The first round of the NSW interclub series went off last week, thanks
to Glen Morrell and the friendly crowd at Illawarra Yacht Club. A
terrible forecast seemed to scare many sailors away, so the Open fleet
was small. The highlight was the junior fleet - despite holidays and
the forecast, the seven Juniors showed just how much they are improving.

Glen organised some great racing and coaching, including an inspiring
talk from Alisha Kawalla, fresh from an excellent performance in
winning the teams prize at the Youth Worlds. Ben Morrell was the
standout in the Juniors, winning every event with ease. Second was
Miriam Campbell, who has really put her skates on after recently
moving up from a light "modern" 3m sail to the Barracouta 3.5. Josh
Nealy was third, Lauren Nealy fourth. Trent Billington, Jack Garner
and Kurt Billington only sailed on the Saturday and finished in that
order.

Everyone showed big improvements, even as the weekend went on. Lauren,
for instance, slipped past the unbeatable Ben on the first leg of the
last race.

Three of the Juniors also sailed in the Silver Fleet when the adults
raced. Josh showed his determination to take two wins and top the
Silver Fleet, from Trent and Lauren.

The adult's fleet was smaller, but in the gusty aftermath of the 30-35
knot blow on the Saturday, the Wallies showed just how quickly they
can get around the course. Racing against Raceboards and a Formula
Board, the One Designs scored a couple of seconds, a fifth and a sixth
overall and shocked many sailors.

Chris Thompson scored 1,1,1,2, while Deb Apthorp scored a good second
before blitzing Race 4 to win by almost a leg. Steve Barton came in
third, happy with his performance in the hairy Race 2, followed
closely by Kerry Bergman, up on holidays.



UPCOMING EVENTS

The next Interclub is the DAC event on 3rd and 4th November. We're
hoping to get 10 or more Juniors and a big adult fleet. Saturday night
will see the beer running cold and the pizza running hot in the
clubhouse. Camping is available in the clubhouse for those who don't
want to drive.

Racing for Juniors will start at 10pm, both days. Adults will probably
start at 2.20 Saturday and about noon Sunday - more info to follow.


NEW LONGBOARD WEBSITE

A few of us at DAC have started a new longboard windsurfing website,
at http://www.lbws.com.au/ . In the first fortnight we got about 700
individuals landing on the site - proof that there is lots of life in
longboard land. By the way, our "sister class" the Exocet Kona had 11
nations at its recent Gold Cup championship, and now has over 550
sailors on its ranking list.


RACING AND DINNER THIS SUNDAY

Narrabeen is racing this Sunday. Even more important, Karen is
inviting everyone around to her place at Cromer (two suburbs away) for
drinks and dinner. There could be a good fleet for a great fun day.