Beautiful Start to Autumn Pointscore

It was a beautiful sunny, warm summer’s day for the start of our Autumn Pointsocre last Saturday. The gentle Southerly was fickle at times – you really had to watch for the shifts and holes. Those who paid attention to the ever changing conditions came out on top.  Those astute sailors were (after handicapping): Standards - Michael Osborne (Heat 1) and Geoff Kirk (Heat 2), Radials - Julian van Aalst (Heat 1) and Quentin Burns (Heat 2).

Thanks to this week’s race management volunteers: Alistair Sutherland (PRO), assisted by James Tudball, John Vasey and Andrew Cox, and also to Paul, Shirley, Richard Finlayson and Kevin Gilroy in the canteen. Thanks also to Andrew Dixson, who was rostered for LTRaR, but awoke with flu-like symptoms and self-isolated pending testing – we appreciate his actions in protecting the club and the other members.

A special acknowledgement to John Vasey, who stepped in at short notice when Co-COTD, Les Katz, was barbed by a stingray as he pushed the Paul Adam out from the front deck in the low tide and had to go to hospital to get the wound attended to! Thanks to our emergency specialist, David Murphy, who was on scene to neutralise the poison with hot water and flush the wound.  

This is a good reminder that stingrays can be present on the sand in very shallow water around the clubhouse. Their sting is very painful – sailors must wear booties and should be careful to watch where they step. Julian van Aalst was previously barbed by one through his bootie!