Oh What a Day!
Saturday 11 October 2025

Blessed with truly magical Sydney Harbour Spring Weather, the Double Bay Regatta was run last Saturday by the volunteers of Double Bay Sailing Club. There was a great mix of competitors, with 77 entries across ILCA 4, 6 and 7 Laser Classes. All age groups were represented from 12yo to 78yo with over 30 Youth Sailors making up the largest group, and an even spread across the Open and Masters categories.

Starting the day with a free sausage sizzle and last minute registrations. We also welcomed Andrew Hawkins from BoatCrewGear.com who’s pop-up stall had a great range of gear available. BoatCrewGear also provided our sponsor prizes for the Youth category - Thankyou Andrew!

We welcomed competitors from nearby Woollahra Sailing Club, Vaucluse Yacht Club, Hunters Hill Sailing Club, Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Middle Harbour Amateur Sailing Club and the Royal Australian Navy Sailing Association. When we arrived to the starting area we found a North-East course laid by our race team led by guest PRO Rob Lowndes, (who had just returned from Italy where he had claimed the title of 2025 ILCA 6 World Masters Legends Champion!).

As the first race started, it really looked like we had been blessed with a perfect building Nor-Easter, and while we enjoyed that while it lasted - by the second race the wind had shifted all the way right toward the East, requiring complete course change into the “Dardanelles”, entering Rose Bay between Shark Island and Point Piper. But that was not the end of the course changes, the wind lightened as we finished race two, and the new breeze came in at 10-15 knots (occasionally gusting 20) from the opposite direction, right down from the Harbour Bridge where we saw the flags turn Westerly!

And so our on-water race team deserves a huge Thank-You as they had to rearrange the course three times over the day for each race: - Rob Lowndes, Rob Barnes, Robert Bruce on The Jazzman start boat, David Murphy with Peter Collie, Anna McKeon, Ben Byford, Maurice Doumit on the Finish Boat “Smitten”, and a host of others busily moving marks: Pat Levy, Diana Chen (Photographer), John Vasey, Craig Ryan, Marian Traynor, Wendel Wait across 3 RIB support boats, with an additional support boat provided by VYC, (and thankyou to Luke Parker and Craig Ryan for making their RIBs available) - they were all kept very busy!

The Mark Bethwaite Trophy:

In honor of our local club legend who joined the club over 25 years ago, drawn by a friendship with Don Roach and other like-minded Laser sailors. As a member of an iconic sailing family, Mark has had an outstanding sailing career. He was Australian Yachtsman of the Year back in 1983 and was part of the Olympic Team in 1980. He has achieved World Champion status in the J24, Soling class and Laser ILCA Masters, where he was 9 times World Masters Champion, and where he still has a World Masters ILCA medal tally that has him ranked 4th in the World. A life member of DBSC and past Commodore, he holds the record of 15 times Double Bay Champion and 16 times Double Bay Masters Champion!

There were standout performances by so many competitors out on the course - with three exceptional sailors rising to to the top - the first Champions of the Double Bay Regatta:

1st ILCA 7 - Julian Taylor (WSC/DBSC)
1st ILCA 6 - Sylvie Stannage (HHSC/DBSC)
1st ILCA 4 - Zac Howell (HHSC/DBSC)

Mark joined us on the day, and presented the Cup to the champions Zac, Sylvie and Julian who were also presented a medallion and cash prize, and will have their names on the new Mark Bethwaite Trophy.

Some very close racing saw only a few points between competitors at the top end of the fleet. We congratulate 2nd and 3rd in each class with a cash prize and Double Bay Regatta Medallion:

Runner-up age categories: Youth
ILCA 4 Youth - ALL - Marcus Retboell WSC
ILCA 4 Youth - Female - Harper Spacey DBSC
ILCA 4 Youth Encouragement - Harrison Rudham WSC
ILCA 6 Youth - ALL - Charles Byford RPAYC/DBSC
ILCA 6 Youth - Female - Olivia Aitken DBSC
ILCA 7 Youth - ALL - Conor Kellett DBSC

Runner up age categories Adult - ILCA 6:
ILCA 6 Apprentice - ALL - Roberto Blum DBSC
ILCA 6 Apprentice - Women - Vaimooia Ripley WSC/MHASC
ILCA 6 Master - ALL - Scott Hunter DBSC
ILCA 6 Master - Women - Kate McHugh DBSC
ILCA 6 Grand Master - ALL - Kirk Marcolina DBSC
ILCA 6 Great Grand Master - ALL - Jeff Loosemore MHASC
ILCA 6 Encouragement Award - Ian Tudball DBSC

Runner up age Categories Adult - ILCA 7:
ILCA 7 Apprentice - James Tudball DBSC
ILCA 7 Master - David Newman DBSC
ILCA 7 Grand Master - Luke Parker DBSC
ILCA 7 Great Grand Master - Oliver Shtein VYC
ILCA 7 Encouragement Award - Samuel Slattery DBSC

The scoresheet results are HERE.

We would like to thank all the volunteers that helped make it such a great day, and those that helped before and after: Steven London and Geoff Boscoe on Registrations, Peter Collie and Ian Tudball on the BBQ, Scott Hunter, Jim Dounis, Murray Stone, Roberto Blum, Stephen Reid, Andrew Foote and Samuel Slattery rigging area, gate and launching and clubhouse, also with Justine Scott and Anna McKeon, and our Life Members Paul Adam and Shirley Roach who run the canteen week in and week out.

-Your Commodore Steven London