Lunatics on the Swan River

[fireant]

Are all the racing yachties mad ?
What on earth are they all thinking ?
I was out yesterday (motoring, sail down) and doing my level best to avoid running into anything or anyone but some race club had a whole bunch of 2 person dingys running amok just down from the narrows.
In fact the whole river was full of racing loonies.
They had pretty much the whole recommended track/channel covered with boats. As I had the dagger board and rudders down I didn't have a lot of room to manoeuvre into shallow water.
These ratbags were buzzing around like flies ! I just tried to skirt the edge of them as best I could and get through.
The thing is they would tack and gybe like crazy all round me so I just tried to slow down or speed up where I needed to to avoid being a problem to anyone.
Well ... I came close to hitting one or two. Very close. And I guess it would have been my fault as I was under power. But bloody hull .. these guys just don't change course for anyone or anything. I was already making adjustments from the last one and still trying to allow for the others ahead and to the side.
Anyway ... I get a gob full from one bloke ... "Were RACING" he yells .... errr ... yer .. I thought .. I am trying not to run aground.
Fair dinkum ... these people are an absolute menace.
Anyone know what regulations there are for the river ? Can they just race around in the channels like this ?
They seemed to give the bigger boats a bit more room ... (specially the police boat).
The might be getting a cannon on the front soon.

[puggsy]

Best to stay OFF the swan on the weekends...
Monday to Friday is best...



taken on the west side of the Point Walter sandbar...and under a bit of power...I was running out of time...

[fireant]

Yes .. I think I will.
Bloody maniacs.

[bartmac]

At least the lunatics in sail boats arn't jetskis......noisy,smelly pains in the A*********

[fireant]

You know what .. I prefer the jet skis ... at least they don't try to play chicken with you.

[bartmac]

No but in total disregard of rules they do donuts around us,tow tubes etc and generally make pains of themselves.....but then again I haven't been buzzed by racing dingies

[Mac26Mpaul]

Dinghy racing youngsters are annoying for sure, but hey, at least they might grow up to be Mac sailers one day (the cool ones anyway )

Jet skis on the other hand (or "water blow flys" as we like to call them), are surely one of the most annoying things ever invented by man, and also one of the most pointless. Okay, so maybe they would be a thrill for a week or two, but after that, what the hull would you do with one It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who will pay 20 grand or so for one of those rediculous useless annoying things

I just wish the Goast Coast city council would come to their senses and ban the bloody things altogether

[Boblee]

Worse than even the jet ski's are the wake board boats loaded up with water ballast to create a massive wake wave for the board rider, these boats (owners) seem to take great pleasure in causing our boats to roll around and worse in narrow rivers, even to the point of getting their camera out to record it.
However we are not defencless it's surprising how much reverse wave we can create unexpectedly to tip their riders off when it just becomes too much and this also helps to stabilise our boat from the effect of their wave.
Courtesy is just not in the powerboater vocabulary I have slowed down to hull speed (always) when passing a stationary or fishing boat only to on countless times been subject to the same boat come past up close with what seems like the maximum bow wave they can muster, thinks it's all part of the "look at me" mentality associated with power.

[bartmac]

Doesn't matter what you do,where you are or what time.......there's always another dickhead to annoy you

[The Mutt]

I had an official ??? overseeing a race group on Lake Illawarra tell me that the racing sailbaots had right of way, I asked him to show me where it was stated, he must have been a truckie or a union official for the docks ... I actually learnt a couple of new terms that day, I also got out of there very quickly, lucky I was on my Hobie cat at the time ... very fast ex-racer.

Glenn

[TheDart]

Unless you are under motor in a channel, power must give way to sail. If you watch the ferries in the swan, they are very good at staying away from start lines of the multiple saying fleets. (they will actually stop and wait) Don't count on size in your favour. I used to sail a laser (4.5m) and if I was racing and had right of way I would not yeild to anything. I have fond memories of yelling 'starboard' to the largest yatch on the river and making him give way.

However ALL boats must try and avoid collision at ALL times. So the yatchs may yell and scream at you but they will not hit you, and they wont, as they could be disqualified for doing such a thing and don't want to damage themselves either. Although if a boat yells "water", they are at risk of running aground.

As general advice, don't go near start lines or finish lines. These are between a flagged bouy and a power boat (with flags up). The boat is usually at the starboard end of the 'line'. Also stay clear of any marks (pvc poles) or bouys (say within 30m), or go near club houses which are usually part of the finish line for club races.

[Oskar 26M]

My experience of Swan River racing sailors comes from a few year ago in my pre- Mac sailing days. The 23ft Tankard I had then had a mooring in the river, so it was a natural place to want to sail and a totally delightful place unless the clubs had organised a racing event.
Bluntly, I found that most of the sailors I encountered from the racing clubs were simply bullies. If they thought they could get way with it, they just forced their way through on some predetermined course, no matter who had right of way. Many showed NO regard for the rules of the sea. It would have been fertile ground for a bit of Water Police enforcement, but I never saw any attempt to curb these excesses.
I have seen some very thoughtless, bad mannered and probably stupid power boat skippers, but I have to say that none of them has been as bad as some of the skippers I encountered who were participating in Swan River yacht races. And I am not referring to overly competitive kids in small racing yachts. The worst behaviour I saw consistently came from aggressive, abusive, older, (richer) skippers of bigger boats registered to expensive prestigious yacht clubs.
I gave up sailing on the river and took to the sea. I guess I have the racing river sailors to thank for that. I rarely venture into the river these days, and never during racing times.

[bartmac]

Stupidity is not isolated to the Swan.....sailing near the Gold Coast seems to invariably entail meeting up with the badboy wakeboats and jetski brigade but the behaviour of extremely large semi planing floating footpaths on the Hawkesbury River defies common sense.....1.2m waves created throwing my elderly mother out of the v berth luckly into pile of soft bags etc.Rich richard craniums sitting 5m off the water with on regard to anyone or anything