From the President

The weather is finally warming up, and so is the action! We can feel the energy ramping up both on and off the water as we head into the summer sailing season.again

Opti Chicks Flies High Again!

It was absolutely brilliant to see the Opti Chicks weekend hosted at our club once again in September. We had a whopping 41 young Opti sailors being coached and mentored by an incredible group of ex-Opti Chicks. These mentors, most of whom are now making their mark on the national and international sailing scene, ran a fantastic weekend. More on that below, but a huge thanks to Rebecca, Sophie and Jay for organising!!!

Huge Congrats to Commodore Ben Howell!

We are bursting with pride to announce that our Commodore, Ben Howell, was named Volunteer of the Year in the Australian Sailing Awards for NSW on 20 September! Congratulations, Ben—there is truly no one more deserving of this recognition, and the Club is forever grateful for all your hard work. As a state winner, Ben has now been put forward as a nominee for the National Awards, which will be announced on November 14th. We’re all cheering him on!

I look forward to seeing many of you down at the club over the coming months as the sailing season kicks into top gear.

From the Commodore

Optichicks 2025

Hunters Hill Sailing Club was extremely proud to host Optichicks on 20th and 21st of September with a huge turnout - in terms of sailors, volunteers, instructors and sponsors. Rumours are that the 40 plus sailors who attended is an all time record for the event. 

Optichicks just before going to bed early 📸Sophie Hunt

The full report about the weekend, and the exhaustive list of thank yous, are listed below. It was amazing to see so many previous HHSC Optichicks returning to coach and mentor and lots of parents lending a hand to run the event. However, special mention must go to Emma Tomkins, Sophie Hunt and Jay Ryves who put together the event on behalf of the club. It was a huge amount of work and your efforts are greatly appreciated.

2025 - 2026 Season Opening

The new HHSC sailing season launched on Sunday 28th September in what turned out to be beautiful sailing conditions. A predicted 10-15 knot south-easterly eventuated into mostly an easterly breeze which allowed us to run a course down the length of the river. The day no was a chance to test the boats before the serious racing begins on 12th October.

Opti Race Fleet 📸 Ben Howell

Senior Race Fleet 📸 Ben Howell

It was fantastic to see new parents at the club eager to raise their hand to volunteer to help. It is greatly appreciated and bodes well for another successful season of racing. Thank you to everyone who turned up and helped to put on a successful day on water.

The 2025–2026 Season Notice of Race, Sailing Instructions, and Calendar are available here

To keep abreast of the latest news for your class please make sure you have joined the HHSC WhatsApp Community. If you're not already in the community click here to join. From the Community you can join the subgroup for your class. These groups are where most communication occurs for training sessions and regattas and is the place to ask questions.

NSW Youth Championships

Congratulations to all HHSC sailors who represented the club at the NSW Youth Championships at Toronto on 4th - 6th October. See below for the reports from the classes.

Learn2Sail

Last week we had 53 sailors attend the Sep/Oct holiday camp! 

It was an action-packed week with long days on the water, sailors even got a tour of Commanche! Thank you to all the instructors who helped ensure everything ran smoothly. Check out some pics from the week below.

Sailing Camp colours 📸 Belle Parker

Quest off to seek out the bridges 📸 Belle Parker

Smiles all round 📸 Belle Parker

Opti armada 📸 Belle Parker

Hobart bound? A visit to Comanche 📸 Belle Parker

Term 4 Classes commence Sat 18 and Sun 19 Oct. Please ensure sailors have been registered via the training sessions page on the HHSC website or by clicking here. 

Sailors who are not registered at least 48hrs prior to classes commencing will be asked to return the following week for safety reasons. 

The Weekend schedule is as follows: 

SATURDAY 

• 1300 - 1500 Learn2Sail T&T

• 1500 - 1700 Learn2Race T&T

SUNDAY 

• 0715 - 0930 L2S Rookie 

• 0930 - 1130 L2S Momentum 

• 1130 - 1330 L2S Pro 

Upcoming Learn2Sail camps 

All holiday camps and Try Sailing sessions are now open for registration via the eventspage.

Camp Schedule:

Monday 8-Friday 12 December 2025 (Teens & Tweens only)

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:

• 25 October

• 8 November

• 6 December

• 31 January

• 7 February

• 14 March

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

Optimist Fleet

Optichicks  📸 Rebecca Tomkins 

Thank you Sponsors 📸Rebecca Tomkins

On the weekend of the 20/21 Sept, HHSC hosted OptiChicks and what an incredible success it was!

More than 40 girls took to the water, mentored and inspired by some of Australia’s brightest young sailors. Sylvie Stannage, our lead mentor, guided the weekend alongside Mina Ferguson, with additional support on Saturday from Caitlin, Harper, Paige, Stella, India Sara, Gretel, Isobel and Victoria (2016 Opti World Champion from Malta). Almost all of these mentors were past Opti sailors who had attended OptiChicks themselves and returned to give back to the next generation – a true testament to the event’s spirit.

On Saturday night, the girls were treated to a special Q&A session with Evie Haseldine and Vanessa Dudley. They generously shared stories from their sailing journeys, advice on handling nerves before racing, strategies for bouncing back after a tough race, and their personal goals in the sport. The evening ended with t-shirt signings, leaving the girls inspired and motivated. 

The weekend was filled with sailing adventures, learning opportunities, a big boat tour, and the fun of a clubhouse sleepover. The energy and enthusiasm of the girls was infectious, and it was wonderful to see such a supportive community coming together.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

We are grateful for the support of:

• Hunters Hill Sailing Club

• Boat Crew Gear

• Marine Plus

• Feel Good inc

• Eltee - Discount code until 31 Oct is OPTI25
  Eltee has also sent this video.

• Gelato Messina

• Fod Bods

• Bush's Meats

Thank You to Volunteers

A heartfelt thank you to all the parents and volunteers who made the weekend possible. Jay, Sophie, and Bec worked tirelessly to set up and run the event, while Amal and Heather kept everyone well-fed with their support at dinner. Andy and others manned the BBQ, Andrew and James captured fantastic memories through their photography, andAlessiofor his social media coverage. On the water, we were grateful for the race support provided by Ben, Phil, and Matt. And a special mention goes to Felicityand Noni, who generously stayed overnight to help supervise the sleepover — your support was invaluable.

The OptiChicks event is inspiring the next generation of female sailors and strengthening our community spirit.

📸 Check out the highlights on www.mainsheet.in and on NSWIODA Instagram and Facebook. 

What about the boys?

OptiBoys  📸 Matt Wilkinson  

Meanwhile, some of the Opti Open boys Tom, Luca and Ethan couldn’t spend a whole weekend on shore, so they kicked off their own OptiBoys. 😎They paired up with the WSC kids for a great session of training and racing over in Woollahra.  🙏Special thanks to WSC for the hospitality! 

📸HHSC Crew @ YouthSail

YouthSail NSW 2025 - Toronto

The October long weekend saw our Open and Intermediate sailors competing at the Zhik YouthSail NSW Championship in Toronto, 3 days, 9 races, and plenty of fun!

HHSC was proudly represented by eight Open sailors Kirra, Sijia, Emma, Luca, Ethan, Cleo, Axel, and Tom and 3 Intermediates Jasper, Ellery, and Will Liu.

It was a challenging regatta with shifty winds and a large international fleet of 60 Opens and over 40 Intermediates. A special mention goes to our three rookie Intermediates at their first major event ,they did incredibly well, completing all 9 races! We’re so proud of them.

Our Open sailors kept the HHSC flag flying high, battling it out against some of the best from across Australia and New Zealand. Luca secured 2nd place overall after a nail biting final day, while Sijia claimed 1st girl and Emma 3rd girl. Tom delivered one of his best Open results so far, finishing 12th overall, and both Axel and Cleo, at their first big Open regatta, showed great improvement race after race.

We wrapped up the weekend with a HHSC pizza picnic party, the perfect way to celebrate another memorable event for our sailors and parents. Serious FOMO for anyone who missed it! 😜

A huge thank you to all the parents who make these events possible ,from organising and towing to cheering on the kids. If you’d like to get involved, just ask …don’t wait to be asked!

And finally, don’t miss the next big event the ACT Championship in Canberra, 1–2 November often called the most fun regatta of the year!

📸Tom/Luca/Kirra/Sijia/Ethan

📸Emma/ Cleo/Axel

📸Luca 2nd overall with Malcolm Page Olympic medalist and Australian Sailing President 

📸Sijia & Luca with coach Matt

📸Jasper & Ellery with Eliza 

📸Lola Wilkinson - the presidential dog 

💻Check out the updated NSWIODA Opti website. All info about regattas dates, photos , useful links and useful resources are on it.

📣Want to stay up to date with everything happening in NSW with all the latest news, updates and regattas? Join the state group chat - click here.

ILCA Fleet

Spring kicked off with a splash at Toronto!

The NSW Youth Sail Regatta served up classic spring conditions—steady breeze with just enough shifts to keep everyone honest—and nine races. HHSC was represented with Zac Howell, Amelia “Milley” Thorne, and Sophie Borner Harrison on the start line in ILCA 4 & 6.

Firsts all round: Sophie andZacstepped up to their first ILCA 6 regatta, and Zac came out swinging with a P2 in Race 1(not bad for a debut!). When the spray settled, the scoreboard read: Zac 12th, Sophie 19th, Milley 21st—and a heap of new lessons banked for the next start gun.

Off the water, Sophie joined an evening session with Olympian Zoe Thompson (ILCA 6, AUS) as part of the pre-regatta coaching camp. Big takeaways: elite sailing is a long game—built on consistent work, smart planning, and learning from the bumps along the way. Don’t sweat the short-term stumbles; they’re the reps that make you stronger. Onward and upward, team! ⛵✨

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Regattas

• Inaugural Double Bay Regatta 11th October

• NSW & ACT Coast Championships, 18-19 October 2025 

• NSW & ACT Open, Youth & Masters States, 15-16 November 2025 

• Oceania & Australian Open & Youth, 1-8 January 2026 

Windsurfing

The HHSC Learn to Windsurf program will commence in the coming weeks - now that daylight savings has started. Once we get a fleet of competent Windsurfers we will introduce a race series.

The training sessions will be on Saturdays from around midday. They will finish in time for Optimist Open Fleet training and Teens and Tweens Race Fleet.

Given Windsurfing is physically demanding to learn, the target market for the Learn to Windsurf group are teenagers from 13 to 17 years old who already understand the basics of sailing. With that said, if we have any experienced adult Windsurfers with their own equipment it would be fantastic to have Windsurfers on the water to show the kids what to aspire to.

I’ve already messaged most WhatsApp groups seeking expressions of interest but if you are keen to learn a new skill then please join the Windsurfing group under the HHSC WhatsApp Community - click here.

Details will be posted soon.

Newsletter

Have a great photo from recent events? Share it with us via the club’s Photos WhatsApp group:Join here.

Contributions and feedback for the newsletter are always welcome via:newsletter@huntershillsailingclub.org.au