Cardinal Syn

11/04/2025

Congrats team Cardinal!
1st place overall 2025 GFS twilight series! 🥇⛵️🥂

04/03/2025

Meet the new Team Cardinal. From left, Chris, Jorgen, Steven, Brenden and Philip. Missing are 3 generations of O’Sullivans 😎⛵️

04/03/2025

The first ever 'twilight race for yachts' has kicked off on Sydney Harbour celebrating LGBTIQ+ inclusion in sport. It's all part of this year's Mardi Gras season launch. Phoebe Deas reports.

01/03/2025

22/02/2025

I have been contacted by the current owners of Cardinal Syn.
They have asked to take over this page.
Just letting all Cardinal Syn followers know that I will transfer administration over to the new owners.
I will leave it to you if you wish to continue following Cardinal Syn.
Geoff

18/05/2022

After over 18 years of faithful service and great times racing with friends as well as some quite cruising, it is time for Cardinal Syn to look for a new owner to enjoy her.
It is with a heavy heart, and a lot of reluctance, that we have decided to put Cardinal Syn up for sale.
We need to make room for Irish Mist III. A 38 foot Catalina cruising yacht.
I will be contacting a broker shortly.

20/10/2019

Saturday 19 October.
RKR Round 2.
A challenging day on so many levels.
70 boats lined up for the start of this inter-club race.
All started as usual but with plenty of boats to interact with.
Then the challenges started!
Finding a place in the start line to get enough clear air to sail fast and enough room to not get pushed over early.
Then had to pick the right line to get to the rounding mark without touching it or being forced out wide. We were able to round 1wide which was okay as it was a reach to the next mark. Well for a while anyway.
Now the challenge was to find enough wind to keep you moving. We could see clearly that there was a change in wind up towards the mark. We did manage to ghost through catching up to several others but also those we had past caught up to us.
The next challenge was to find the next Mark which is a RMYCT mark somewhere in Croudace bay! Also the westerly breeze is very gusty requiring a lot of traveler work for the Sheet-hand.
The next leg is a very long leg all the way down to Channel mark. We were just on the verge of being able to pole the heady out but not quite! Then we could see the fleet ahead with kites up but pointing down towards Marks point mark. Did we have the right mark? Should we be going to marks point not channel?
Checking the course, yes we are right, so why is the rest of the fleet pointing 60degs low of the mark??
There is a extreme change in wind direction that’s why! We managed to stay up high as the remainder of the fleet dropped kites and headed up to the mark.
We reached the mark with about thirty other boats but about 5 wide with another 4 boats outside of us.
The challenge this time it keep enough clearance to not hit a boat below and to make sure those above do not come down on us until we get around. I think we ended up sailing about 50 meters past the mark before we could turn.
Half way through the race and the breeze is gusting quite strong with big shifts. The challenge, which we failed a couple of times, was to keep to boat from rounding up in the gusts. Geoff B did a great job but sometimes letting the main off was not enough, had to let the job off as well.
Quite a good race with Liquid Force and Quiet Achiever over the next 2 legs to the finish line.
With the extreme variable wind we ended up finishing in front of a couple of the div 1 boats finishing 11th across the line in division and 7th on handicap.
A good race, challenging but still a good race.
However, on the way back to the marina running daily square, we were hit with a 40 to 60 deg shift and accidentally gybed the main ripping the port toe rail out. See attached photo
Never a dull day racing on Lake Macquarie.
Thanks to crew Cate, Nicole, Jarrod and stepping in to help today Col M, Phil C and Geoff B.
Cardinal Syn will not be racing the next 2 weeks. Back on 9 November, I hope!😉

16/10/2019

💧⛵🚤 CALLS FOR INCREASED ACTION ON SWANSEA CHANNEL 💧⛵🚤

NSW Deputy Labor Leader Yasmin Catley is putting more pressure on the State Government to fund an ongoing solution for the sand build up in Swansea Channel.

The local MP moved a notice of motion in parliament this week saying it's a "disgrace" that volunteer organisations, like Marine Rescue, are relied on to assist vessels that run aground.

Depths as shallow as one metre have been recorded in the lead up to the busy summer season.

10 days of dredging is due to take place this month, but Ms Catley says that's not enough.

"We can't continue to have this ad hoc approach where we're throwing good money after bad when there is a simple solution and that is to have an ongoing maintenance program in place," she said.

"The government is being foolish by not actually taking this in approach and in actual fact they're wasting tax payer money."

Ms Catley says it's not fair the issue is costing the local economy tourism dollars either.

"This is an ongoing problem that can be fixed very easily but there is no will from the government to do that so that's why I've moved a notice of motion in the parliament to show the government how serious the community that I represent is about getting a solution and a resolution to this very difficult problem," she said.

The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment says dredging will start at Swansea once work at Ettalong is complete.

It says over 10 days up to 10,000 cubic metres of sand will be removed from the channel between Naru Point and the Dropover, where navigation problems have been occurring.

Sand will be pumped via a pipeline to the former Belmont Sands site area on Crown Land at Swan Bay where it will be stockpiled.

13/10/2019

Saturday 12 October LMYC 90th Anniversary race.
What was forecast to be a very very wet day for the 90th celebrations race turned out to be just fairly rain free.
A reasonable shower, or should I say rain, cleared early leaving us with 12 to 18 knots of East /Sou-east breeze sending the fleet quickly around the Pulbah Island back to the club for after race celebrations.
We finished the race being pushed hard by Equinox all the way to the finish line to be placed 12th on handicap in the open race and 10th on handicap in the annual point score.
Thanks to crew Nathan, Cate, Andrea, Jarrod and Lisa.
Next week is round two of the RK Robinson inter club series.

21/09/2019

21 September 2019.
Second race for the season and first RKR inter club race.
A delayed start while race officers waited for the breeze to come in.
Around 70 yachts lined up for the start.
A different start for us crossing the line on port tack. I had planned to tack starboard but the other yachts opens a huge hole for ist to cross on port with clean air.
We had a good race with a few different yachts particularly to windward but couldn’t hold them down wind when they flew their kites.
Great work by all crew all learning new positions.
Nathan on now being guided by Julie, Cate on strings and tailing heady with Jarrod on heady, brand new crew Nicole on main.
Well done all
See Jarrod having a steer on the way back to the marina 👏👏👏👏
Geoff up the mast for inspection and trying to replace the Windex that the cockatoos pulled off last night.