8 New Licenced DBSC Members

Last Sunday, 8 DBSC members braved the winter chill to take part in a boat licence course at the club. Max Dzhura reports that the hot coffee and a sugar hit from the instructor’s doughnuts inspired the class to zoom though the on-water practical training including turns, reversing, man overboard drills, beaching, anchoring, and high speed figure eights. The adrenaline levels came down a bit when the class headed inside for the theory portion of the course. But by the end of the day, all the attendees had passed with flying colours. Congratulations! 

Please email Christine Linhart (c.linhart@unsw.edu.au) if you are interested in future boat licence courses at the club.

Inaugural DBSC Women’s Laser Regatta

DBSC is excited to announce we will be hosting our Inaugural Women’s Laser Regatta on September 8-9, 2018. This is a regatta run by women, coached by women and competed in by women and girls of all ages and skill levels. This has not been done before and we are on the cusp of something great for women in sailing and for our club and club members. 

For the Regatta to be a success we need women to come and sail, so we need your help to spread the news.

The format of the weekend is an opt in/out for different events. If you know someone that might like to join in but hasn't sailed in while, we will have a coaching session and practise racing on Saturday with our invited coach, Krystal Weir. We even have charter boats for those that don't own a Laser but know how to sail one and want to join in. 

Following this will be a dinner with inspirational speakers to share their sailing stories, experiences and insight into different pathways to sailing. Sunday will consist of racing, again with Krystal Weir, and prize giving and celebrations to follow.

Sounds fun, doesn't it? 

So, what can you do I hear you ask?

• Download the flyer here, and send it to everyone you know - sailor or non-sailor.
• Print the flyer out and stick it on your office’s kitchen fridge or somewhere hi vis.
• Encourage the women in your life - wives, partners, girlfriends, daughters, sisters, friends to click on this link to register interest - this doesn't cost anything, it just registers interest to keep people informed, start to get an indication of numbers and to ensure our event is run well. 
• Volunteer to help - we need your help - men AND women - on and off the water! Link to sign up to volunteer to come.
• Keep an eye out for the pink banner on www.dbsc.com.au as we will be promoting our Regatta supporters and prize donations there.
• Prize donations gratefully received, if you have something that you might like to donate towards the event let Clare Alexander know! 

If anyone has questions about the Regatta, please contact Christine Patton, our Regatta Secretary. Thank you for your support — start spreading the news!

Racing Recap

A cold but beautifully sunny morning greeted the 22 sailors who participated in Heats 10 – 12 of the Winter Championship. The day started out with a decent 14 knot Westerly which grew to 25+ knots by the end of the third race. There were a couple of breakages for Dave Newman and Ashley Deacon, but all in all there was great racing in a big building breeze. In addition, the Brett Beyer Winter Program continued its very successful format, with on-water coaching giving subscribers real-time insights. The winners for the day were: Standards: Geoff Kirk (Heat 10),  Luke Parker (Heat 11), and Anthony Scaly (Heat 12); Radials: Campbell Patton (Heats 10-12); 4.7s: Brooke Wilson (Heat 10), and Daniel Costandi (Heats 11 and 12). Thanks to PRO, Michael Osborne, assisted by Christine Patton, on-water crew of Mike Gentry and Josh Pearl, and Max Dzhura for doing a great job on the results. 

With three more Sundays of Winter sailing left (July 1, 15, and 29) here’s where we stand in the Championship battle: Radials: Andrew Cox is first (24), followed by Patrick Levy (27); Standards: Geoff Kirk is the leader (30), and Michael Osborne is in second place (37.7). Dedication seems to be the key as all these sailors have been present at every Winter Championship event. Last Sunday was the first day with a significant number of 4.7s in the Winter Championship, so it’s early days for this fleet, but Brooke Wilson and Daniel Costandi are battling it out for first. 

Upcoming Events

Sunday 24 June, 8am– Boat Licence Course. The course is now fully booked. Please email Christine Linhart if you are interested in future boat licence courses.

Sunday 1 July, 7:45 briefing, 8:30am start – Winter Championship Heats 13-15. 

Sunday 1 July, 1pm start – Big boat racing.

Keep off the Grass

As you have read (and seen, if you’ve been down to the club over the past month) the council has installed new turf outside the club. Which is great, but we need to do our part to make sure the new grass survives as it still requires another four weeks or so to take root. We keep reminding people to avoid walking on the grass, but people are still doing it anyway.  Could you please help us to ensure a high quality long-term surface by keeping off the grass?

This means the following:

• Walk around the path to get to the club – don’t take a shortcut across the grass
• Rig on the beach – don’t assume you are the last boat and therefore you can rig on the concrete – find a spot on the beach
• De-rig on the beach – and don’t go on the lawn to remove your sail or fold it – keep off the grass
• Hose on the concrete semi-circle at the top of the boat ramp – no salt water on or near the grass
• No dollies on the grass – any spare dollies should be stored on the lino at the front of the club or on the left side of the concrete semi-circle out the front

What does it matter if you tiptoe lightly across the grass or use it for a few minutes?  It probably doesn’t in the scheme of things.  But we need to set an example, because when people see us using it, they then bring their dogs onto it, or wheel their 18 foot skiffs onto it (which happened last week).

Please help us with this.  We are investing in our collective future enjoyment and we appreciate your ongoing patience and cooperation for the next few weeks.

Upcoming Events

Sunday 17 June, 7:45am briefing, 8:30am start – Winter Championship Heats 10-12. The series has proven very popular thus far with close to 25 boats in each race. We hope you can join us this Sunday, but remember to keep off the grass.   

Sunday 24 June, 8am– Boat Licence Course. Only one space left. (See below for details)

Volunteers Needed

DBSC is a club that is built on a culture of volunteerism. The management committee has elected to disband the sailing committee and the marketing committee, in favour of a more fluid structure that is more efficient for volunteers and calls for requests on a project-by-project basis as needed.

Immediate needs include:

• (a) women’s regatta committee and specific tasks arising from that
• (b) video for various induction videos – script writers, “actors”, filming assistants
• (c) website working bee

Could you please let Andrew Cox know (commodore@dbsc.com.au) if you would like to be a member of our volunteer panel?

Jazzman and RIB Out of Commission

Due to a mechanical fault and a potential overheating situation, the Jazzman is out of commission now until further notice and MUST NOT BE DRIVEN under any circumstances. In addition to this, one of the RIBs is awaiting repairs. That means we’re down to one RIB until repairs are undertaken. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Boat Licence Course Sunday June 24th

We have seven members signed up and one spot still available for the second boat licence course to be run at DBSC in 2018. The course will start at 8am and finish by 4pm. 

Members need to pay $125 to do the course and the club will subsidise the other 50%. All members should have this licence if you perform PRO or COTD duties. It is also good for anyone who just enjoys being on the Harbour in a boat.

The final spot will be allocated on a first-in basis. Please make your payment here. 

We plan to run the boat licence course intermittently at DBSC until all members performing PRO or COTD duties have a licence. Please email Christine Linhart (c.linhart@unsw.edu.au) to express your interest so that future courses over the coming months can be arranged to suit your availability.

East Coats Championships

This long weekend many of our DBSC sailors headed south to Georges River Sailing Club for the East Coast Championships, with some impressive results.

Congratulations to all our competitors:

4.7 - 18 boats

• 1st  - Sylvie Stannage
• 2nd - Brooke Wilson
• 3rd - Daniel Costandi
• 4th - Mina Ferguson
• 6th - Ian Louis

Radial - 11 boats

• 1st - Campbell Patton
• 3rd - Zac West
• 5th - Mark Louis
• 6th - Maddie O'Shea (1st girl)
• 11th - Will McMillan