79 Bay St
Double Bay NSW 2028
Australia

The best ILCA / Laser sailing club in the world, located in Double Bay on Sydney Harbour.

News

Many hands make light work

Andrew Cox

We had a very successful working bee on Saturday.  43 club members attended and contributed to an unbelievable hive of activity. All the boats were removed from the club and made quite a display on the lawn. 

One member, who had somehow escaped the mailing list, was driving past and noticed all the boats out.  He thought he was missing out on a regatta, so came for a look – and was promptly press-ganged into action!

Mark Bethwaite and Geoff Kirk led a crew of skilled craftsmen, who converted the SHS racks to laser racks.  We took the opportunity of an empty club to cut off all the old carpet on the eastern side and replace it with new, which was seamlessly executed by a swarm of cutters, wrappers and tapers, too many to name here, but all noticed individually for their extremely hard work and commitment.

Jim Dounis, Josh Kirton and Peter Collie drew the short straws – working under the clubhouse in freezing water, spraying fungus off the beams and floorboards with high-pressure gurneys, and ending up covered in what can only be described as “wood goo”.  The occasional jet came up through the floorboards, just to make sure the carpet team didn’t get too comfortable in their warm, dry environment. 

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Andrew Simpson, John Verco, Ashley Deacon and Geoff Boscoe led the painting efforts.  The north wall now looks brand new.  And John Verco has generously donated even more time to come back during the week and finish the south wall!  One timber element had a large amount of rot to remove, and is now a fine example of the building trade’s best kept secret – “builders’ bog”.  Bet you can’t tell!

At one point, in a fine demonstration of modern OH&S, Andrew Simpson was working at one end of an aluminium plank, cantilevered out over the water, supported by nothing other than three able-bodied gents standing on the other end.  He assured us he had drawn upon his engineering expertise in calculating the moment of inertia in his head.  Fortunately, his three helpers had the presence of mind not to depart their stations a few minutes later when asked to help with something else.

Martin White and Simon Stone got the club lasers in ship shape, Gerry Donohoe did some work on the Jazzman, and Alistair Sutherland, Fergus Pitt and Richard George took a break from the carpet gang to remove a mountain of rubbish from the south deck, which has never before looked as tidy as it does now. 

Then everyone came together at the end to join the fray in returning all the boats to their newly allocated rack spots, and to pull the Dene Bergman out of the water for service, an event that was fittingly supervised by the other Dene Bergman, before Paul Adam and Andrea Bergman served a hearty lunch to the hungry workers, who wolfed it down while enjoying the balmy sunshine on the front deck. 

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Clare and Charlotte Alexander captured the whole day on social media, including several live feeds.  Mark Crowhurst, who was on a plane to Singapore, texted to let us know the random person next to him, was taking an interest – note to self, don’t sit next to Mark on a plane!

Thank you again to everyone who participated in what was a very successful and productive day for the club.