Category: Latest from Double Bay Sailing Club

Pointscore Heats Up

It was another light and variable Southerly for Pointscore heats 11 and 12; causing headaches for both the sailors and the race committee. Because of the ever-changing conditions, the racing was delayed and both heats were shortened. Watching for pressure and reacting to shifts was the name of the game.                                The winners (after handicapping) were as follows: in the Standards, Murray Stone and Hadrien Bourely, in the Radial/4.7s, Julian Van Aalst and Pia Hattersley. With only two more heats in the Spring Pointscore to come, the competition is very tight in both fleets. In the Radial/4.7 Fleet, Daryl Lawrence leads over Pat Levy by 5 points, with Matt Knight, Andrew Cox, Kate McHugh and Sylvie Stannage all within striking distance. It’s even closer in the Standards, with Murray Stone leading by just 0.5 points over Steve London, with Luke Parker and Andrew Simpson close on their heels.  Thank you to our PRO, Matt Knight, assisted

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We are Competent

Thanks to the 43 members who attended competency training on Saturday. The feedback was that it was a very informative day, and pretty much everyone said they learned something new. Thanks also to our five volunteer trainers: Dene Bergman, Gerry Donohoe, Andrew Cox, Matt Knight, and David Murphy for imparting their skills and knowledge.  For the 50% of our masters members who did not attend or only attended for part of the training, we strongly encourage you to watch the videos of last Saturday’s sessions which are available HERE. This training is an important safety and competency requirement for all members, and it’s imperative that everyone is up to speed. We have also posted on the website the refreshed Sailing Instructions (which include clarification as to how various events are scored, including the award and calculation of average points), as well as the new Summer Race Management Guide, PRO Guidelines, COTD Guidelines, Course Management Guide and Race Record Sheets.  We suggest that

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Early Twilights Tonight

Twilight sailing this week will be half an hour earlier, with splash at 4.30 for a 5pm start and 7pm finish.  Brett Beyer will be conducting the twilight sailing session again – let’s see if we can set a new record of >25 boats!  There is a function that night at the club, starting at 7pm for 7.30pm, so please pack up your boats and shower quickly upon returning to shore after twilight sailing. Boats will need to remain on the lawn until after the function.  

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Vaucluse Challenge This Saturday

The first of  the two legs in this season’s Vaucluse Challenge races will be held this coming Saturday, 30 November.  This is a seminal event in our calendar, where we do battle with our friends from the French Enclave to defend the honour of the title of champions of the main harbour!  The racing will be held in “neutral waters”, somewhere up near Nielsen Park / Rose Bay – note, it will take much longer to sail to the course area, so we are encouraging all boats to launch immediately after the 1pm briefing – get rigged and dressed before 1pm.Vaucluse Yacht Club will be hosting a BBQ after racing.  Could all sailors please plan to attend this?  We will be driving two RIBs to Vaucluse, and will also take several cars.This leg of the Vaucluse Challenge will comprise two ~45min races, with separate fleet starts for Radials / 4.7s and

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Get Competent this Saturday

We’ve been talking about it for ages… and now the big day is here. Competency Training 2019 is on THIS SATURDAY. Please arrive at 8:45am for a prompt 9am start. It’s the day when our fellow members will impart their knowledge to make us all better volunteers around the club.  Don’t worry, we’ll be wrapped in time for afternoon sailing. It’s a critical morning of education, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone there.

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Champagne Sailing

Last Wednesday’s twilights were magical: a perfect breeze and magnificent weather conditions. One members described it as “Champagne sailing”. Twenty boats took advantage of these perfect mid-week conditions. We’re set to do it all again tonight with a 5pm splash and 5:30 training with Brett. Hope to see you there. And don’t forget, next week (27 November) we’ll be holding sprints earlier, from 5-7pm, due to a club function later that evening.

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Your Mum Isn’t Coming to Clean Up

As flagged in last week’s newsletter and at the briefing on Saturday, we are implementing a mid-season rack reshuffle.  We asked people to assist after sailing on Saturday to ensure all boats were in the right place. However, only 9 of the 18 boats that needed to be moved were in fact moved.  We had occasion to watch the whole thing on CCTV as we helped one member locate gear that was misplaced. What we saw was that the people who sailed that day (and a few helpers with them) made sure their boats were in the right spot, but no one helped to ensure all the other boats were in the right spot.   Two of the boats that were displaced in the reshuffle, and whose new spots were occupied by other boats that also needed to be moved, were just wheeled outside and then later left on the

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Some Serious Solar!

DBSC is proud to tell our members that our DA to fix the Piles is approved. Included in the DA is the ability to cover our roof in solar panels and generate enough green power to run all of the fairy lights in Steyne Park and beyond. Mark Crowhurst is managing the Power Station Project and would love to hear from anyone with a good working knowledge of the solar panel world. In particular, rather than the technical electrical details, we want to know our options around what to do with the excess power that we will generate – on top of selling it to the grid. If you think you can help, please contact him HERE or on 0439872305.If you don’t think you can help, we hope you get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that our club is about to be a net contributor to the grid and do our

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