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HHSC Newsletter - 11 October 2026

Published Sun 11 Oct 2026

From the Commodore

YouthSail NSW - Toronto Amateur Sailing Club - October 3rd to 5th October

YoiuthSail NSW 2026 📸 Ccourtesy Australian Sailing NSW & ACT

Congratulations to all sailors who made the trip to Toronto over the long weekend to represent HHSC. We had a huge number of representatives with the majority of both our Optimist and ILCA fleets making the trek.

Conditions were wildly variable across the weekend from light, shifty breeze that made consistent results difficult through to testing 15 knots that tested who had been on the hiking bench at home.

The highlight for HHSC during this regatta was the sheer number of sailors and boats that we were able to transport to the regatta. For a lot of sailors it was their first regatta outside of Sydney and a big learning opportunity about regatta racing. Well done to everyone for the effort and numbers.

With that said, we did manage to reach the Podiums with congratulations to:

Emma Tomkins - first Open Optimist girl and 4th overall
Luca De Giosa - 3rd Open Optimist
Zac Howell - 1st ILCA 6
Sophie Borner-Harrison - 3rd female ILCA 6

See below for the full class reports.

Club racing

The season is underway with no racing this coming Sunday (11th September) but a return to Poinstcore racing on November 1st.

The new training times for daylight savings start next week. Check your WhatsApp groups for details. The club calendar is up to date with summer training times.

The calendar is here - HHSC_Season_2026-2027_Calendar.xlsx

Learn2Sail

Last week we hosted our Sep/ Oct camp. A big thank you to all the coaches and volunteer Bill V who was ashore during the week to assist with first aid, maintenance etc!!

It was a great week and we are excited for our next four upcoming camps in the next school holidays - all of which are open for registration on our events page.

7-11 December (Teens and Tweens only)
21-23 December
11-15 January
18-22 January

HHSC Camp 📸 Sophie

HHSC Camp 📸 Nic

Term 4 classes will commence next weekend, 17/18 Oct. Please ensure your sailors are registered via the training sessions page here. Sailors who are not registered at least 48hrs prior to class commencement will be sent home and asked to return registered the following week for insurance and safety purposes.

Do you have any friends or family who might be interested in joining Term 4 classes or an upcoming camp?

Join us for our next free Try-Sailing event on Saturday 17 Oct, 0900. Register here.

Please email learn2sail@huntershillsailingclub.org.au if have any questions or need assistance with registration.

Optimist Fleet

Opti Squad 📸 James Hill @mainsheet.in

The kids 📸 parents

The Action 📸 James Hill

Luca & Emma award ceremony 📸AS

NSW Youths: HHSC brought the numbers… and the results!

HHSC showed up at NSW Youths with a seriously strong fleet of 22 Opti sailors across Open, Intermediate and Green Fleet.

That made us the biggest Opti fleet from any club at the event. An achievement in itself! 👏

And for everyone who couldn’t make it… serious FOMO! 😆

Three days, nine races and pretty much every type of wind Lake Macquarie could throw at us. Light and shifty, then 12–15 knots, and plenty of tactical and physical challenges along the way. The sailors were tested on all fronts.

Most importantly, it was a fun event for everyone.

Even Coach Matt… although we’re not sure he would say the same after looking after 19 kids! 😂

So, how did we go?

OPEN FLEET

75 Open sailors from across Australia and New Zealand battled it out over nine races, with plenty of black flags along the way. The racing also gave us a little sneak peek at how the Nationals podium could look in January.

And what a battle we had at the front!

Our HHSC duo Luca and Emma battled it out for the podium right until the final race, with Luca finishing 3rd overall and Emma 4th overall and 1st Girl. 🏆

Tom G also put together a great championship, finishing 6th overall and signing off with a race win in the final race. 🔥

Our Junior Opens were also making plenty of noise. Axel was on fire on Day 2 with a 4th and 3rd, while Alex wasn’t far behind with a 6th and 8th in the same two races.

Those two were definitely feeling it! 🔥

INTERMEDIATE FLEET

Some great results across the Intermediates, with Miles finishing 5th and Alisdair 6th, including a fantastic race win in the final race.

Sylvia and Will Liu were also knocking on the door of the Top 10, finishing just outside it.

GREENIES

And then there was Matilda, cruising around Green Fleet, having plenty of fun and quietly getting ready for the big move into Intermediate very soon! 👀

Canberra 2025 - ACT Championship fun 📸 Parents

Next stop: ACT Championship

24–25 October | Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra

The ACT Championship is next on the calendar and registration is NOW OPEN!

For our Green Fleet sailors, this one is a must-do. It’s one of the most fun and chilled regattas around and a great stepping stone in the Green Fleet journey.

And yes… we’re expecting the Intermediates and Opens there too! 😎

For the Opens, there’s plenty to race for. The ACT Championship forms part of the series that will help decide the NSW Open Team for the Team Racing Championship at Nationals.

So, Greenies, Intermediates and Opens… get your names in!

🚨For those still wondering what’s happening every week… yes, there is a calendar. Yes, it’s on the website. Yes, it has all the training and racing dates. And yes, we’ve added an arrow because apparently this is where we’re at. 🤪

ILCA Fleet

Zhik NSW Youths - 30 Sept to 5 Oct

Race 2 Black Flag Restart 📸 D. Malorey

Similar to the Optis, HHSC turned up with the largest fleet of ILCAs and the largest number of ILCA4 from a single club. Of the 49 entries in the ILCA fleet, we had 7 ILCA4s and 2 ILCA6s. Our representatives were Cleo, Alex, Elara (welcome to the fleet!), Ethan, Janik, Sijia, Sophie, Tom M. and Zac.

Majority of our representatives attended the coaching clinic which preceded the regatta. They were treated to 3 days of amazing cloudless skies, good winds and informative learning.

The three race days were a mixed bag with day 1 giving 2 races in very light winds, huge wind direction changes and quite a bit of floating about. Day 2, whilst delayed for a seabreeze to build saw 4 solid races in 12-15 winds and Day 3 achieved the remainder of the full 9 races series completed in decreasing wind conditions.

Race 2 Winner - Sophie📸 D. Malorey

Race 3 - Zac leading the pack📸 D. Malorey

In the ILCA6 Zac won the regatta with 5 wins and 2nds and 3rds for the remainder. Sophie scored a race win and a second to finish 3rd in the girls racing.

Pricegiving - Zac and other ILCA6 winners 📸 B. Howell

The 37 strong ILCA4 fleet included 10 interstate representatives, 8 of which filled the top 11 places. Sijia was HHSC’s lead boat, achieving an 8th overall and 5th in the girls, noting she was 3rd NSW boat overall and 2nd NSW girl which is an awesome result given her recent transition into the ILCA fleet.

Race 3 - Sijia battling at the top mark 📸 TASC - A. Lee

Race 3 - Ethan, Cleo, Tom & Elara also battling at the top mark 📸 D. Malorey

Days 2 & 3 - HHSC 4s Alex, Elara, Janik, Cleo in action 📸 TASC - A. Lee

Race 7 - Final leg 📸 TASC - A. Lee

Full Race Results are here - https://sailingresults.net/?ID=82460

Off the water, the organisers also included a Q&A evening with 2 current Australian Olympic sailors in the Nacra 17 class, Rhiannan Brown and Brin Liddell (former HHSC sailor) along with Emma Webb, former Nacra 15 youth sailing worlds sailor and selected to represent Australia at wing foiling in 2026. Awesome to hear about their lives and sailing experiences and plenty of opportunity for those attending to ask questions and meet them personally at the end of the session.

Left: Emma Webb (Wing foiler) representing Australia and Olympic Nacra 17 sailors Rhiannan Brown and Brin Liddell (formerly HHSC), Right: Tom finding out about foiling cats from Brin 📸 D. Malorey

Drummoyne Cup - 20 Sept

This proved to be a great day for a sail up to Goat Island and back then around Cockatoo Island a couple of times in a 7-10 knot breeze. It was however disappointing that the results were purely assessed on the first ILCA over the line, regardless of what type of ILCA sail was being used on the boats - that’s right folks, no yardstick applied here! This didn’t stop HHSC’s Zac (ILCA6) from coming 2nd overall with Carl (ILCA7) 3rd. Our ILCA4s took on the challenge as well with Ethan, Thom and Cleo being the first three across the line.

Full results are here - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/672ae448b1903d77283353e9/t/6ab1e4134657f96793a4d7ae/1790043156136/Drummoyne+Cup+2026+ILCAs_V2.pdf

Ethan leading the ILCA4s 📸 D. Malorey