Mark Laying Course

Members are reminded to undertake the online Mark Laying Course being conducted by Australian Sailing in lieu of the mandatory training ordinarily undertaken at the start of the season.

Australian Sailing Olympic webinars

Australian Sailing's Olympic webinar series continues on Thursday 16 September with the Men’s 470 team and their gold medal winning experience. Skipper Mat Belcher created history in Tokyo becoming Australia’s most successful Olympic sailor and is locked in to answer all your pressing questions.

Register for the webinars with Australian Sailing on the following links.

Netflix and chill

‘The Boat that Ian Built’ is a short film from 1974 featuring the amazing success story of the Laser, and of Performance Sailcraft, the company Ian formed to produce and market the boat.

“The movie has fantastic footage of one of the first ever big fleet Laser regattas held at Association Island, New York on Lake Ontario near Kingston (with Ian Bruce competing!). The movie has interviews with Ian, Bruce Kirby, and Laser sail designer Hans Fogh along with shots of Lasers being produced in Ian’s factory.

You’ll also see amazing footage (that I previously didn’t know existed) of Hans Fogh helming the prototype Laser in an October 1970 regatta held for boats under $1000 at the Playboy Club at Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. It was called ‘The America’s Teacup Regatta’. Ian and Hans decided to call the prototype the ‘Weekender’ with sail number TGIF, the abbreviation for ‘Thank God It’s Friday’.”

Follow the link to “The Boat that Ian Built”…

Many thanks to Peter Heywood who was kind in sharing this content.

Volunteer roster

The club is working on the basis that racing is unlikely until at least 16th October. There is therefore no volunteer roster until that time. Should, by some miracle, we be able to race before 23rd October, it will be a nice problem to have!

60 seconds with Alistair Sutherland

How old were you when you first stepped on a boat?
I must have been about 12 years old – sailing on a Topper in the Lake District in the North of England

If money (and sailing ability) were no limit, what boat would you buy?
505 – so many strings to pull, so little time!

What is your ultimate sailing goal?
At the moment I aim for top 3 in any DBSC race I sail in.  Given the depth of the Radial fleet at the moment, that goal usually disappears over the horizon on the way down the first reach…………..

Tell us the story behind the name of your Laser?
Iron Buddha.  In Chinese it’s pronounced “Tie Guan Yin”, and if you order it you’d be presented with a cup of tea.

If you could add any ingredient to DBSC's world’s best toasties – what would it be?
I’ve never eaten anything that can’t be improved with the addition of Tabasco Sauce.

What are your second/third favourite hobbies (assuming sailing is #1)?
At the moment, hanging out with my young family takes up a wealth of my time, but is also one of my favourite things.

Describe what you do for work in less than five words?
Sell IT Systems to Insurance companies.

What is the first international destination you will travel to (once we're allowed) and why?
Japan for culture, food and skiing.

What is your favourite TV show, movie, and/or book?
TV Show – the Wire.  Movie – the fog of war (also name of long-time DBSC club laser), book – the hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared (Jonas Jonasson)

Tell us something interesting about yourself that members of the club don’t know?
I was in the first ever Radial Fleet start.  Back then, everyone hung in on a full rig despite their weight, and a couple of us followed them around in Radials. There was a lady who sailed with us then and, after one particularly bad day on the water, she came ashore and unloaded on the Sailing Committee.  I can’t remember the exact nature of her complaint, but she was seriously fed up with an evil Full Rig sailor for getting in her way, and pretty much demanded that the handful of Radials get their own start.  I don’ think we ever saw her again, but the race committee promptly agreed to appease her, we got our own starts, a load of underweight full rigs saw how much fun we were having, and everything just sort of snowballed from there.  I can’t remember the lady’s name, but I’d really like to know which full rig sailor it was who upset her so badly that day;  it’s the best thing they could have done and I’d love to buy him a beer!

Al with his formidable crew

Get ready to rumble

We are asking all members to undertake the online Mark Laying Course being conducted by Australian Sailing in anticipation of a return to racing in the upcoming months and in light of our inability to conduct competency training at the beginning of the season.

Australian Sailing has developed an online Mark Laying Course. The course provides the correct procedures for laying marks and setting a race course. It is suitable for club volunteers looking to gain knowledge about mark laying at the grass roots level through to mark laying for regattas.

Both registration and enrolment to this course are free of charge. The club will be logging the completion of this training by members in lieu of the mandatory training ordinarily undertaken at the start of the season.

Not sailing, still improving

Martin White has sent through some more excellent resources for improving downwind sailing.

Sailing well downwind in a Laser is probably the most counter-intuitive part of learning Laser sailing as other classes rely on different downwind skills.  Thus, Laser sailors new to the class often struggle with the concepts of downwind sailing.

Jon Emmett Sailing - Videos   
(This site has an array of short format content that is good for the average club sailor)

Downwind in Lasers - International Laser Class Association (laserinternational.org)

Laser Sailing Downwind Body Positioning - International Sailing Academy

For those who can use the club

To expedite the use of the club and rigging areas, club members are asked to get changed before getting boats out and rigging. This will ensure other members are not left hanging around waiting for boats to move on.

Off the deck

“Off the deck” continues for a social catch up online for members and friends of the club. We will continue to host this event during lockdown on Saturday afternoons from 1700. 

NSW Police guide

NSW Police has put together this handy guide of what you can and can’t do when it comes to recreational boating.