Boats on Floor

Do you want the good news or the bad?  The good news is that the club has been at capacity all year and is now overflowing!  The bad news is that this means there are two boats that live on the floor for now.

One of those boats is our recently refurbished fifth club boat, and the other is a new member’s boat.

The plan is to monitor the situation between now and the end of the season, waiting to see if any natural attrition occurs.  In the meantime, we will be speaking to those members who are rarely at the club to see if they might be willing to move their boats until they are able to sail more often.  And failing that, we are going to have to “volunteer” people to do so!

Until we find a permanent solution, we appreciate your forbearance for any inconvenience the success of our club is generating!  If you need to access your boat, please move the boats on the floor as needed, but put them back when you are done.  

Importantly, please store them end to end down the left side of the aisle, leaving a free corridor down the right side with unblocked access to the bathrooms.  Do not store them side by side!

Family and Community Days – Save the Date

During the weekend of April 6-7 we’ll be sharing a bit of DBSC with our family, friends and wider community. After sailing on Saturday April 6thwe’ll have our annual Family Evening. It’s a chance to show off the club to our loved ones, and for our families to meet and mingle. We’ll have a jumping castle, RIB rides, parent / child sprint races, and a family friendly BBQ. 

On Sunday 7 April, from 10am to 1pm, we’re hosting our inaugural DBSC Community Day.  More details will follow, but we’ll need a lot of volunteers for the day, so please mark it on your calendar. 

Family Day Fun in 2018.

Coming Up

Wednesday 20 February, 5pm – Twilight Sailing. 

Saturday 23 February, 1pm Briefing / 2pm Start – Club Championship 11 & 12 plus Autumn Pointscore 5 & 6.

Saturday 23 February, 5pm– BBQ on the Deck.

Early Start on Saturday – Briefing 12pm for 1pm SPRINTS

The harbour will be a bit busier than normal this Saturday with F50 Catamarans taking up our normal racecourse for the inaugural SailGP event. Here’s the spin from their website: “SailGP is sailing redefined, combining awe-inspiring athleticism with top-flight tech. Bringing you the thrilling sight of supercharged F50 catamarans charging down Sydney Harbour, battling it out on the water for their countries in an all-new nation vs nation international competition.”

They are racing on Saturday from 3pm to 5pm, with a huge exclusion zone starting at 2pm. The exclusion zone and the forecast Easterly breeze will make it very difficult (if not impossible) to sail between Vaucluse and Double Bay between 2 and 5pm. Because of this, VYC and DBSC have decided to cancel the second leg of this season’s Vaucluse Challenge which was scheduled for this Saturday. The scores of the first leg will stand and serve as the final result of this season’s Challenge.  

Instead of the Vaucluse Challenge we will be running sprint racing this Saturday. To avoid the heart of the SailGP event we will be sailing earlier and on a course away from the exclusion zone. Please join us for the briefing at 12 noon in preparation for sprint racing starting at 1pm. 

Laser Sailors Beware, the F50 Cats are Coming.

Sailing Backward at the Vaucluse Regatta

It was a trying day on the water last Saturday at the Vaucluse Regatta. The day was looking promising. A decent N/NE breeze was building and the forecast thunderstorms looked like they would say away. But as race time approached it was clear our luck wouldn’t last; storms were building in all directions. On top of that, a strong outgoing tide and a short starting line forced 5 general recalls and a few postponements. By the time the first race started, it was clear the wind was dying, and before the end of the race the wind completely stopped. Much of the fleet began moving backward with the tide as we struggled to reach the finish line. Nick Pellow posted Brett Beyer’s GPS annimation of the final moments of the race on the Top Mark. It’s both painful and hilarious to watch. Steven Bradbury eat your heart out.   

Luckily, soon after the finish, a squall came though from the NW, providing an exhilarating reach all the way back to Double Bay. Hopefully mother nature will provide better conditions for this week’s sailing. 

Pat Levy enjoys a quick ride home. Photo by Clare Alexander.

State Masters Sign-Up

We have brilliant 23 members signed up to go to the Laser NSW/ACT Sate Masters Championship in Lake Macquarie the first weekend in March. If you’re one of them, please make sure you’ve officially registered for the event here. Also, make sure you’ve coordinated transportation and accommodation. You can check out the trailer assignments here.

Twilight Record

A new record was set last Wednesday, with 23 sailors attending Twilights. It was a beautiful night of sailing as Brett Beyer ran us though our paces. Brett is back tonight and Seabreeze is promising sunny skies and a perfect 15 knot SE breeze – so join us!

New PRO / COTD and Incident Guides

In conjunction with our recent Competency Training we have updated our PRO Instructions, COTD Instructions, and Incident Management Plan. Thanks for familiarising yourself with these updated guidelines to help us ensure our club continues to provide a safe sailing environment. You can also review videos from all of the Competency Training here.

Help Needed for JJs

The 18 footers will be holding their world championship event, the JJ Giltinan, on 1-10 March.  DBSC commits each year to provide a response boat driver for each day of the event from 1:45 to 5pm. Could you please let Mark Crowhurst (treasurer@dbsc.com.au) know if you can assist with driving the Paul Adam on one or more of the days?

Since the first regatta on Sydney Harbour in 1938, the JJ Giltinan Championship has always been regarded as the world’s premier 18 Footer championship and many of its competitors have become world, Olympic and national champions in a variety of yachting classes.

Dolly Etiquette

In recent weeks, after sailing, several members have hung their dollies in front of racks which were not yet full with all 5 boats. This makes it very inconvenient for the sailors who have yet to place their boats back into their rack. When coming in from sailing, please be mindful to only hang your dolly in front of racks that are completely full (i.e. have all 5 boats already in place). If there are no racks that are completely full, please leave your dolly outside or in the front of the clubhouse. Thanks for your help with this.

Let’s Avoid Dolly Mayhem!