News

Newsletter, 3rd December 2025

Published Wed 03 Dec 2025

Holy heck, deck the halls, how is it December already? What a weekend at Hunters Hill Sailing Club! Let's jump straight in...

From the Commodore

Hunters Hill Sailing Club has defended its title as the NSW Teams Racing Champions in both Open and Intermediate fleets for the 3rd year in a row. Congratulations to all HHSC sailors who competed and the volunteers who made the day happen.

2025 Optimist Teams Racing Championship 📸 Sophie Hunt

The 2025 HHSC Optimist Teams Racing sailors 📸 Sophie Hunt

The canteen was stocked by Anna and staffed by Jay, Heather and Christine. Steve Boyd was traffic warden in the morning and BBQ chef in the afternoon. The morning BBQ was handled by Chefs Andrew and Nathan who reportedly pumped out 100 bacon and egg rolls.

Chefs hard at work 📸 Sophie Hunt

Thank you to Phil and Rebecca Tomkins for providing, and staffing, the Finish boat and for the finishing crew of Angus and Dave. Thank you to Alessio, Luke and Jono for staffing the support crews.

Finish and support boats 📸 Sophie Hunt

Thank you to my Start Boat combatant Jason Chai for helping to raise and lower flags 168 times during 42 races in extremely challenging conditions. Racing started with a 4-5 knot Northeasterly and finished in a 25+ knot Westerly requiring transfer of the flags onto a RIB in a mad scramble to move to a secluded racing area and complete the final races before time elapsed. It was an entire season of club starts on a single day. Jason, I hope you don’t dream of Opti start sequences for too many weeks.

Thanks also to Luke Ryves who piloted the start RIB… needing to keep it stable against a dragging anchor... whilst changing fuel tanks… and managing to press the horn every minute for the sequence. It was professional boat handling skills and a herculean effort to get the last few races done. Many thanks!!

Whatever it takes to get the last races done 📸 Sophie Hunt

With all of the above said, the following photo is my choice for the most important of the day.

End of the day pack up 📸 Sophie Hunt

Unfortunately, quite a few of our Optimist sailors forgot that the regatta isn’t over once you collect your trophy. A lot chose to leave before the club was packed up leaving a small group at the end to retrieve the start boat from its anchor, pull in all four RIBs, wash them and put them away. I understand that it’s a long day, and that we all want to get home, but when HHSC hosts a regatta EVERYONE needs to stay until it’s finished. It’s not fair to leave the work to a minority who are also exhausted after sailing and volunteering all day.

Those who stayed until the end were: Jason, Jasper and Ellery Chai, Alessio and Luca De Giosa, Sijia and Hong Deng, Sophie Hunt, Jay Ryves and Cleo McLay, Alex Mirceski, Axel and Luke Ryves and Kirra Howell. Sincere thanks to all of these Optimist sailors for showing the HHSC spirit.

However, even more congratulations must go to Matt and Ethan Wilkinson and Zac Howell from the ILCA fleet. Matt was on the water in his own RIB all day. Ethan and Zac competed in ILCA racing during the afternoon and stayed at the club until the roller doors came down. Ethan also went out in a G at the end of Optimist racing to help Opti kids return safely in 25 knots. Both Ethan and Zac were instrumental in retrieving the start boat and RIBs. A wonderful effort from two recent Optimist fleet graduates showing how it’s done.

Club racing

HHSC_Season_2025-2026_Calendar.xlsx

Results - Hunters Hill Sailing Club

Learn2Sail

Christmas crept up on you too fast?

We get it!

Sign your sailors up for our 4 day, 20-23 Dec Christmas camp. Let them sail have fun sailing around the harbour with their mates, giving you the free time to sort out Christmas.

Rookie 20-23 Dec

Momentum 20-23 Dec

Pro 20-23 Dec

Teens and Tweens 20-23 Dec

T&T sight seeing 📸 Belle Parker

Meanwhile, only 2 weeks remain of classes for Term 4. Our groups have been working hard as they tick off their syllabuses.

With the breeze picking up above 30knots on Saturday afternoon our Learn2Race group participated in a strength and fitness session, discussing the importance of exercise for injury prevention on the water, the muscles we use in sailing and simple ways to train them at home.

Check out their plank work:

T&T L2R Sailors Fitness session 📸 Belle Parker

Our Learn2Sail groups got to have a go sailing the Quests on Sunday, taking turns crewing, steering, using a kite and even trapezing!

L2S Pro sailors, Nicola (on trap!) and Sam and Coach Belle 📸 Dave Griffiths

Upcoming Learn2Sail camps

All holiday camps and Try Sailing sessions are now open for registration via: Events - Hunters Hill Sailing Club

Camp Schedule:

~~Monday 8-Friday 12 December 2025 (Teens & Tweens only)~~SOLD OUT!
Saturday 20-Tuesday 23 December 2025
Monday 12-Friday 16 January 2026
Monday 19-Friday 23 January 2026

Please help us promote our Learn2Sail and Teens & Tweens programs by circulating this flyer through your school, sports, and community networks:

Have family or friends who would like to try sailing? They can register for one of our free Try Sailing sessions being held on Saturdays at 9:00-11:00am on these dates:

The links above are Facebook Events, so please ‘like’ and ‘share’ with your family, friends, and community groups.

Optimist Fleet

We’ve done it again! 🎉🥳🍾

For the 3rd year in a row, HHSC is the NSW Team Racing State Champion in both Open and Intermediate divisions!

What a Sunday it was. This high-profile event, hosted at our own club, brought together 14 teams from 7 clubs, and the atmosphere was nothing short of electric. It was a huge club effort, showcasing the always outstanding, warm, and well-run HHSC organisation—powered entirely by our amazing Opti parent volunteers. Thank you all!

Across 42 races, with 4-on-4 Club vs Club battles all day long, the sailors contended with everything the breeze threw at them—from 5 knots to 25 knots.

HHSC was proudly represented by four teams, two in each fleet.

HHSC Teams 📸 James Hill @mainsheet

Congratulations to all sailors, and a special shout-out to our champions:

The Open and Interm winners 📸 Alessio

Open Champions: Lucas, Sijia, Tom, and Emma
Intermediate Champions: Edward, Zac, Miles, and Will

And here’s a fun statistic:

Our Open team had been undefeated in a single team-racing match since 2023—that’s 26 straight wins over 3 years! The streak finally ended in the very last race of this year’s championship… it had to stop eventually 😅Or, as our ex-Opti sailor Zac Howell would have said, the record would still stand if he was still around!

HHSC Winners over the years 📸 Alessio

Next Big Regatta – SORS

The Summer Optimist Regatta (SORS) at Georges River Sailing Club is coming up: 13–15 December.

It’s a major event for all fleets, especially the Green Fleet, which will race Saturday and Sunday. SORS is also ideal preparation for Nationals.

Stay Connected
Follow all the Opti action on instagram and on Facebook. Check out the updated NSWIODA Opti website – all regatta dates, photos, useful links, and resources are available there. Stay up to date with everything Opti-related happening in NSW, including the latest news, updates, and regattas via the state group chat.

ILCA Fleet

The ILCA fleet raced with Balmain Sailing Club on Sunday, to take some load off the HHSC officials hosting the Opti teams event. Thank you to BSC for having us, and to the Drummoyne Sailing Club who started us after the West Harbour Spring Series Yachts. Also a shout out to the Balmain time keepers who had to contend with 17 unfamiliar boats, along with the Balmain dinghies and the yachts all finishing, plus a Drummoyne OK fleet rounding a mark near the line at the same time, to get times for everyone. They got nearly everyone, including one Balmain boat that crossed the line upside down, making the number hard to see! Thank you.

To the sailors, thanks to everyone for being flexible with the changes to start times. With the ominous forecast, an island course was set going around Cockatoo, Spectacle, & Snapper Islands then under the Iron Cove Bridge to Rodd Island before finishing off Balmain Sailing Club. When the big westerly hit hard, most were around Rodd island, and it brought everyone home smiling.

A big shout out to the younger end of the fleet. In a rare effusive moment, former Commodore, wind forecasting guru, Life Member, results wrangler and all round club legend Kevin Burman made the point that the 4.7 sailors “smashed it” on yardstick. Well done everyone, there were tricky conditions both light and heavy over the course of the race.

Kevin himself managed to beat Zac by 4 seconds, something that has become harder and harder to do, and it was nice to see Zac acknowledge Kevin’s skill and experience amongst some amusing banter in the club ILCA chat.

Big thank you to David Malorey for giving up his afternoon to follow the fleet around on a RIB and make sure everyone was safe, getting us a few photos, and towing one grateful Balmain sailor home.

We had 17 HHSC ILCAs on the water on Sunday, a fantastic fleet, the biggest west of the bridge. We’re looking forward to seeing you all back for regular club sailing on Sunday.