

Cheers Dan.

Hi Aces if you call the harbour master's office they should be able to put you on the right track with information on organised events and I'm pretty sure that yacht clubs and motor boat clubs etc need permits to have social events.

Cheers

jewgaffer

[pelican]

Hi I spend a significant time on yachts along the coast and racing inbetween fishing etc so understand both side and both can be fustrating.

Clubs have permanent regatta permits issued annually for daily and weekly races and pay for them but it doesn't give them exclusive use of water just like a fishing lic doesn't.

The racing last weekend was the Audi regatta with 5 different race zones and over 300 boats racing from the middle harbour yacht club and some spectacular racing on Sunday when the squalls came in - wow a few messed up yachts.

Two $70000 Audi were in play for with one in a raffle and one for a first prize so it was pretty serious racing as if for sheep stations aso every inch mattered as any size boat that entered could be a winner.

You can go to any yacht clubs website and basically everyday of the week there is a race on at some time of day or night and it will tell you the course and where the marks or courses are. They change starting positions and courses depending on wind so it isn't simple to work out what is going on but the twilights run a set course regardless of wind but might be worth doing if you are going to anchor up and spend hours setting up a burley trail only to get mowed down just as the fish come on.

Look up

MHYC

RSYS

RANSA

Vaucluse sailing club

The best easy to get summary and to see what days someone is running a race is in the back pages of the afloat magazine then off to the website as most are regular.

Now the YA yachting association actually pays a fee to put in the yellow YA markers ( upright yellow logs) in the harbour so I can tell there is little quarter given to fishing boats who tie up or anchor next to them when they are in use on a race day and the start boats are asking for fishermen to be moved on but other days it is no hassle. There are new marks at Shark island as well to keep the yachts a bit out from the island but it all depends on wind angles. We no longer use harbour land marks and channel buoys marks as blokes kept running in to them and with lights and solar stuff insurers were getting a bit sick of the expense - go figure

If you come across a mongrel yacht owner who tries to seriously mow you down unreasonably get on the radio and call race control ( start boat -working channel) and let them know what boat and details as they have the ability to cancel the race result and warn the fleet of bad conduct or contact maratime guys. Be very nice about it as the blokes on start boats are often older volunteers who are top blokes . Don't forget that a lot of the sailors have thousands of harbour and sea miles , fish themselves and are very experienced at manourvering around a 2 foot high buoy at 15 knots and of course others arent and frankly need a bullet or kick up the bum. I can't defent the morons as I hate as well I have a benefit that I know what club they sail from and can go have a "chat". A lot of teh dinghy classes also involve a lot of kids like the fleet you have to get through at middle harbour and they often have little fear but do get educated n safe distances ( about the distance a dead pilchard can be thrown) The sailing clubs don't want a bad reputation and don't like race participants making their jobs harder and talk with maratime and police regularly Maratime has taken photos of regular offenders on both sides and has issued some fines and have written new unworkable rules for jetboats.

Keep in mind that the harbour is their for all so and regardless of hard and fast rules there is always some give and take and I hate the yachts that come to close and by the same the blokes who anchor out with 50m of rope floating on the surface and a baloon with a livey 30m behind them near the channel are bloody hard to see let alone avoid. Won't even mention the jet boats who are supposed to keep clear and the chardonay set who I don't think know any rules or understand wake.

I don't think there is a solution but the harbour can be a very busy place and get very small if everyone too try and enforce their rights under law and with more moorings (read revenue) filling up bays that used to be sailed by smaller boats and more easily fished!.

When fishing I try and keep away from points I know the racers come close to and when sailing I try and avoid going close to fishing boats and in both cases on different angles it can look like a wall of sails or a wall of anchored boats so common sense should play a big part and courteousy - shame it doesn't but the harbour is getting smaller with more users and bigger boats so it is harder to be gentlmenly all the time.

The only tricks I use is to anchor shallow and a bit reefy as the yachts draw more water so the larger ones won't come in so close and cast to deeper water rather tan do it the other way. It has risks of course but making the gap between the reef or rocks un sailable ( too small or shallow ) should give you some fisging room but some yachts go into very tight areas and no boats have brakes

Pel