Women’s Laser Regatta Needs Your Help

In just a few weeks the DBSC Women’s Laser Regatta will kick off – and it’s set to be a wonderful weekend of sailing, with 30 women signed up so far. One of the highlights will be the opening ceremony on Sunday September 9 with local State MP, Gabrielle Upton, presiding. The Mayor of Woollahra, Peter Cavanagh, will attend on Sunday afternoon to hand out prizes. 

The Committee thanks everyone who has very kindly donated the use of their boat, gear and/or time.  We still have a few volunteer slots we need to fill for our weekend and hope we can get some help for the following:  

Saturday September 8

8.30 am-9.30 am
Car Park attendant taking money for parking

2.00 pm- 5.00 pm
Derigging assistance -- this is needed so that we can derig boats quickly before we decorate the Club for a sit-down dinner

5.00 pm – 6.00 pm
Decorate and set up for dinner  -- Cocktails start at 6 pm so we have a very tight window to make this happen

Sunday September 9

9 am – 11 am
Assistance with rigging -- this is to maximise the sailing time for the group

3 pm – 4.30 pm
Assistance with derigging -- this is to help derig boats, wash them down and put them away.   We are targeting a 4 pm prize giving, so help from members would be appreciated.  Come and join us for a beer!! 

We are also still also looking to borrow 2 ribs for coaches and for Nic Douglas who is running our PR program. If you can assist with any of these jobs, or can lend a rib, please advise Christine Linhart at c.linhart@unsw.edu.au.

Reserve Your Spot for Brett Beyer’s Coaching

To assist us with planning, please sign up to Brett Beyer’s Saturday Coaching Program ASAP – payment will not be required until closer to the date.  We currently have 10 participants signed up, and we need another 10, ideally in the coming week. Please email coaching@dbsc.com.au if you are interested in participating. For costings and all the details of the program, please check out last week’s newsletter here.

Coming Up at DBSC

Saturday 18 August, 8am– Annual Club Working Bee. Make sure to wear old clothes for painting and please let Geoff Kirk know if you can make it by emailing him here. 

Saturday 18 August, 12pm briefing, 1pm start – Pre-Season Sprints

Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 September –  Women's Laser Regatta hosted by Double Bay Sailing Club. (see update below) 

Women’s Laser Regatta Update

The stage is set for a marvellous weekend on 8-9 September! We are excited to be able to report that the famous, two-time world champ, Nic Douglas (AKA, The Sailor Girl) will be covering our Regatta and the racing on Sunday 9 September and will be providing publicity in the lead up to the event. Ashley Stoddart, a recent Olympian, has also signed up to be one of our coaches.

We have MUSTO on board as a Regatta sponsor and MUSTO shirts will be provided to all our sailors.  We also have Boatcrewgear and other line and gear shops setting up pop-up shops at the club for the weekend -- so come on down and buy your new gear and equipment for the coming season. 

We are still hoping for 50 entries and are working very hard to spread the word to get as many women and girls to attend the Regatta as possible.  So please continue to let your female sailor family and friends know about the fabulous event. 

Thank you to all the members who have already volunteered to loan their boats and gear for the weekend. It means that the regatta is more accessible to a range of sailors that wouldn’t otherwise be able to sail. Thanks also to Shirley Roach for hosting Ashley Stoddart, for the weekend!  

If you haven’t already volunteered, don’t despair. We’re still looking for more help with the weekend, including the following:

• Drivers to and from the airport to transport our coaches on Friday night and Sunday night.
• Three helpers in and around the kitchen working with the caterer during the Regatta dinner on Saturday September 8 from 5pm – 9 pm.  
• Two volunteers to help us coordinate event parking on Saturday September 8 from 7:30am –  9:30am.

To volunteer for driving or kitchen help, please contact Christine Patton at christine@bermudamarine.bm; to volunteer to help with parking, please contact Christine Linhart at c.linhart@unsw.edu.au.

Thanks again for everyone’s help in making the Regatta a world-class event!

Nic Douglas will be covering the Regatta 

Speedy Sprints

A warm, sparking day greeted sailors last Saturday for our second instalment of Winter Sprints. The winds once again were challenging – a shifty Northerly shot some 25+ knot bullets at the fleet of 20 boats (including 3 welcome visitors from VYC). Thanks to Mike Dunne, our PRO for the day, for doing an admirable job of attempting to remove starting line bias!

We sprint again this Saturday, with a 1pm start. Hope to see you on the water.

Finn Flies High in World Championships

DBSC’s very own Finn Alexander has competed alongside the best Laser sailors in the world at the Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. Up against 165 sailors, Finn finished an amazing 13th - with a bullet in his final race. Finn wasn’t the only Aussie Laser sailor to do well at Aarhus, Matthew Wearn brought home the silver and all Australian men placed in the top 20.

On Facebook, Finn commented that he is “really happy how progress is going currently, however just missing out on the top 10 has made the fire in the belly even stronger. Now, I'm headed back home for a few weeks of rest before going back to Enoshima, Japan for the Sailing World Cup.” We hope to see Finn around the club and wish him well in his next campaign in Japan. 

Another New Bin!

DBSC is serious about recycling!

The club has taken delivery of a "St George Collect and Earn" bin. It has a blue lid, and you can put anything under the new 10-cent recycling deposit scheme in this bin. When the bin is almost full, someone should leave the bin out and notify Mark Crowhurst and he will book a collection. The club gets the 10 cents from each vessel in here. If we find it fills too quickly, you may see another of these turn-up to reduce the number of pickups.

Please note that it appears that if the barcode is not readable, we do not get a refund (i.e. please do not crush cans). Also, if there are too many non-scheme vessels in here (or anything foreign) we do not get the refund. If you are unsure what you can put in there, see the side of the can/bottle or the top of the lid.

For the time being the yellow lid bin will remain, in which you can put other recycling (e.g. cardboard, wine bottles). If we find this bin is no longer needed, we will just keep the red lid and blue lid bins. Until further notice, this should be left out weekly with the red lid bin.

Brett Beyer is Back - Sign Up Now

Our brilliant coach, Brett Beyer, is back at DBSC in September. His Saturday Program (BBSP) will run in the spring for 7 weeks as follows: 22 Sep, 6 Oct, 3 Nov, 10 Nov, 1 Dec, 8 Dec, 15 Dec.*  There will be two categories of coaching:  B = $315, A = $630 (plus merchant fees).*  Everyone is invited to join the post-race briefing on the deck.

“B” participants receive (a) a video of the start with voice-over commentary, (b) a video of the “real time” GPS tracks of the fleet, (c) a leg by leg analysis of the performance of the fleet including individual speed and angle statistics vs the fleet, (d) access to Brett for comments and questions on water when not racing, (e) participation in the communal post-race debrief at the clubhouse after racing.*

“A” participants receive all the above plus (f) an individual report on their performance, referencing tactical and/or technical considerations and (g) the opportunity to email Brett with follow up questions.*

Send an email ASAP to coaching@dbsc.com.au to express your interest in this seasons’ program, and indicate your name, rig type and A/B category preference.  A link for payments will be distributed in due course. 

* Click here to see the terms of the program.

Brett Beyer is back at DBSC this season. 

Up Next at DBSC

Saturday 11 August, 12pm briefing, 1pm start – Pre-Season Sprints

Saturday 18 August, 8am– Annual Club Working Bee. Make sure to wear old clothes for painting and please let Geoff Kirk know if you can make it by emailing him here. 

Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 September –  Women's Laser Regatta hosted by Double Bay Sailing Club. Sign up to volunteer or lend your boat by emailing please email Christine Patton here. 

A Black and White Blast

The Season Opening Sailors’ and Volunteers’ Dinner held last Friday at the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club was a huge success. Attended by over 30 members, all enjoyed flowing drinks and a well-prepared meal served by attentive waiters. A highlight was members having their photos taken in groups and pairs in a photo booth. Later in the night the photos became more adventurous with Christine Linhart and Clare Alexander sporting various forms of expression.

Jack Saywak won the prize for the best outfit with his dashing dinner suit, but given parched tongues during the festivities his prize was consumed before the end of the evening. Andrew Cox was the only member to wear two different outfits during the night – as a taster Andrew wore a black and white skiing outfit, resplendent with helmet and goggles. Andrew’s second outfit was a Zentai suit made from spandex that appropriately conformed to the night’s dress theme of black and white. With his suit, Andrew could pursue his hidden talent of expressive dance and body movement to the delight and trepidation of fellow members. It was a night not to be forgotten!