79 Bay St
Double Bay NSW 2028
Australia

The best ILCA / Laser sailing club in the world, located in Double Bay on Sydney Harbour.

News

Tonight - TWILIGHT SAILING STARTS

Kirk Marcolina

Daylight Saving Time is here… and with it comes the start of our weekly Wednesday Twilight Sailing. There’s nothing better than sailing on Sydney Harbour at sunset, so ditch work early, leave the kids with your partner and head down to the club for some mid-week fun.  We will have organised racing with marks placed. Splash is at 5pm (or whenever you can get there).

Dolly Policy

Andrew Cox

We have received dolly photographs from only one member claiming ownership of a dolly.  Our policy is to encourage members not to store personal dollies in the club.  If you elect to store it in the club, you will be deemed to have donated your dolly to the club, unless you submit photographs that are accepted by the Management Committee.  If you have a dolly stored at the club that you want to be able to retain going forward, could you please submit photographs to the Commodore ASAP.

New Ladders for RIBs

Kirk Marcolina

We have installed ladders to service the RIBs on each of the davits. Please note that it is unsafe to ride up and down in the RIBs – you must get out of the RIB before raising or lowering it, and then use the ladder to climb into or out of the boat.  Thank you to Luke Parker for kindly donating the ladders, and to Geoff Kirk for installing them.

DBSC Member Finalist for Australian Sailing Award

Kirk Marcolina

We’re proud to announce that our very own Clare Alexander has been chosen as a Finalist for Australian Sailing’s Sport Promotion Award.  It’s a huge honour and we’d like to get a DBSC table at the Award’s Night on 19 October. The dinner is at Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf, in Pyrmont, and costs $180 per person – in addition to great company, a lot of fun, and the opportunity to support Clare, you’ll get a three-course dinner and drinks.  Please email secretary@dbsc.com.au in the next few days if you are interested in attending.

Clare Alexander winning the Club Person of The Year Trophy in May.

Clare Alexander winning the Club Person of The Year Trophy in May.

Up Next

Kirk Marcolina

Wed, 10 October – Twilight sailing, splash at 5pm (or whenever you can get there)

Sat, 13 October – Spring Pointscore heats 7 and 8, including BBSP, 1pm briefing for 2pm race start

Twilight sailing

Andrew Cox

Good news – the Brett Beyer Twilight Program is fully subscribed with 10 subscribers!  Payment details will be sent by email direct to subscribers.

We will commence twilight sailing next Wednesday, 10 October.  Spash is at 5.00pm (or whenever you can get there). 

We had 15 regular twilight sailors last year – let’s aim for 20 this year.  All visitors are welcome – please pass this on! 

There is no better way than this to break up your week, so tell your boss to get with the program – we’re in the era of flexible work.

Up Next

Andrew Cox

Sat, 6 October– Club Championship heats 3 and 4, including BBSP, 1pm briefing for 2pm start, BBQ and BBSP debrief for all members after racing

Sun, 7 October– Big Boat race, 2pm start. DON’T FORGET DAYLIGHT SAVING!

Mon, 8 October– Novartis function at the club – please do not attend the club from 9am-3pm

Wed, 10 October– twilight sailing, splash at 5pm (or whenever you can get there)

Club Policies

Andrew Cox

This article covers four important policies:  results, insurance, dollies and sign on/off.  Please read this article carefully.

 Results

This is a recap on last week’s article.  Please remember to speak to the handicapper before racing this week to make sure your sail number is correctly recorded in the system.  And, if you want to receive results, please make sure your sail is correctly numbered – six numbers that uniquely match your hull or at least do not duplicate any other number in our fleet.

Insurance

It is a condition of participation in sailing at DBSC that you hold and maintain third party liability insurance in respect of your boat.  We also recommend you include comprehensive insurance, to cover your own boat.  Note, this insurance does not cover injuries to you, which you will need to cover separately through your health insurance and life insurance policies.

This insurance is available very cost-effectively from Nautilus Marine – see the link on our website here or go direct to Nautilus here.  Basic third party liability insurance is $110 per annum.  If you want to include comprehensive insurance for your own boat up to $10,000, the cost is $270.

If you do not have current insurance, you MUST purchase insurance before any further participation in DBSC events.  This takes 5 minutes to do online.

Dollies

We have a problem with club dollies “walking out the door”, and it is costing us a lot of money each year.  In order to address this, we are instituting a dolly policy immediately as follows. 

We encourage members NOT to bring their dollies for storage in the club.  If you insist on doing so, you must provide commodore@dbsc.com.au with photos of your dolly, showing how it is clearly and uniquely marked.  There is NO ENTITLEMENT to a dolly upon leaving the club, unless you have followed this documentation procedure and unless the dolly you take matches that documentation.  The decision of the Management Committee will be final in this regard. 

Whether or not you follow the documentation procedure, storage of your dolly is at your own risk and the club takes no responsibility for members’ dollies that are damaged, lost or stolen.  Based on long experience, there is a high probability that your dolly will no longer be at the club and/or uniquely identifiable after a few years, so you should assume that if you store a dolly at the club you are donating it to the club and you WILL NOT GET A DOLLY BACK IF YOU LEAVE. 

Going forward, we are maintaining an inventory record of uniquely numbered DBSC dollies and we will undertake regular dolly counts and stock takes.  If a dolly is found to be missing, we will be reviewing CCTV footage to determine the cause.  Please respect the club’s property and your fellow members by not taking club dollies.

Sign on/off

Andrew Cox

The sign on/off policy is as follows (this replaces anything to the contrary in the sailing instructions).  All sailors are encouraged to sign on and sign off for all events at DBSC, predominantly as a courtesy to assist the handicapper in recording race results. Please check that your sail number is correct on the sign on sheets and tell the handicapper if it is not. 

For members or visitors sailing from other clubs, please sign on and sign off using the link on our website: http://www.dbsc.com.au/remote-signonoff/.

Sign on and sign off will be implemented as part of our culture and, consistent with that culture, we will not penalise sailors who forget to do so.  Having said that, we encourage all members to adopt a practice of adherence as a courtesy to the handicapper and also as an additional safety layer that may be useful in certain limited situations.

In this context, we reiterate our higher-order safety protocols, which are available on the website at http://www.dbsc.com.au/safety/ and are summarised as follows: (i) all sailors are responsible for their own decision to sail and their own safety and must be familiar with and have accepted the risk warning, the release of liability and conditions and the incident management plan, (ii) the nearest boat (and each successive nearest boat) has responsibility to ensure the safety of the sailor of a capsized boat, and (iii) the club’s response boats will provide safety support where possible, but there is no guarantee a club volunteer will see an incident or be able to attend to it either in time or at all (and there will be no support for members or visitors sailing to or from other clubs).

Bulk sail order

Andrew Cox

NB Sailsports is still working on completing our bulk sail order.  A further instalment of sails was delivered to the club last week – we have emailed those whose sails are available. If you have not received an email, your sail is still coming – thank you for your patience.  Please do not take sails from the boxes without speaking to Andrew Cox, who will check them off the list.