Aussie Laser Sailors

G'day aussie sailors,

For those in Sydney I have a good strong dolly for sale...as I'm getting a new one which locks onto a trailer.


I also have a backup full rig sail for sale (163xxx something) or I'm happy to exchange it with a Radial sail. (I would also need a radia lower mast if anyone has one).

Anyone interested in either please email me at [email protected]

Cheers ;)
 
hey sydneysiders,

I'm keen to sail at some new places where the water is not too choppy so when I was exploring the greater Sydney map I saw the Narrabeen lakes. Can you sail there ? Is there a good place to moor the boat ?

What's it like doing it off Palm beach too in Pittwater ? It always looks flat the water but I imagine it must in fact be choppy ?

Cheers,
 
Hey Alysum. I sailed last weekend with Dobroyd Aquatic Club. It is the most western syd harbour club. A 15 - 20 kt NE still channelled through beautifully and the water remained relatively flat.

If you want really flat water come up to my club (see sig) and try sailing on an inland lake. I often get conditions when I can catch a 25kt gust downwind in waves no bigger than a few centremetres - no thats sm :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: th.

BTW - Anyone here doing the States in Canberra this weekend?
 
yeah I always sail at the Iron cove too, I did one race with DAC a few weeks ago but retired, might do it this sat too. It is a pretty cool place with no ferries ;)
 
looks fun the Oberon, I saw pics of a race there not long ago, maybe it was you...bit of a drive for me unfortunately from the eastern suburbs :(

so you don't know anything about Narrabeen lake ?
 
I've never actually sailed Narrabeen Lakes (but I did grow up nearby tho... did all my junior sailing on Sydney Harbour). From what I remember (and I hope someone can correct me) Narabeen Lakes are pretty shallow nowdays, and mainly cats and windsurferes use it owing to their shallow depth. I wouldn't imagine you would 'moor' a Laser ( ? ), but I may stand corrected. You wouldn't do it at Narabeen Lakes, certainly not.

Pittwater, on the other hand, is a nearly perfect body of water to sail on. I cannot reccomend it highly enough. It's large, you can get steady consistent sea breezes, you get both flat and ocean swells near Barrenjoy Headland - it's your choice. It's deep too - lots of water to explore and sail on. And there's lots of places to launch from and spots to go ashore, explore and picnic on as well. Pittwater is a great part of the world sailing-wise. There are numerous places you can get into from, including Bayview and up towards Palm Beach (as well as lots of other spots). Go up there and take a look around - you'll see what I mean.
 
Yes you're right, last night I was digging on google to find out more about Narrabeen lakes and I read an article from the SMH about sailing there; apparently only 15% is really suitable for sailing; not enough water or too many sand banks. There is apparently a sailing club with Herons and Lasers but after reading about the shallow waters I don't think it's worth it sailing up there :(

Sounds good sailing in Pittwater, will definitely have a go up there one day. We must organize a day for all of us to sail up there :D
 
G'day all,
I can add three more to this list, Racing at Gosford with my Dad after a 12 year brake, and my wife now learning as well. Training out of belmont other days. Its good to be back in it.
 
G'day
Damn I wish this thread was more active ! Come on aussies :D
Anyway this sunday I may go out for my first sail in Pittwater at that public beach mooring place at Palm beach. I feel the need to sail in new and bigger places so I don't have to tack every 2 mins :)
Anyone interested in joining ?

Ciao,
 
This place is very North American dominated (as is most of the internet!) but there is a fair chunk of aussies here, plus lot's of other nationalities.

Report back on Pittwater, I'm heading down to DAC this saturday. You should give Double Bay Sailing Club a go too if you want a top fleet.
 
What sail number are you in case I go? I occasionally go to DAC but I play cricket at the same time so it's hard to be a regular :(

I understand it's mostly a North America forum but it's also almost the only Laser forum in the world. Ah I wish aussies had their own Laser forum ! And put a link to it on the different states laser associations.
Actually I could probably do this myself since I'm a programmer...I will think about it !
 
The Queensland Association has a forum but it has never really taken off - the last post is about six months old. Have a look here: http://qldlaser.proboards36.com/ I think one or two other states may have hosted forums in the past without much success.

If you think an Australian forum is a good idea, get in touch with the ALA (http://www.laser.asn.au/). A lot of the web site is way out of date, but Ken (the new president) is keen to get things moving so expect it to improve.

Personally I think this forum is great - although it's hosted in NA, it's open to all comers so we get get broader perspective on issues, as well as talking about Aus-specific stuff when we want.
 
Thanks for the links.

yeah my idea is actually to have an independent 100% free forum on it's own domain, something like www.ozlaser.net

Then we could put a link to it on all aussie laser association sites as well as referencing it in major search engines. As a programmer I have experience in setting up all this so I'm confident it would kick start nicely :)

While I agree this forum is really good, especially for tips and rigging. What I would expect more from the aussie laser forum is more to do with promoting events, regattas or people looking to go out sailing with some mates anywhere in australia, information on good sports to sail, mooring places etc...
Could also be useful for a Stuff wanted/for sale.

Let me know what you think :)
 
Good to see some active Aussies around - G'day! Ya, I'm using this forum to learn about sailing my Laser simply because there isn't any other 'local' sites around. "Use what you have", so here I am. I dunno how it would work at a National level [a forum, that is], but a place for a trading/for sale section might be useful as well. I've found that most regatta information myself and our little club get is via other clubs sending our NOR etc info. My 2-cents-worh would be to ensure that it is firmly connected to the Australian Laser Assoc, or at least some of the State Assoc. [thru their website, I mean]. I guess that way more Aussie Laser sailors will be able to find and use it.

I've been enjoying inland lake sailing on the only two dams in the Central West f NSW that still have enough water in them to physically be able to sail on - Chifley Dam {near Bathurst} and Wallerawang [near Lithgow]. I miss Sydney Harbour sailing in so many ways - you just take having water to sail on for granted. But the challenge and freshness of inland lake/da, sailing is rewarding in other totally unexp[ected ways. Enjoy.
And - after about a month of experimenting on my new Laser, I think I'm actually getting the 'hang' of it at last! Whoo hoo! heh heh
 
Yeah I have raised the idea of starting "National" sections within this domain with the admin, but they didn't like it due to the extra maintenace demands it would create.

I think the idea of having a National forum is great. We haven't had a "Laser Sailor" magazine for donkey's years in this part of the world, so the net is all we got. A forum does need a lot of users to make it worthwhile though, and I'm not sure if there is enough out there?

My local district site maintained by John Murray does a fantastic job of keeping updates of relevant events and articles. He gratefully accpets contributions from all Laser sailors as well. It's well worth bookmarking no matter where you are in Aus. http://www.laser.asn.au/nsw.htm Oh, and I should put in a plug to join the association at this point.
 
I have sent an email to some top guy of the aussie laser association to get his advice.

They don't need to worry about maintenance or costs because there won't be any at all :cool: I would provide everything for free and choose a couple of moderators, perhaps you guys if you are good :D

Do you guys like the domain www.ozlaser.net ?
 
Sounds good to me. There are plenty of free forum hosts out there on the web (like proboards.com) which might be worth a look - it would save the costs of setting up a new domain etc, then once it is getting used widely you can move it to a new domain.

Like Rock Steady said, John Murray is doing a great job with the NSW site.

Just curious - who did you contact at the ALA?
 
Nah I will use my company's servers in the US ;)

I contacted [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]John Sprague the chairman but I think it's for NSW. Wasn't really sure who to contact...
[/FONT]
 
Yep, John is the man for NSW. Ken Hurling is the ALA president - his email is kenhurling followed by @ followed by hotmail.com.
 
ok thanks

by the way do you know whether there is a copyright for the laser logo ? Say if I want to create a logo for the forum with the laser symbol, would that be permitted or not ?
 
HI Guys
I believe that Ken Hurling is actually registering a new domain on behalf of the ALA and the site will be a blog/forum site alot like livesaildie.com The actual domain laser.asn.au belongs to the NSW and ACT District Laser Association.

Cheers
 
Yes, there is a copyright on the Laser logo, which is undoubtedly why there are no laser logos anywhere on this forum. Have a search through the forum archives and I think you'll find some old discussions on this from a North American perspective - I expect the same applies in Australia.

It doesn't surprise me that Ken is already onto setting up a forum - he is certainly keen to get things moving.

That reminds me - Ken runs an Easter Bilby Regatta each year at RQYS in Brisbane. If you are not doing anything this Easter, come on up! It's a great location with perfect sailing conditions, there will be a decent sized fleet covering all abilities, friendly people, on-site camping. It will be worth the trip - especially if the idea of chocolate trophies appeals to you...
 
I beleave sailing in Australia could do with this idea (Aus laser forum).

Laser fast becoming the dominate class amongst whats left of the functioning sailing clubs.

Any further promotion of the sport can only be a good thing in a time when people perfer there TV and air conditioning, rather than getting out side and having ago.

My 2$
 
Well done!

I think I will still stay connected to this place as well, but it would be great to see a growing body of info specifically related to Australian Laser sailing.
 
cheers

sure this forum will always be the best place for technical stuff because of it's large database.
 
Great stuff! Thank you! I've just scooted across and joined. I'll add the link to our Clubs' webpage [thumbs up]
 
Hi there at down under,
about a year ago a young beautiful Lady with Australian roots appeared at our lake. One called her Petra and our hole village take care and are proud of her. She is an Australian swan and deep felt in love with a sort of pedal boat that looks like a big white swan. The NY Times did report of her, the Chinese Newspapers, too and in GER, she is already a TV star. During the last winter the CEO of our local zoo took her into his area and the MD for animals checked her up. She had a small damage at one of her legs and got back her health at the zoo. Also they tried to introduce her to the other (male) Australian swans, but this guys of Aussie swans have been to rough to her, so she and her big German lover had to leave again the zoo about a month ago, to live on our lake again like in the last year.
The owner of this big pedal boat (the owner of the sailing school at our lake, Mr. Overschnitt) cares for both and the local credit institue for real estate (LBS) donated Petra a small house that swims on the lake. During the nights, as you can see at one of the attached photos I took at Easter Monday, three Laser Pico's guard this funny couple with their house for that they can live in peace here how long they want.

Surely our GER ladies that just visit Australia get such a care, too. :)

Below you find some more information (sorry, all in German language):

http://www.schwanenliebe.de/

http://www.allwetterzoo.de/news.php?nid=121

http://wdrblog.de/zoos_nrw/2006/11/schwaenin_und_t.html

http://www.westline.de/nachrichten/bildergalerien/thumbnails.php?album=727

G'day
LooserLu
 

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That's a great story Looser Lu, thanks for telling us about it.

We call that bird a Black Swan (Cygnus atratus), they are native to Western Australia which has a major river, the "Swan River" named after it - in which lot's of sailing takes place too (the recent Etchell World Championships were held there).

The swan moves great distances and is also a resident of my local lake - Lake Wallace, NSW. They normally mate for life and are always seen in pairs, so I imagine something must have happenned to her natural "mate". Thanks for taking good care of her.

I have taken lot's of pics of these birds and will attempt to post some later.
 
G'day aussies,

lovely weather this week end for sailing after the crap weather over easter !

Also a reminder that www.ozlaser.net forum is still there and struggling to take off :eek: so come on lets post some stuff :D

Cya
 
hey all,

I'm an aussie sailor, but not a laser sailer yet. They are racing them in the 2009 world police and fire games in canada, so I want to start training. If anybody can help me with a good used one at a plesant price, that would be great. msg to [email protected]

and hey, I'm a keelboat sailor, so will need all the help and advice I can get.

Oh yeah, I'm in Adelaide.
 

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