Opening Day

Wow, our Opening Day Cruise enabled us to find out just why we are not keen on sailing our Etchells in the winter!!!   What started out as a cloudy but reasonable day, wind and temperature wise, ended up being very cold with quite strong east to west winds which, perversely, turned a "go out with the tide, come back on a run against the tide" to a work both ways!   Best shot we could get from Abs WF of the rest of the fleet!!!Sitting on an exposed deck with each tack seeming to take us into the strongest run out tide run was frustrating to say the least.

We realised, when we returned to our nice warm Clubhouse, that the installation of reverse cycle air-conditioning to the lower floor was a very good decision!  

We ended up with 13 starters with a good cross section of our fleet attending.   Many thanks to Doug and Irene Curtis for taking the Starters out for a great day on the water.   Good food, plenty of wine and a nice sheltered cockpit kept everyone on board very happy.   Good to see Marie James and Rhonda out on the water.

The ensuing get together was a good one with a great crowd helping the Rum sales along.   The crew of "Knot Working" (Dom Grundy) won the $200 free meal from "The Deck"   We ended up raffling 13 bottles of wine to the assembled gathering.

Max did a great job on the BBQ, standing out in the cold on his own!Max in chefs hat!

Karen Nye, the new Commodore of the Sailing and Acquatic Club came along and acknowledged receipt of the two Open Bic dinghys which our Club has purchased and added to the fleet of now six dinghys for junior sailors to use at her Club.    More details HERE

We are looking forward to our Oktoberfest Night next Friday in our usual Friday Night BBQ slot (a BBQ will be available), commences at about 6.45.   Bring along some German Sausage, Austrian Potatoes etc or something similar to share, maybe some Strudle or something for sweets.    Music will be provided by Max and Frank and Helga will be in charge of the decoration for both herself and the room!.

Dont forget that you must have your safety audits completed, season entries filled in and a copy of the front page of your insurance policy submitted to the Office by next weekend to be considered a starter for the Spring and Summer Pointscore and Championships which start on the 8th   (Next Saturday)   A list of Auditors, Copies of entry forms and the Season's Programme are all on this site.  (See under "Sailing" link above.    They are also available at the Clubhouse in hard copy.

We are all looking forward to a great Summer Season both on and off the water.   Don't forget the Pacrim Challenge coming up in March.     We are looking for some Home Host volunteers for this, please contact Bill Haskell or myself if you can help us out.

Cheers

John Way

Commodore 

0412493586