The best way to find out about the club is to visit us, and meet some members.
Apart from the week of Christmas, the clubhouse is open from at least noon every Saturday from 1 August to 30 April. Our telephone number is: +61 2 9363 5577.
We are run by volunteers, so if your query cannot answered by the frequently asked questions (FAQs) below or the rest of the website, we will get back to you by Wednesday, 10pm.
How do I subscribe to your Pulitzer Prize winning newsletter?
How to make a tax-deductible donation to the club (using the internet)?
How to make a tax-deductible donation to the club (using paper forms)?
Want to book a seat at the restaurant?
Want to become a social member?
Can I rent/hire your clubhouse?
How do I get to crew on a yacht?
Can you teach me to race a Laser?
What is the deal between your club and the 18 footers and Sydney High School?
Can I store my kayak (or similar) in the clubhouse?
Can you help me buy, or sell, a Laser?
How many times can a visitor race at DBSC?
79 Bay St
Double Bay NSW 2028
Australia
The best ILCA / Laser sailing club in the world, located in Double Bay on Sydney Harbour.
Rod Barnes will be conducting hoist training on Saturday 30 April at 11:30am in the clubhouse. If you require using the hoist to access your boat on non-racing days, this training is compulsory. Please confirm your attendance at this training with Rod.
From time to time the club runs proficiency and skills training to ensure the safe and smooth operation of racing, most notably powerboat handling and first aid training. Mark Crowhurst maintains a list of people seeking training (and refreshers) and when we have a critical mass training is arranged. If you believe you require training, please contact Mark by email.
The club has a commercial mooring available for lease in Double Bay. It is a commercial grade mooring suitable for a yacht up to 50’. If you are interested in leasing this mooring, please email the commodore.
The club will be lending a RIB to Georges River Sailing Club for the Australian Championships (open and youth) which will be held on 2-8 January. If you, or your non racing family members, are able to assist GRSC in driving the RIB on any of these days, please contact the commodore.
Furthermore, GRSC are seeking all kinds of volunteers in hosting this event. If you are available on race days 2-8 January it would be much appreciated. Please contact GRSC Laser Class Captain David Early if you can help.
Thank you to the members who are sending through information for the newsletter.
If you have content for the newsletter, please email it to newsletter@dbsc.com.au by midnight Monday.
Our LTRAR volunteer, John Chesterman, has provided the following report from racing on Saturday.
Multiple opinions were considered whilst setting up a relatively unusual, for DBSC, WSW course which appeared to exhibit a slight southward directional shift toward the top end and was more westerly at the start boat end near the Shark Island bottom mark. The experience of the PRO won out and once final adjustments were made the racing got underway on time. A strong outgoing tide, estimated at 2 knots, assisted clean starts to both races by keeping all boats a safe distance back from the start line.
The Etchells were mostly uninterested in our DBSC triangle and there were only a couple of vague intruding yachts thinking it might be a good idea to mix it with a racing laser fleet rounding the bottom mark whilst themselves on a downwind setting.
A relatively steady 12-15 Knot breeze, with little chop, kept both fleets tight and some great racing was observed from the Jazzman with position changes continuing right up to the finish line.
One important LTRaR lesson was learned which all club members can benefit from for the future - remember blue flag to replace orange on the Jazzman as the boats are finishing!!
PRO Matt Wenke and John Chesterman on the Jazzman were skilfully assisted on the water by COTD David Huber and last minute stand-in CoCOTD (a role which included swimming) David Airey. Special Guest Pavlina, mother and #1 fan of visiting Adela from the 4.7 Czech National team, was on the finishing horn and otherwise there to enjoy what our harbour has to offer. On the sandwich presses with Shirley and Paul were David Murphy and Julian van Aalst.
For the club championship heats, Daniel Costandi won both races in the standard rigs, while James Tudball won both races in the radial rigs.
In the autumn pointscore, Craig Sheers and Geoff Boscoe each had a win in the standard rigs, while Finn Kirk and Andrew Cox each won a race in the radial rigs.
Double Bay Sailing Club is managed and run entirely by volunteers. As the saying goes, “many hands make light work. There is always work to be done in the upkeep of our shed and the ongoing running of dinghy racing.
This week we’d like to thank Mark Crowhurst for his contributions to the club.
Mark has been a key volunteer at the club for seven years, since joining the club and volunteering for the club committee in 2016. Before taking on his current role as Vice Commodore, he was also Treasurer.
Among Mark’s many contributions are his creative thinking, his fundraising skills, and his rostering efforts.
Creative thinking – for example, Mark conceptualised, fundraised, and implemented our DBSC power station – which has made us a significant net contributor to the grid, creating annuity income for the club of per annum, and furthering our sustainability goals.
Fundraising skills – Mark has led our grant funding efforts, which have facilitated replacement of the piles that support the club house, installation of solar panels on the roof, forthcoming replacement of the boat ramps, the new Paul Adam RIB, The Women’s Regatta, DBSC-branded regatta clothing, various subsidised training programs, and several other initiatives.
Rostering efforts – Mark manages the time-consuming and difficult task of rostering up to eight volunteers each week, year round. In an effort to reduce the load on individual volunteers, we are dividing tasks up into smaller chunks and are seeking to share them around. Tim Heath has kindly offered to take over the volunteer rostering from now – which is much appreciated. A big thanks to Mark for his work on this, and to Tim for taking over!
Mark’s volunteering efforts even almost make up for his dubious sailing skills! Thanks again to Mark for everything he does around the club.
Mark (pictured right) with Pat and Craig at the Christmas party
The club is full of people making wonderful contributions around the place, and sometimes behind the scenes. Let us know who deserves a mention!
Congrats to DBSC members, Evie Saunders and Zander Bijkerk, who won the Qld Open State Championships in Radial and Standard rigs respectively last weekend.
Evie and Zander are pictured with NSWIS coach, Tristan Brown.
On Easter Saturday (16 April) the club will host an Easter hunt with a difference.
The course will be:
1 = DBSC mark
2 = Wedding Cake east
3 = Yellow YA mark off Washaway Beach (Nudist Beach)
4 = Wedding Cake east
5 = Yellow YA mark to east of Bradleys Head
6 = Yellow YA mark at the Shark Island (south)
7 = DBSC finish line
There will be support boats accompanying the fleet crossing the sound.
The intention is to run a handicapped start, with your handicap provided on the day.
There may, or may not, be chocolates at each mark. Probably not…
Whether you missed our recent sailing stories with Malcolm Page, or thought it was so good, you’d love to watch it again, it’s now available on YouTube. Many thanks to Kirk Marcolina and Diana Chen for their work on this video and uploading it.
