Race Report Saturday 30 October

The club held its first pointscore races for the season on Saturday following a much overdue working bee.

Ian Alexander (PRO) and John Chesterman (LTRAR) had their work cut out for them laying a course in a shifty and gusty south-easterly wind off the back of the activity in the clubhouse. They were ably assisted by Andrew Simpson (CotD) and Finn Kirk (CSO).

Race winners were Nick Pellow and Nick Alexander in the standard rig and Richard George and Peter Collie in the radials. Detailed results are available on our website.

Sparkly, fresh and clean

Thank you to the 52 members who helped at the club’s working bee on Saturday to clean, dust, lift, hammer, paint, cut, grind, gurney, reshuffle, cut, tape, tie, and a whole bunch of other tasks that this list cannot do justice. Thanks to the many hands (all 104 of them), the club has not looked this good in a long time, and by that we mean since at least the last working bee held 2 years ago! 

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Twilight sailing has resumed

In case you missed it, twilight sailing has resumed on Wednesday evenings. Last week 20 people turned out for near perfect north-easterly conditions on a glamour evening. It’s the perfect mid-week hit out!

Twilight sailing will occur each Wednesday during daylight saving, with a 5pm splash for 5.30 start, whether or not coaching with Brett Beyer is held that day. All sailors are welcome to join, whether or not participating in the BBTP.

On the days the BBTP is on, Brett will set a course. On other evenings, we will conduct sprints with a rabbit start. Boats take turns being the “rabbit”.  For those not familiar with the format, the rabbit sails close-hauled across the fleet on port tack.  The fleet must duck behind the rabbit on starboard to start the race.  When all of the fleet has ducked the rabbit, the rabbit can tack as it wishes. We will pick a starting area and top mark on the water dependant on the conditions. 

We hope to see our usual twilight fleet of 15-25 boats turn out for this!

Coaching with Brett Beyer

Coaching with Brett Beyer will resume this week. Owing to the late start to the season, there will be limited dates for the remainder of this calendar year. New programs will be available in the New Year for 2022 dates. Details and sign-ups are available as follows.

Twilight coaching tonight
Ad hoc twilight coaching with Brett Beyer is available this evening, 3 November. Participants will receive on water coaching during the twilight sprint racing. The cost of the program is $40 (plus merchant fees). The program is for 10 participants on a first-in basis. A refund will be provided if numbers aren’t reached. Sign up here.

Saturday coaching (November)
The Brett Beyer Saturday Program (BBSP) will run for 4 sessions up to Christmas on 6, 13, 20 and 27 November. All subscribers will get a fleet-level report on each race, showing:

• Video with commentary on the start

• GPS tracking for each leg against the fleet with statistics

• Commentary on performance of the fleet and correct tactics

• An individual report highlighting technical and/or tactical considerations for them specifically, based on Brett’s real time and GPS observations.

The cost of the program is $200 plus merchant fees. This program is for 20 participants on a first-in basis. A refund will be provided if numbers aren’t reached. Sign up here.

Twilight coaching (rest of November)
The Brett Beyer Twilight Program (BBTP) will run for 3 sessions on 10, 17 and 24 November. Participants will receive on water coaching during the twilight sprint racing. The cost of the program is $120 (plus merchant fees). The program is for 10 participants on a first-in basis. A refund will be provided if numbers aren’t reached. Sign up here. 

Learn to race

The Learn to Race (LTR) program resumes this Saturday at 9am.

LTR is for prospective new DBSC members as a ‘try before you buy’ arrangement. The only requirement is participants must have basic helming capability as the program is squad-based, making it difficult to give a lot of one-on-one tuition.

The program is also for mid-fleet (and beyond) DBSC members wanting to improve their skills.

LTR is (ordinarily) held on the first and third Saturday of each month during the main sailing season (Sept – April).  The plan is to meet at the club at 9.00am, launch soon after 10am and be back at the club by 12 noon. Please let Martin know by email before Friday if you plan to attend.  

If you require a club Laser to hire ($30 per session), the form can be completed by Friday morning on the DBSC website. 

To run this program, Martin also needs helpers. Please email him if you are able to assist.

Rack allocations

On Saturday boats were moved to an updated rack allocation. While every effort has been taken to make sure that equipment moved with boats, please check all of your gear when you are next at the club. There is a lot of unlabelled gear at the club which increases the risk of misplaced items, so please ensure all of your gear and the transom of your hull are appropriately labelled.

This rack allocation is provisional based on forecasted/intended sailing frequency and volunteering contribution. A further reshuffle will occur later in the season based on a scientific algorithm incorporating actual sailing frequency and volunteering contribution.

Rack allocation is a specific science

Lost property

There is a substantial amount of lost property at the club at the moment. If it is not claimed by this Saturday, it will be dispensed with (recycled, repurposed, or otherwise). Some of the (labelled) items are shown below.

Members are also reminded that the club is not a dumping ground for the “old stuff” you don’t know what to do with. 

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Last chance for hoist training until Christmas!

The club now has a boat hoist to assist members in retrieving their boats “solo” on non-racing days. In order to use the hoist, you must be trained. Rod Barnes is providing a training session this Saturday at 11am. Please email Rod if you wish to attend. 

DOJ

In laser circles it’s perfectly normal to know how old everyone is, or at least what age range they belong in the masters categories. At DBSC we are doing something different; we’re adding the year you joined (date of joining – DOJ) to the club members page. 

To assist with this task, can you please email marketing@dbsc.com.au with the year you joined DBSC so this can be added?

Update to Club Championship BBQ

Last week the newsletter editor got a bit excited about resuming social activities, including partners and families at our club championship BBQ series. (Sorry.)

Unfortunately owing to COVID restrictions this is not possible for the first BBQ this weekend, which will be for members only (in lieu of our pre-season soiree for sailors and volunteers).

The club is looking forward to welcoming partners and families at functions in the very near future.