Feb Planning

Twilights every wednesday.  5.30pm splash

This week 18th...Master states for the geezers. Sprints for youngsters and non travellers

On the 25th...  point score.  JJ's are on at 3pm as well.  

Then 4th march....the JJ's are racing at 3pm, so our racecourse will be shifted north towards neutral waters. This means we have to launch no later than 1.30pm. We then feast and celebrate at the repaired and improved VYC.

Metropolitian Championships

The Metropolitan Championships are again being hosted by Double Bay on the weekend of 18 and 19 March – 5 weeks this Saturday. Racing will be Saturday afternoon and an 11am start Sunday. 3 races per fleet, per day, perhaps. 

More details here 

It's likely to be a 100-130 boat turnout so we we need the help of our members and friends to make this a great event, particularly:

• Active members are strongly encouraged to sail, so put the dates in your diary now and cancel all other engagements;
• There will be a working bee to clean up the club on the Saturday before – 11.00 am 11 March 2017, one hour.
• On the actual weekend we require volunteers for a number of tasks– driving the ribs, recording the finishes, managing the car park, the rigging area and the like.

If you are able to volunteer please let Luke or Michael know and we’ll give you a job.

There’ll be more on this topic in the coming weeks.

Rib duty can also count as family time! 

Grasshopper 2.0 avoids media cliches.

Warning to newbies.

Every year, starting in late February, DBSC newbies seem be concerned about the large numbers of seemingly homeless folk loitering around Steyne Park for days on end: don't worry,

In a concept unfamiliar to Laser sailors, those sailing 18s seem to take between 6 and 8 hours to rig their boats.  With the 18s' major regatta starting in late February, the JJ Giltinam , we will have lots of company for almost two weeks.

The good news is the 18s are the world's leading consumers of toasties, and thus the global advantages of our Canteen Crew means we can monitise that leadership position.

Canteen Crew Captain, Paul Adam, the legend and not the RIB, expounded:

"There is not one of our regular toastie maestros who can be matched globally: all the competition is in-house.  Ranking those maestros is difficult given they each have their own gourmet intrepretation and the JJ Giltinam consumers are quite international.  Andrea's toasties seem to be popular with the Antipodeans.  Shirley has a huge and tremendous following amongst the non-Mexican Americans: Americans and President Drumpf love Australians and  President Trumbell.  While Deb's toasties have the Germans dreading going back to pork and cabbage at the end of the regatta.  The list of other toastie superstars at DBSC goes on...." 

The crew is happy to share their secrets (are there 11 herbs & spices?) to anyone that would like to join the fun.  

Big Boat Report

Jonathan reports:

Six boats presented on a hot summer afternoon. A 10-15 knot sea breeze had come in; it turned out to be remarkably changeable - and its patchiness played with us all throughout the race.

Umbkumba won the start (thank you for the start John V!), crossing at speed near the ‘green pole’ that forms the pin end of the line. Corinna had crossed early and faithfully came back, making her a bit late; in Time & Tide we were a few seconds early and had to stall the boat, giving us a slow start. Umbakumba rounded our Point Piper mark first, and began the very shy reach to Taylor’s Bay, with G-Force in pursuit. Two smaller boats, Corinna and T&T, were next, with T&T closing, followed by Pleasure II and Chenonceau.

The next leg, to Sow ’n Pigs, scrambled the order. We all tacked out to the middle of the Harbour, and the boats that went further east to Watson’s Bay - all the way across - did spectacularly better than those who tacked up the middle of the harbour. G-Force made the best of it, then Pleasure II and T&T. Corinna dropped well back and had to fight to be a close fourth at that top mark. As we turned downwind, some of the constants of racing came into play. G-Force and Pleasure II goose-winged and took off; Corinna and T&T - smaller boats - could only catch them if we flew kites.

Which we did; Corinna set her kite quickly, however, while T&T’s went up only after a struggle. It came out of the bag in a knot and we struggled to untangle it, before it set. We poled to port - the usual side in a north-easter - but the wind veered west. So we gybed to settle on a starboard tack for the long run; and then a few minutes later the wind backed. Still, Starboard was the tack we wanted for the leg home so we swerved with the wind, sailing most of the leg by the lee. It all held together to the Shark Island, but Corinna had taken the lead and, though we had the speed to run down G-Force and Pleasure ,  our slow set meant that we had gained only a narrow margin by the time we had to turn to starboard for the leg home.

We figured we could keep the kite up on that leg, though we would be shy to the breeze; but the wind played with us again. We turned and let the pole forward, and then a strong gust tested the limits of our skills - we rounded up, a loose kicker let the pole fly and we had to scramble to sort out the mess. G-Force and Pleasure II - doing fine without a kite between them - passed us, pushing us back to fourth. Later in the leg, almost at the finish, G-Force was forced to round up to give way to some 18-footers; only that allowed T&T to pick up a place

Still, the fun was in the trying and there’s always next time. It really was a hot, humid afternoon and we all needed to rehydrate in the Clubhouse afterwards. 

Across the line (let me know if have the order wrong):

• Corinna
• Pleasure II
• Time & Tide
• G-Force
• Umbakumba
• Chenonceau

See you in March

Jonathan and crew setting sail

Racing, racking and twilights

Racking is allocated at the Commodore's discretion on the basis of "use it or lose it".  In an utopian display of equity, frequent sailors and contributors to club life get priority, newbies start in, and less frequent sailors get moved to, the penthouses.  Non-sailors get evicted.  

Although it's a little bit "chicken and the egg", Wednesday twilight sailing counts towards the frequency assessment because no frequent sailors want to regularly lift boats up/down from the ceiling.  If you come down to sail, your boat will come down in the racks to meet you. 

PS: money probably won't buy you a better rack, but you won't know for sure unless you try your luck.... send a donation via DBSC's tax deductible ASF fund.

Malcolm, and Lucy, say "sorry"

DOUBLE BAY, AUSTRALIA, January 26, 2017 – Australia Day inevitably leads to the forced retirement of the previous year's honoured Senior Australian of the Year, and the lessor role of Australian of the Year.  Today, DBSC member, da Dr G, retires as Senior Australian of the Year after a stellar twelve months in the role.

Mandatory retirement is both agist and non-meritocratic.

DBSC's #1 fans, Malcolm and Lucy, in a joint-statement said:

"....my number one objective in 2016 was to remove the agist and non-meritocratic criteria of the Senior Australian of the Year, so the committee could renominate da Dr G again. The work he does at St Vincent's Hospital goes on....and Bairdy is generating even more work as he bended to the punters who own pubs.  Unfortunately, the Liberal Party is a broad church, and like cats, can't be herded.  Sorry"

On the improve

After having a stroke, Peter Redmond is now on the improve!

Peter has been a regular Laser sailor for a number of years, and more impressively has been a very, very regular volunteer on Sundays, manning a DBSC rescue RIB during the 18s races.

We all look forward to seeing Peter soon, relaxing on the DBSC deck until he takes to the water again.

WTF: disgraceful

WTF: a minuscule of consideration and effort is required to avoid this.

A concerned member, wrote:

"Do you mind including this photo and text in next newsletter?

The photo shows the mess left in the men's change room after last Saturday's racing - not from the 18 footers, but from us as a group: bottles, a sandwich (not great for our habitual rodent problem), Zhik gear stickers, etc.

While our club is so amazing it may seem like Mary Poppins is here to make your wishes come true, in fact don't have a genie to wish away your mess.

If this was you: step up your game and make amends by attending the Clean Up day!"

The most outrageous part of the mess is that a fellow club member was forced by common sense to clean up the mess of another member who couldn't care less.  Please treat the club house with the same respect you would show your grandparents home: it requires a minuscule of consideration and effort.

Yoof bring glorious benefits to DBSC, again!

Despite post-truth commentary that Adelaide is the crime capital of Australia, the 2017 Youth Championships were held there.  DBSC Yoof, and parents, braved the angst-ridden city to feature prominently, AGAIN, on the podium.

Speaking from Davos, Dear Leader told the journalists:

"It was a fabulous result and shows the importance of competing every week in a large and competitive club fleet.  An extra big congratulations to Grasshopper 3.0 and Smiley.  While some clubs may have more Yoof Radial and Sprog sailors, we have more active competitors.  It is such a magnificent achievement I plan to leave Davos early to welcome back our glorious DBSC Yoof.  I can catch up with Comrade Xi another time, and am sick of excuses why the regulars here missed the formation of the new nation-state of Trumpistan."

Results here: http://www.sailingresults.com.au/ScoreItV2/Public/Templates/Default/index.php?event_id=552

Congrats goes to -

Sprog (previously known as 4.7)  Fleet - 45 boats in total

1st - Jack Littlechild
8th - Boston Cortis
9th - Will Cooley
18th - Daniel Costandi
20th - Mark Louis
27th - Brooke Wilson
33rd - Silvie Stannage
37th - Will McMillan

Laser Radial fleet - 47 boats in total
 10th - Marlena Berzins - 1st Girl
34th - Henry Davison