79 Bay St
Double Bay NSW 2028
Australia

The best ILCA / Laser sailing club in the world, located in Double Bay on Sydney Harbour.

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Race report 19 March 2022

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Our PRO, Luke Parker, and LTRAR, David Murphy, have provided the following report on racing on Saturday.

Saturday was the harbour bridge’s 90th birthday and the sailing gods presented sailors with a “thinking person’s breeze”.  In other words, it wasn’t easy sailing; 5-20 knots predominantly from the SE, but with occasional gusts from the SW, followed by a gust (or maybe it was a lull) from SE and so on in an outgoing tide of flood stained water.

Point score 3 and 4 brought some fast, exciting racing within Double Bay and both fleets were a little below usual numbers. There were some really fun reaches (and bottom mark roundings) out on the course. Sailors in each fleet conducted hull and centreboard inspections at various times. The “proximity award” goes to Geoff Boscoe for capsizing to windward pretty much into the Jazzman and taking out the club flagpole!

As PRO, Luke accurately predicted a sequence at 1400 sharp and, as he told a few sailors, picked every shift from the vantage of the start boat. He was assisted by Murphy (LTRAR), John Verco (COTD), and Kim Ketelby (Co-COTD) on the water. Shirley and Paul managed the canteen, with the assistance of David Newman.

In the radials, Sylvie clearly revelled in the conditions, with wonderful displays of boat trim and technique in both races, while handicap honours went to Peter Collie (race 3) and Kirk Marcolina (race 4). 

In the standards Dave Newman had a very quick race 3, with Michael Osborne taking out handicap, while race 4 was won by Jason Wilkins.

Guests at the club included Adéla (Adel) Rabasová, a rising Czech 4.7 sailor, her mum Pavlina on Jazzman, and a very healthy looking Australasian Darter drying off on the deck. 

Our guest Adel is 15 years old and a member of the Czech National Laser Team (ILCA4, i.e.: 4.7). She is thrilled to be racing and training with us whilst on holiday for a month in Australia and tells us she had a great time on the water with our fleet last Saturday and says thank you to the members for being so welcoming.

Pavlina has provided our photos from Saturday.

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Sailing stories with Malcolm Page

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On Wednesday 16 March the club hosted “Sailing Stories” with Malcolm Page. In a Parkinson style interview, club member Martin White interviewed Malcolm on his sailing story from humble beginnings in dinghies at Hunters Hill Sailing Club to the success of world championships and Olympic gold medals.

Malcolm was generous with his insights and candour, providing may amusing anecdotes and back stories on the evening. The club is grateful to be able to host sailors like Malcolm, who not only are generous with their time, but their experience and knowledge, and providing great insights into the experiences at the really pointy end of the fleet.

There are many people who contributed to making this night special including Martin for his interviewing and preparation (and also luring Malcolm to the club), John Vasey for the stage and sound set up, Diana Chen who makes every event at the club professional, Peter Collie for being our resident photographer, and Kirk Marcolina for being our resident videographer (watch this space).

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Wednesday twilight sailing

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Twilight sailing continues for the final weeks of daylight savings. The forecast is for a southerly fading from 20 knots, a mostly outgoing tide, and some chance of getting wet!

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THE 2022 J.J. GILTINAN TROPHY REGATTA

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Paul Adam has kindly submitted the following report on the recent 18’ skiff regatta held at the club.

The JJ Giltinan Trophy is awarded to the winner of the 18 footers world championship. The 2022 championship was held from 4 March to 13 March. After several years of restrictions due to COVID, this year’s event was slightly more normal, in that there were crews from Germany and Denmark as well as Interstate boats from Queensland and WA competing. However, in other respects it was one of the most unusual trophy periods I can remember with frequent heavy rain and at times very strong winds. Racing on the Tuesday was abandoned, with the boats preparing to start, when heavy rain and strong winds made visibility negligible and the PRO judged sailing conditions unsuitable. For the first time in many years this meant that the Friday lay day became a race day, so there was sudden re organising to find volunteers for the canteen. We are very grateful for those who responded at short notice. 

Perhaps because of the weather it was a record year for sale of pies! WE also produced an abundance of sandwiches, sufficient to cause the demise of two elderly sandwich presses after years of good service.

Supporting Shirley and myself in the canteen at various times were:

Ryan Aldrich, Rosemary Barrett, Jim Dounis, Victoria Epworth, Scott Finlayson, Richard George, Michael Osborne, Christine and Timmy Patton, Juliet Piggin, Isabella Roach, John Ryan, and Ian Tudball. Many thanks for all the hard work that was put in. 

In addition, as well as providing on course assistance in the Paul Adam, John Vasey was an invaluable help with carrying supplies and organising in the club house.

As a consequence of the heavy rain and run off, the harbour was brown, not blue, and frequently smelled putrid. However, fish were much more visible than usual with many leaping from the water. This attracted many birds, which caught many smaller specimens of fish (darters, several species of cormorant and terns were the main predators, curiously the normal seagulls were very few in number). Anglers on the wharf were catching large fish and taking them away for dinner - rather them than me! 

There were also remarkable changes in the beach profile. Sometime during the night between the Monday and Tuesday there was extensive erosion under the clubhouse - by Wednesday morning the footpath along the Bay east of the 18s was covered with a deep layer of sand and council needed a backhoe to make it possible for walkers to use the footpath. The sand has started to come back but it will be interesting to see how long it takes to get back to the ‘normal’ level.

Is a result of the heavy rain and the very poor drainage the rigging area became a quagmire in places, while the warmth and wet promoted growth of grass, which Council has now mown – but may be council could invest in a flock of sheep!

The 18s season concluded on the 20th March with the Queen of the Harbour race. There is anticipation of many more overseas boats for next year’s Giltinan - but that will be dependent on events outside any control of Australia. – but certainly, there will still be a need for sandwiches and pies through the season.

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Race report 12 March 2022

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After nearly three weeks, it finally stopped raining and our club championship heats 7&8 were conducted on the brown soup formerly known as Sydney harbour in moderate north-easterly conditions.

Rod Barnes cleaned up in both races for the standard rigs, while James Tudball and Andrew Cox each scored a win in the radial fleet. Full results are available on the website.

Many thanks to our volunteers on the day – Daryl Lawrence (PRO), Christine Patton (LTRAR), Mark Gray (COTD) and Steven Boukatos (Co-COTD). Paul and Shirley were assisted in the canteen by Ryan Aldrich and Tori Epworth.

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Vollies of the week!

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Double Bay Sailing Club is managed and run entirely by volunteers. As the saying goes, “many hands make light work. There is always work to be done in the upkeep of our shed and the ongoing running of dinghy racing.

This week we’d like to thank all of the volunteers who have assisted in the canteen during the J.J. Giltinan series. In particular, Shirley and Paul deserve much respect for the effort they have put into having the canteen up and running during the event, with an enormous volume of toasties for hungry 18’ skiff sailors. It has been a tremendous effort!

Shirley with Ian Tudball. Ian was just one of the volunteers who assisted Shirley and Paul during the week. Photo credit: Diana Chen

The club is full of people making wonderful contributions around the place, and sometimes behind the scenes. Let us know who deserves a mention!

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