Volly of the week

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 administration and management of racing.

This week, we’re saying a big thank you to Paul Adam.

Paul has shown incredible dedication to the club over his 37 years as a member. Since 1993, Paul has tirelessly run the club's canteen week in week out. This is a huge job that has great significance for the club.

The canteen is a major cultural hub for the club. It makes the club feel homely and inviting. It gives it heart and soul. Paul is the central and continuous figure (along with dedicated canteen-partner, Shirley) of our canteen offering.

The canteen is also a profit centre for the club, contributing >$10,000 to the club's revenue each year. Paul keeps the club stocked in food and drink year-round, requiring many hours of shopping. And he is an astute shopper too, ever alert to opportunities to increase margin through smart purchasing.

Paul is the first to arrive on both Saturday and Sunday (btw, he does it all for the A18s too, which provides significant additional the income for DBSC). His presence ensures the club remains attended and secure while open, and he also monitors the radios, providing the key and critical point of liaison when those rare emergencies arise. Thus, under Paul’s watchful eye, the canteen doubles as a safety and security centre.

And finally, the canteen feeds us all with the world's best toasties. And let's not forget that incredible warming soup Paul makes by hand for our cold winter sailors!

In short, the club would not be the same without Paul. Much of his contribution is often unseen and thankless but should not go unrecognised. Paul is one of the true heroes of our amazing club. Thank you, Paul!

Paul in the old canteen

The club is full of people making wonderful contributions around the place, and sometimes behind the scenes. Let us know who deserves a mention!

(Thank you to Andrew Cox who wrote this wonderful submission).

This weekend

This weekend we have Clean Up Australia Day prior to racing. Please be at the club by 10am to assist (see detail in the article below).

The JJ Giltinan trophy also kicks off this Friday (see more details in the article below). As a result, there will be a large number of people in the club on and therefore there will not be a BBQ after racing.

Clean Up Australia Day 4 March

Calling all volunteers who enjoy a clean environment!

I’ve spent the past few weeks driving around the pristine Tasmanian Countryside enjoying the ‘freshest air’ on the planet, and so I’m inspired to clean up the environment surrounding our club.

On Saturday 4th March from 10am to 12pm, members (and guests) of Double Bay Sailing Club will be conducting a clean-up of the foreshore, park lands and local roadways near our club in Double Bay. 

Trevor Potts (member) will be at the club house at 10am with all the CUAD materials, sign-on sheet, and a short safety briefing. Please arrive by 10am. 

We are also asking volunteers to download the EyeSea app and use it to upload photos of rubbish on the day. It's simple to use. Take a photo and upload it to the app.

Download for android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mariapps.eyesea.eye_sea

Download for iOS: https://apps.apple.com/es/app/eyesea/id1667239428

We recommend you wear sun protective clothing and bring protective gloves (if you don’t have any, we will have spares available).

Afterwards you can treat yourself to a well-earned toastie before sailing!

JJ Giltinan trophy begins this Friday

The competition for the 2023 JJ Giltinan Trophy - the 18s world championship - starts on Friday 3 March and runs to Sunday 12 March. Monday 5th and Friday 10 are lay days, which may become race days if earlier races had been abandoned.

You may have noticed the two German boats which have been here for some time, and an increase in number of boats practicing during the week. In the run up this week there are likely to be more 18s in the park, training or dealing with repair and maintenance issues.  

Starting from 2 March there will be additional, special event garbage bins in the rigging area, and there will also be security in attendance at night (if you come down late at night you might be asked who you are). During the competition each 18 will have an allocated position in the rigging area.

The 18s sailors have been asked not to obstruct our use of the space, or conflict with the Yoga classes. The most likely obstruction is if there are boat(s) with rig damage in need of overnight repair – the mast will need to be on trestles overnight until any repair work on carbon fibre has set.

Rubbish bins

The rubbish collection services at the club are not council services, yet commercial collection paid for by the club. We aim to minimise waste to landfill and maximise recycling.

Members are reminded there are three bins for waste disposal.

The red top bin is for non-recyclable waste (to landfill).

The blue top bin is for refundable container deposit items. Refundable items in the blue top bin must have readable barcodes. Please do not crush cans and bottles as this renders the barcode unreadable and we do not get the container deposits returned to us.  Coffee cups, milk cartons should not go in the blue top. However Up and Go paper contains now attract the deposit refund, so can go in the blue top. Do not contaminate cans and bottles in the blue top by putting paper towels in them.

The yellow top bin is for other recyclable waste such as paper/cardboard, hard plastic items with a recyclable symbol on them and glass items which are not refundable (such as wine and spirit bottles, jam jars - and tins).

Recycling of soft plastic items is a problem nationally at present owing to the collapse of REDcycle. Soft plastics unfortunately need to be placed in the red top bin for the time being.

Jason and Isabelle Wilkins donation

From Commodore, Steven London:

Members of the Club and Committee would like to thank long time members Jason and Isabelle Wilkins for their generous donation of the ILCA Laser "Phinester" for use in the clubs Learn to Race program. The program allows prospective members to "try-out" racing with the club, and this helps us to keep an inflow of new active members out there on the start line every week!

Phinester is a Laser with a history, having started life in the UK and making the journey to Australia with Jason when he immigrated here (hey, it's what Laser sailors do!). It has served him very well over the years and was passed on to Isabel when she joined the club 5 years ago.

To Isabelle's relief, Jason recently upgraded to the famous ILCA 50th Anniversary "Golden Fleece", allowing Isabelle to upgrade also, and so the club is now honoured to look after Phinester in its twilight years, if not in twilight sprints.

Upcoming events and more information

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 Monday evening.

View results here.

The club’s calendar can be viewed and subscribed to here.

Make a tax deductible donation to DBSC here.

Race report 18 February 2023

From our PRO Mark Lewkovitz:

A very pleasant day for sprint racing with champagne sailing conditions, clear blue skies, a 15 knot nor’easter and an ultra-low tide. Sail GP in the afternoon meant an early start just before 1pm and the course was setup deep in Double Bay to avoid the exclusion zone which brought Point Piper into play.

6 punchy races were completed by 2:15pm to allow the Sail GP viewers to get away by 3pm.

Early races favoured a windward end start and a left turn at the gate, but a tweak to the course for the later races then favoured the pin end and drove boats to the left side of the beat.

Some performances of note include Luke Parker with multiple wins in the Standard, Diana Chen leading the way with two 4.7s and multiple wins from Sylvie Stannage as well as Scott Hunter grabbing a win.

Lots of smiles out on the water on a classic Sydney summer day.

The club’s calendar can be viewed and subscribed to here (highly recommended).

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Racing this weekend – Vaucluse regatta and an early start

This Saturday 25th of February is the Vaucluse Regatta. DBSC members are invited to the event which is free.

You need to register here in order to sail in the regatta

The Sailing Instructions can be found here.

DBSC members will need to be ready to splash at 12:10 to sail to the course for a 13:20 start.

Some further salient points to note:

• Lasers will have the first warning signal class flag at 1320, with a combined radial and 4.7 fleet starting first

• There will be up to 3 races, with all races counting

• The course will be 2 laps of windward-leeward legs with an offset mark at the top and rounding to port.

• Code flag “I” us likely to be used at the start – boats that are over in the last minute must round the ENDS of the line and come back through it

• Boats must keep at least 50m clear of the start line when not in sequence. Please watch out for yachts using the same start line!

• The one penalty turn rule (not two) applies.

• BE AWARE OF FERRIES and COMMERCIAL SHIPPING in this end of the harbour. They are dangerous and have right of way.

After racing, we are invited to return to VYC for a BBQ. We will take 2 RIBs down to VYC as on-water transport for those members who do not wish to drive.

Rule 18.3 by Luke Parker

There’s frequently “lively on water debate” (aka yelling) within our fleets at the top mark when port tackers try to navigate a parade of boats on starboard tack.

Here is a very good video on rule 18.3 which concerns entering the 3 boat length zone from port at the top mark.  It’s worth a viewing. 

Summary: A boat that was on port as it entered the 3 boat length zone at a windward mark must always, including AFTER it tacks onto starboard, stay clear.  The port entry boat (no matter if it’s subsequently tacks to starboard) must not inconvenience any boat that was already on starboard when it entered the zone.