Mission Sitrep No. FBGS-1902
Date of Mission: 13 January 2019
Location of Mission: Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith
Weather:
The weather was a little cloudy around 0930 on arrival but the cloud burnt off to a humid, at times quite warm day. The lake was smooth with the odd pieces of weed that had been cut and were floating but generally some good water was enjoyed.
Ships in Attendance:
Flower Class Corvette HMS Arabis, Fletcher Class Destroyers USS Kimberley & USS Hazelwood, Type 12 Frigate HMS Cleo, RMAS Collie, RN Fairmile H, RN concept Frigate Type 24 under construction, Daring Class Destroyer HMAS Vendetta, Armidale Class Patrol Boat HMAS Childers, USN Fleet Aux Tug USS Apache, Russian Destroyer Dzerzhinsky and Russian Corvette RFS Stoiky.
Members in Attendance:
Chris Utley, Mark Buttsworth, Phil Chapman, Peter Schroder, Michael & Robyn Brown, Phil Sommerville, Dave, Pearce, Lachlan Pearce & Josh Pearce.
Mission Actions:
Our first Regatta run for the year with ten skippers in attendance. General sailing took place throughout the day. Marks USS Hazelwood sporting two new Buhler’s was test sailed and performed very nicely, some electrical rewiring to be done and further ballasting as Mark intends to put a bigger Gel Cell in her and she will be a nice sailing model. Michael test sailed his Type 24 Frigate and it was no slouch on full throttle which is not unusual for one Brownie’s boats. We took the opportunity to practice some fleet formation sailing for our upcoming RIMPAC day with upwards of six vessels sailing in close proximity. With a “fleet commander” in the lead ship calling the manoeuvres the sailing went surprisingly well considering the number of vessels and the closeness between the two pontoons.
I also took the opportunity of presenting Josh Pearce his HMAS Adelaide ball cap that he won in the raffle at the National Regatta last year. He will need to keep a close watch of it as I think dad has got his eye on it.
