MHYC 2024-2025 Season Preview

Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s 2024-2025 Sailing Program has now been published.

With the aim of maintaining an active racing program and appealing to a variety of interests, the club held discussions with yacht owners and crew, class associations and the other harbour clubs.  As a result, a number of changes and new initiatives are being introduced.

Saturday Sailing

The number of Sydney Harbour Combined Clubs Inshore Series races have been increased to ten this season and each one will be included in the club Annual Pointscore.  Sailed from September to March, the Combined Clubs Inshore Series (CCIS) provides great racing with yachts from all around the harbour. 

This will be the second year of the Sydney Harbour Sprint Series, aimed at attracting entries from other clubs while providing an exciting format for club boats.  Three windward-leeward races are scheduled for each race day with Spring Series racing planned in October, November and March followed by the Winter Series in May, June and July.  Starts will be provided for Divisions 1, 2 & 3 with One Design results extracted for classes with four or more entries.

The club’s fun and popular Feature Events program remains at eleven races for the coming season with an event every month except August. 

MHYC’s 2024-2025 Inshore Pointscore Series will include races from the Combined Clubs Inshore Series and the Sydney Harbour Sprint Series – Spring, along with a standalone inshore race.  All races will be scored on ORC, IRC and PHS for Divisions 1, 2 & 3. 

Sunday Sailing

MHYC is collaborating with Manly Yacht Club to establish the Combined Clubs Sunday Series this season.  Eleven races are scheduled over seven race days with a combination of passage races and sprints.  Races will be scored on ORC, IRC and PHS for Division 1 and on ORC and PHS for Division 2.  We look forward to this new series bringing together the Middle Harbour and Manly boats, along with those from other clubs, for some great racing on Sunday afternoons.

Wednesday

The Pacific Rigging Wednesday Non-Spinnaker Pursuit remains a very popular activity at MHYC.  Fifty races are scheduled across the four series for next season.

Thursday

The Thursday Twilight Non-Spinnaker Pursuit Series will include twenty four pointscore races next season.  There will be a non-pointscore on October 3 followed by eleven races in the Pre-Christmas Series and thirteen races in the Post-Christmas Series.  Six of these races will make up the Smithy’s Waterproofing Women’s Twilight Series.  A series of Theme Nights are also planned with special food offerings and prizes.  Starts and finishes will be on the water in Hunters Bay, Balmoral, to avoid congestion within the Spit Channel.

Friday

Introduced last season, the Friday Twilight Fleet Racing Series has been increased to thirteen races for 2024-2025.  Fleet starts in the vicinity of Grotto Point will be provided for two divisions of yachts using spinnakers and a non-spinnaker division.  With races held about every two weeks, the aim is to make this a fun and social end to the working week.

Regattas

MHYC will again conduct the Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Short Ocean Racing Championship on November 23 & 24, and the Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta on March 1 & 2 next year.  The club will also deliver a series of MC38 Acts throughout 2024-2025, including one, two and three-day events.  The Adams 10 Australian Championship will be held in February. 

Sailing Schedule and Race Documents

The Sailing Committee, Divisional Representatives and Sailing Office have been busy over the past couple of months developing the schedule of races and reviewing all the race documentation after the feedback received earlier in the year. 

The season schedule, in both PDF and filterable Excel format, is available for members to download and start planning their season - click here  

The Season Notice of Race, Schedule and Series Sailing Instructions are published to the Keelboat Racing Noticeboard - click here

The 2024-2025 Sailing Handbook will be available from Reception before the end of August.