News

HHSC Newsletter - 11 September 2026

Published Sun 13 Sep 2026

From the President

It has been fantastic to see the sun breaking through and to welcome everyone back out on the water.

A sincere thank you to the many volunteers who made hosting the Opti Travellers Trophy such a resounding success. Events like these showcase the very best of our club and give our young sailors an invaluable platform to build confidence and race craft.

With a full slate of Opti and ILCA regattas approaching, I encourage families to mark their calendars early to prepare our sailors for a cracking summer ahead.

Special thanks go to Jason, Jefferson, and Lee, who have worked tirelessly to prepare our old start boat for sale—sterling work, gents. Standby for the news on the next member to our power boat fleet...

Finally, fair winds to our members and alum competing overseas. Watching our homegrown talent take on the world stage is an inspiration to every junior rigging up on our ramp each weekend.

From the Commodore

Optimist Traveller’s Trophy - Sunday 6th September 2026

Congratulations to the HHSC Optimist fleet for putting on another regatta at the club. This Sunday we hosted the NSW Optimist Traveller’s trophy with over 50 entries in the Open and Intermediate fleets as well as a large fleet of Greenies.

As always it was a huge effort to set up the regatta, staff the BBQ and Canteen and run the racing. Since thanks to all parents and members who donated their time for another regatta.

Thank you to Belle Parker and Harper Spacey for looking after the Greenfleet. Thank you also to Emma and Phil Tomkins who donated their RIB as a luxurious Start Boat and to Jefferson Rose who helped support the Greenfleet in his RIB. Thanks and congratulations to Alessio De Giosa for his efforts at both organising and running the event.

Unfortunately, the breeze on the day wasn’t particularly co-operative with the wind fluctuating between 10 knots to nothing and swinging more than 90 degrees during races. It made it challenging to complete quality races but the sailors showed patience and understanding and made the most of the day.

Congratulations to:

Tom Griffiths - 2nd Open Fleet
Alex Mirceski - 3rd Open Fleet
Marin Christodoulou Le Gac - 9th Open fleet after returning to HHSC from living overseas for 12 months. Great to have the Christodoulou Le Gac family back at HHSC!!
William Lawson - 1st Intermediate Fleet
Miles White - 2nd Intermediate Fleet

See below for photos and the full regatta report.

2026 ILCA 6 Women’s World Championship

Sylvie Stannage is currently in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland competing in the ILCA 6 World Championships which kicked off on 7th September. You can follow the racing on the event’s website here - https://2026ilca6women.ilca-worlds.org/

2026 iQ Foil World Championship

Matt Quinlan is currently in Weymouth & Portland UK for the iQ Foil World Championships. You can follow the racing here - https://2026iqworldsweymouth.sailti.com/en/default/races/race

Good luck Matt and Sylvie.

See the report from Nic Livermore below about a host of other HHSC sailors who are traversing the globe in a wide variety of sailing craft.

Club racing

The 2026-2027 racing season is finally upon us!!

The Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions have been published on the club website - https://www.huntershillsailingclub.org.au/sailing/clubracing.

Please make sure you familiarize yourself with these documents.

This Sunday (13 October 2026) we have the traditional “Shake down sail” which is non-competitive racing. Competitive racing starts the following Sunday.

We have new boat storage stickers printed and, over the coming weeks, we will be checking that your membership and boat storage fees have been paid and provide you with a sticker to put on your transom.

If you are yet to sign up for membership please do so here - https://www.huntershillsailingclub.org.au/registration

You cannot attend training sessions or racing at the club until these fees have been paid.

Summer training times have been voted on and decided in the WhatsApp chats. These sessions will commence when daylight savings starts.

The calendar is now up to date with training sessions, regattas and school holidays for the duration of the 2026-27 Racing series -HHSC_Season_2026-2027_Calendar.xlsx

If you spot any errors or omissions on the calendar, Notice of Race or Sailing Instructions then please let me know at commodore@hunterhillsailingclub.org.au

Learn2Sail

All spring and summer camps now open for registration!

Our upcoming holiday camp will run Mon Sep 28 - Fri Oct 1. Members receive an $125 discount (excl. Teens & Tweens). Register via our events page here.

Please feel free to circulate camp flyer below amongst friends, school groups etc!

Last Saturday we hosted our first free Try-Sailing event of the season. We welcomed 16 new sailors to the club and gave them an opportunity to be introduced to the sport of sailing on our RS Quests. Do you have family or friends who might be interested in learning to sail at HHSC? Join us for our next Try-Sailing event on Saturday, 19 September from 0900. Registration available here.

Teens & Tweens sailors: Daniel, Oscar and Luca 📸 Belle Parker

Optimist Fleet

TT Regatta 📸 Dave Griffiths

Traveller’s Trophy at HHSC

Back at HHSC for another Traveller’s Trophy on Sunday. ⛵️

A good-sized fleet, some typically tricky HHSC breeze and plenty of close racing made for a good day on the water.

In the Open Fleet, Tom battled it out right to the finish, finishing 2nd overall on countback. Great to see our junior Opens also putting themselves into the mix, with Alex finishing 3rd overall and picking up a race win.

The Intermediate Fleet was a strong showing for HHSC, with seven of our sailors finishing in the top eight. Will Lawson took the win, followed by Miles in 2nd. Well done to the whole group.

Our Greenies, led by Coach Belle & Harper, spent the day racing happily up near the Balmain shore. No surprise, they looked like they were having the most fun out there!

Thanks to all the visiting sailors, families and coaches for joining us, and to our HHSC volunteers who once again put in the work to make the day happen.

Check out the event photo gallery by our HHSC Opti dad Dave Griffith 📸

TT Photo Gallery

Coming Up

The next events on the NSW Opti calendar are:

📍 OptiChicks @ RPAYC
26–27 September

📍 NSW Youths @ Toronto
3–5 October

See you on the water!

ILCA Fleet

Hunters Hill Sailing Club’s ILCA dinghy sailors have a strong program of racing ahead. Club racing starts Sunday so be sure to check the club calendar which is packed.

Sunday 20th September is the first round of the Monarch Of The River which is being hosted by Drummoyne Sailing Club as part of it’s Drummoyne Cup event. As we understand it, registration for the Drummoyne Cup is only required if you want to be in the prizes for their event. If your interest is just to be part of this round of the Monarch Of The River then registration is not required.

There are several NSW regattas offering excellent opportunities to build fleet skills, gain experience in larger starts, and connect with the wider ILCA sailing community. Go towww.laser.asn.au and check out the links for all the events which include:

· 2026 AS NSW Youth Sail — Toronto Amateur Sailing Club, NSW — 30 September to 5 October 2026

· 2026 NSW & ACT Coast Championships — Speers Point Sailing Club, NSW — 24–25 October 2026

· 2026 NSW & ACT State Championships — Double Bay Sailing Club, NSW — 14–15 November 2026

· 2027 NSW & ACT Metro Championships — Yarra Bay Sailing Club, NSW — 20–21 February 2027

In addition, the 2027 Performance Sailcraft ILCA Oceania & Australian Open & Youth Championships will be held at Sandringham Yacht Club, Victoria, from 1–8 January 2027. This national-level regatta is open to ILCA 4, ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 sailors.

Have fun all and - may your starts be sharp and your roll tacks vaguely legal!

Senior Sailing

The last couple of months have been absolutely packed with international sailing for all of our senior sailors!

Max Fisher and Henry Szenczy have just arrived home from their Italian and European Tours, racing wing foils on the Nastro Rosa Tour. Max’s team finished in 4th place, whilst Henry’s team boasted a very impressive 2nd!

Max on his wing 📸 MMNRT

Max Continued his tour on to the famous Cowes Week, racing on a sports boat called “Cool Runnings”, Max finished up in 4th place in their sports boat division after a hard fought week in all weather conditions

Max Fisher 📸 Cool Runnings

On the international stage, Matthew Quinlan is racing in the IQ Foil world championships in Weymouth, Great Britain. We wish Matt the best of luck in his racing, to follow the racing, follow the tracking link here https://www.tractrac.com/event-page/event_20260805_MustoiQFOi/3592

Matt Quinlan 📸

Sylvie Stannage is also racing in the ILCA 6 world championships over in Ireland, we wish her the best of luck! To follow her results use the link provided! https://www.sailwave.com/results/2026ilca6women.htm

On the yachting front, Nic Livermore has just come back from his tour up north for Hamilton Island Race Week where his team despite major setbacks on the first day, which included 10 of the 15 crew falling over the side due to a lifeline failure, “First Light” finished in a bittersweet 2nd place, narrowly missing out on first by 1 point to the famous “Wild Oats 10”.

First Light 📸 mainsheet.in

Tom Quinlan has been dominating on the J70 front, his team Jedi boasting a near perfect score last weekend in their sprint series, despite the wild winds. We wish Tom the best for the continuation of the series!