The best way to find out about the club is to visit us, and meet some members.
Apart from the week of Christmas, the clubhouse is open from at least noon every Saturday from 1 August to 30 April. Our telephone number is: +61 2 9363 5577.
We are run by volunteers, so if your query cannot answered by the frequently asked questions (FAQs) below or the rest of the website, we will get back to you by Wednesday, 10pm.
How do I subscribe to your Pulitzer Prize winning newsletter?
How to make a tax-deductible donation to the club (using the internet)?
How to make a tax-deductible donation to the club (using paper forms)?
Want to book a seat at the restaurant?
Want to become a social member?
Can I rent/hire your clubhouse?
How do I get to crew on a yacht?
Can you teach me to race a Laser?
What is the deal between your club and the 18 footers and Sydney High School?
Can I store my kayak (or similar) in the clubhouse?
Can you help me buy, or sell, a Laser?
How many times can a visitor race at DBSC?
79 Bay St
Double Bay NSW 2028
Australia
The best ILCA / Laser sailing club in the world, located in Double Bay on Sydney Harbour.
Wednesday 11 March, 5pm splash – Twilight Sailing.
Saturday 14 March, 2pm Start – Sprints (due to the National Masters).
Wednesday 18 March, 5pm splash – Twilight Sailing.
Saturday 21 March, 9am Start – Learn to Race.
Saturday 21 March, 2pm Start –Autumn Point Score heats 9 & 10.
And remember to start inviting your loved ones to DBSC Friends and Family Day – Saturday 4 April, 5pm.
Twilight sailing is back on again tonight with a 5pm splash. Brett will be running races tonight as he trains Andrew Cox. Brett has welcomed the rest of the fleet to utilize the marks and the starts that he will be setting up as part of Andrew’s training. Hope you can join us!
Last weekend was a busy one on the harbour. DBSC held Sprits due to the SailGP event. Over 30 members took part in seven very competitive short races. Thanks to Alistair Sutherland and Marty Trembath for setting up an excellent course, under some very tricky conditions.
After the sprints, about a dozen or so members headed out on the Jazzman and Berman, finding the perfect vantage point to anchor up off Point Piper and watch day two of Sail GP. Day one saw Ainsley in Team GB win all three races, leaving the first two races on Saturday as a battleground between Team Australia and Team Japan for a place in the winner takes all final match race against Team GB.
Team Australia was successful getting to the final match race, but Tom Slingsby and the Australians found themselves behind from the start, incurring a penalty for entering the start box early and the hosts were unable to pull back.
Prior to heading home, a slightly rogue Bergman took the phrase “#justforthegram” slightly too literally for comfort. But Emily Ball didn’t seem fussed, commenting, “The photo almost cost us a $1,500 fine but I’d say it was definitely worth it.”
The $1,500 photo.
Summing it up, Emily reflects, “The F50s are basically the same as lasers. Just slightly less cool...” Thanks to Emily for organizing the afternoon and to Justin Davey for captaining the Jazzman.
The new Paul Adam is still being upgraded and worked on by Pat Levy. While this is occurring, members should use the Bergman as the default RIB. The Adam may be used with Pat’s okay. Thanks for your help with this until all the Adam upgrades are completed.
Written by Jonathan Stone
It was a clear and sunny day - the first day of autumn.
Low tide was at 7.20am, so the ‘event’ - three hours of cleaning up - was scheduled for 7.00 -10.00am.
I am rarely at the Club so early - it was really pleasant. The morning was warm, the day at its best. The bay was dead calm; no commuters on the ferry wharf as it was a Sunday; much too early for the crowd for the harbour’s music ‘islands’. Or for Laser sailors to be rigging. A couple of 18s turned up early, perhaps for early parking spots. Paul Adam appeared soon after 7, with the day’s meat pies (for the 18s).
I opened the Clubhouse, set up a table at the entrance, and found the gear stored since last year. Candice and Mike appeared first and worked long and hard; they were followed Diana and Christiana and Christine and by Craig and a daughter, Richard, Andrew, and more.
Right at the end, Stephen - from the BIG BOAT float fleet came by with some paint cleaner and scrubbed some graffiti from the front entrance area. A valuable improvement.
All sorts of rubbish were collected, from a car tyre to a broken mirror stand. No sharps; no syringes; still some cigarette butts. Maybe 10 bags of rubbish, most unrecyclable.
My job was to get it all out to the end of Bay St, wash the gloves, repack the unused bags and the gloves and stow them in the corner of the workshop. And it was done for another year. The job is more than symbolic; levels of rubbish were not high - though people swept all the usual areas - the beaches and grass areas and the kid’s play area. Levels were low because we do the job each year.
My thanks to all those who came and made it happen!
(Editor’s Note: A big thanks to Jonathan for organizing another successful Clean Up Australia Day at DBSC.)
Jonathan Stone will be hosting a conference at the clubhouse from March 9 – 11. They will be using the deck, and the northern part of the Clubhouse. Please respect the order of the meeting, but if you want to sail on those days, that’s great. Give Jonathan a bit of warning by emailing him HERE and he will help you get your boat out at a good time. The change rooms and workshop will remain accessible; just please be quiet while the meeting is in session.
The Conference itself is quite fascinating. Please read the details from Jonathan (and find out how you can attend) below.
After long planning, with welcome Club support, this meeting is nearly here. It is called AR2020.
AR stands for 'Acquired Resilience’, a new concept in human health. It’s a bit like acquired immunity - the body system that upregulates the immune system in responses to pathogens like viruses. Without acquired immunity (as in AIDS) the individual is vulnerable to every disease that’s around, and most noticeable to cancers. It turns out that our immune system keeps cancer at bay.
But we have known about acquired immunity, in increasing detail, for over a century. Work done much more recently with key contributions made by DBSC folk (Paul Adam and myself), has developed a concept of acquired resilience.
Why is the Mediterranean diet (lots of vegetables) good for you? It’s because each vegetable has developed toxins to ward off insect predators. What toxins? Well, resveratrol which grows in the skin of red grapes and makes its way into red wine, is an example. The vine does not need it for metabolism or reproduction. It is a toxin to make it impossible for insects to eat much of the plant. When mammals like us eat the same plant (as we have ever since our ancestors climbed out of the sea) we have to do something with the toxin. Our discovery is that mammals use these toxins to up regulate pathways that increase tissue resilience. So, regular ‘Mediterranean’ meals make our tissue resilient, because of the poisons in the vegetables. And that resilience is seen as decreased morbidity (illness) and delayed mortality. Hmmmmmm
And the Western diet is bad for us …… why? because it’s not poisonous enough. Who’d have thought?
But then it turns out that tissue resilience is also induced by exercise (because hypoxic muscle release resilience-inducing factors into the bloodstream), and hunger and low levels of sunlight (from UV to infrared) and even gamma rays at low levels induce the same resilience. The stresses of everyday life.
We have much to learn about this newly recognised system. At the conference a new Society for Acquired Resilience will be established and there will be intense exchange of views. And the Club will - with a bit of luck - have earned a place in medical history.
That said, I have an invitation:
The invitation is to anyone interested to be part of the audience. You are most welcome, but please let me know so we put out enough chairs.
If you want to join us for teas and lunch and dinner please register for the meeting HERE. Registration involves a cost - for the catering. (We are a fledging society - I wish we could provide freebies).
But if you just like listening to talks - no need to register.
And let me know if you intend to come by, so I have an idea of numbers.
Wednesday 4 March, 5pm splash – Twilight Sailing (with Brett Beyer organizing starts).
Saturday 7 March, 9am Start – Learn to Race.
Saturday 7 March, 2pm Start – Club Champs heats 11 & 12 AND Autumn Point Score heats 7 & 8. Followed by a BBQ.
Wednesday 11 March, 5pm splash – Twilight Sailing.
Saturday 14 March, 2pm Start – Sprints (due to the National Masters).
Sadly, the Vaucluse Regatta was a non-starter due to a highly unseasonal absence of raceable breeze, with the wind ranging from 0-5 knots and changing direction from SE to NE during the course of the afternoon!
A large fleet of DBSC boats headed up the harbour for the event, partly under sail and partly under tow offered by Pat Levy in the new Paul Adam. However, after some solid drift practice, they were forced to return, again partly under sail and partly under tow!
But all was not lost. Just as people finished their showers, a puff of breeze appeared and the SailGP fleet were out in force for a practice session, foiling up and down the harbour. A bunch of DBSC sailors headed out to watch them up close and personal – including a cheery wave from Tom Slingsby as he flew past for team Australia.
The DBSC fleet gets towed back home after the Vaucluse Regatta was a non-starter. Photo by Emily Ball.
That leads us to what’s happening this Saturday …
The harbour will be a bit busier than normal this Saturday with F50 Catamarans taking up our normal racecourse for the 2nd annual SailGP event. Here’s the spin from their website: “National pride will be on the line as world class teams take part in dramatic, adrenaline-filled racing on the iconic Sydney Harbour.”
They are racing on Saturday from 4pm to 6pm, with a huge exclusion zone starting at 3pm. The exclusion zone will make it very difficult (if not impossible) to sail between Vaucluse and Double Bay. Because of this, we will be running Sprint Racing this Saturday on a course that avoids this exclusion zone.
After the Sprints, some DBSC members are planning on heading out to watch and support SailGP. The boats (RIBs plus Jazzman) will be leaving the deck promptly at 4.10 to maximise the amount of racing we get to watch.
Please RSVP to Emily Ball HERE by midday Friday. This is for members only and will work on a first come, first served basis.
Also, we are looking for 1 x RIB and 1x Jazzman driver. Please let Emily know if you can help.
Australia SailGP Team helmed by Tom Slingsby in action during a practice session ahead of Sydney SailGP. Photo by: Sam Greenfield for SailGP
As flagged in last week’s newsletter, there are six important notes in relation to use of the RIBs – these will be added to all the other instructions in the COTD Guide. PLEASE READ THESE CAREFULLY:
1. No Propeller Guard
The new Paul Adam has no propeller guard at this stage, due to availability. One will be installed in due course, but in the meantime please exercise EXTREME CAUTION when operating the boat around people in the water, or when in the water around the boat. This is a CRITICAL SAFETY WARNING
There is NO prop guard on the Paul Adam.
2. Insert and Remove Bung
The Paul Adam has a bung at the back that MUST BE REINSERTED BEFORE LAUNCH or the boat will flood and sink! And it must be REMOVED AFTER RETRIEVAL otherwise the boat will fill with rain water and the davits will break. THIS IS A CRITICAL SAFETY ISSUE – don’t forget it!
Location of bung hole on the Paul Adam.
Bung for the Paul Adam.
3. Reconnect After Flushing
When returning the RIBs to the davits, it is important to flush the motors. For those that have been around long time, please note that we no longer use “ears” to do this. You remove the tube “B” from its connector “A”, then connect the hose on the deck to “B”. Then, with the engine OFF, you flush the motor for three minutes (make sure water is coming out of the holes around the propeller cowling). IT IS CRITICAL THAT “B” is connected back to “A” when you finish – and make sure not to lose the washer that sits inside “B”. If you do not do this, the ENGINE WILL BE A WRITE OFF! A concerning number of people forget this critical reconnection step, despite frequent reminders – don’t forget it!
Location of the Paul Adam Flushing Connection.
Detail of the Paul Adam Flushing Connection.
Location of the Bergman Flushing Connection.
Detail of the Bergman Flushing Connection.
4. Protect Tubes From Anchors
Both the new Paul Adam and the Bergman have been fitted with new tube covers, including an excellent innovation by Pat, namely a protective panel over each side of each RIB to protect the tubes and covers from anchor lines and chains. When you are dropping or retrieving marks, please ensure that any lines and chains only feed over this panel, not anywhere else on the RIB.
Make sure you are dropping / retrieving chains and anchors over this panel.
5. Switch On / Off Isolator Switch
The isolator switch in the new Paul Adam is a bit hard to find. It is located behind a hatch on the starboard side of the transom (the back of the boat just in front of the engine).
You need to open this hatch to gain access to the isolator switch.
The isolator switch is in the back right hand side.
Please ensure it is switched on before attempting to start the engine.
Isolator switch in the on position.
Importantly, to prevent a flat battery, make sure you switch it to the off position at the end of the day.
Isolator switch in the off position.
6. Report Any Problems
If you damage anything on the boats or anywhere else around the club (or you notice any issues at all), PLEASE TELL SOMEONE! There was an incident at the metros where people operating the Bergman caused severe damage to the prop guard and did not tell anyone about it. You won’t be “in trouble”, because accidents happen. But telling someone will allow us to fix it and ensure ongoing safe operation. We want to encourage a culture of ownership and open communication!
The damage to this prop guard was not reported and the next crew out had to deal with the issue.
