NEWS FROM OUR FLAG OFFICERS

ROBERT PARKER

COMMODORE

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE IT’S a year since my first Tidings as Commodore. The Club has been so active and vibrant that the time has flown. I have enjoyed the last 12 months and I am confident that the ongoing Flag Officers and elected/re-elected General committee (GC) will keep the Club’s governance in good order as we commence another summer sailing season.

The AGM back in July continued with the same group of Flag Officers, but we had a change in GC with Tony Packer standing down after a long period on committee. On behalf of all members I thank Tony for his outstanding contribution to the Club. Tony continues on Capital Works & Maintenance sub-committee, no doubt to ensure the proper completion of the several large capital projects currently underway!

I congratulate and welcome Andrew Gill to GC in filling the vacancy left by Tony. I also congratulate Barbara-Dene Jones in returning to GC, 12 months after her term as Rear Commodore Juniors.

The Club continues to perform exceptionally well with record membership numbers for many years and sound operational performance, as per the Honorary Treasurers report provide in our recently published Year Book.

Sadly, in the last 12 months, we have lost a number of ‘old guard’ members. I thank Basil Twine and many others for providing material and knowledge to enable the various Vale’s that have advised members of these passings. I am pleased to note however, that our New Members Nights have seen many wonderful younger members, and family groups. I have no doubt that our ‘old guard’ will be assured that the Club continues with a sound membership base.

The COVID word is rarely far from our thoughts but we are to be thankful that our state, and sport, have been able to continue, largely as normal, throughout the last 12 months. Our thoughts go to fellow yacht clubs in the other states.

A brief update on our various major capital projects is as follows:

MAIN WHARF – WESTERN END

To the relief of staff and near neighbours, piling work was completed a few weeks ago. Deck panels and in-situ concrete pours are nearly complete. With only crane installation and roadworks to complete, the strong hope is that works will be done with a brief gap before summer sailing Opening Day. I thank all members who were affected by boat relocations etc during these works for their understanding and forbearance.

DINGHY & TRAINING CENTRE

This project is in 2 parts, a) Fundraising and b) Development a) Fundraising – the fundraising campaign by way of donations has largely ceased. The balance of planned pledges owing is now a very modest figure and will be completed by next 30 June. With other sundry fundraisings, and the very successful raffle (approx. $135k), the total amount raised is close to $2.7M. This is an outstanding effort by members. Any member wishing to support the project can still donate, with tax deductibility ensured. b) Development – all members visiting the Club will be aware of the rapid progress of the building since completion of the roof. All internal works are well underway and partial handover of the dinghy storage area was provided recently. Rear Commodore Juniors, Scott Monro and member Denis Cullity had a very successful busy bee with parents of juniors and other volunteers and constructed a large portion of the storage racks. This is a fantastic volunteer project.

At time of writing, we are confident of completion of the entire building and storage before Christmas. No doubt there will be finishing works, gardens, landscaping etc continuing into January 2022, but operationally we will have transitioned to the new centre.

Again, I thank all members for their understanding and patience with suffering limited parking, truck movements etc throughout this project.

I was delighted to attend the Power Section Closing event recently and I congratulate Rear Commodore Elise and Club staff on the running of a very successful season. Of course end of Time Trialling is not the end of participation opportunities for power boat owners. Elise provides further details herein.

Vice Commodore Peter Chalmer provides full details on our House and Membership matters, but I wish to acknowledge an excellent combined Mess Night with Royal Perth Yacht Club recently. The camaraderie between our Clubs is at a high level and full attendance indicates that it has become a very successful, member only, event in our respective calendars. continued on page 6

Sincere appreciation for very many years of valuable input and guidance go to Tony Packer who chose not to stand this year.

HOUSE & SOCIAL

Members of the House Committee are Fiona Webster, Barbara-Dene Jones, Kim Laurence, Tom Lovelady and Andy Gill.

COVID-19 restrictions have been eased further. We are now able to operate without limits on attendance capacity and need only to maintain contact registers, our Safety Plan and for our biggest events an Event Checklist.

Summer is approaching and the House Committee is concentrating on our 125th Year celebrations. Planning is underway to include Opening Day as part of those celebrations and then a larger cocktail function on the anniversary date of 14 December. Please keep an eye on Front of House and Gybe Sheet for details and be part of the festivities celebrating these occasions.

The Bosun, Nathan, and his ground-staff team have a lot to do this year because of the works and refurbishment around the Club, but I’m certain the seedlings are already planted and the lawns and grounds will be as beautiful as always.

Our Combined Clubs Mess Night with Royal Perth Yacht Club was a huge success with our venue looking resplendent and a full attendance from both Clubs. The usual camaraderie and banter during the toasts was present from both Clubs and the meal was superb. My sincere congratulations to our Head Chef, Derrick, and his chefs and to our Food and Beverage Operations Manager, Nic, and his team for their expertise in creating such an impressive night. My thanks also to the Events Manager, Nat, and Kaidy for the fantastic dual act of coordinating service and supplying information for the Mess Vice President’s Fines of the night.

Along with the industry generally, we’ve experienced some shortages in availability of Food and Beverage staff. These will be resolved as soon as appropriate staff are available. We are extremely pleased to welcome Paul Morgan (Bar Operations Manager) and Sun Ning (Sous Chef) to the Club. Congratulations to Kristina Richard for her promotion to the role of Bowline Manager.

In addition to our normal Club activities, we will have major Club functions in the coming weeks so please ensure an early booking to assist with our planning.

MEMBERSHIP

Members of the Membership Committee are Rear Commodore Elise Manners, Grant Alderson, Mark Tremain, Jenny Spearman and John Walsh.

Membership numbers continue to increase and New Member Nights are more frequent. The Membership Committee is literally working overtime to deal with the number of new membership interviews being held. The New Member Nights are fun nights with a great opportunity for all members to come to the Club on a Friday night and enjoy the ceremony as new members are presented to the Flag Officers. All are encouraged to stay for a few drinks and socialise, followed by dinner in the Bowline.

The Club will host another Young Adult Membership Night in late October. This night will present our younger Members that are stepping up to Ordinary Membership. These Members form a very important part of our future so please check Front of House for details and please come to the Club and support them.

The Committee has reviewed categories and strategic planning for Membership. There were many topics and a broad range of categories to consider and almost all are finalised. The focus was on current relevance and future possibilities. All categories were deemed as remaining relevant.

Investigation into an appropriate ‘corporate’ based style of membership is under ongoing consideration by a working group.

As part of updating our member database some member categories were invited to confirm their compliance with the definition of their particular membership type in light of lifestyle changes brought about by COVID-19 and life’s changes in general. Responses to the invitation have been well received and positive. My appreciation goes to all members that reviewed their membership and changed where appropriate.

I look forward to seeing you around our Club.

PETER CHALMER

VICE COMMODORE

CONGRATULATIONS to Andy Gill, Barbara-Dene Jones, John Standley and Nick Gray for being the successful nominees from the AGM ballots. John and Nick successfully renominated for their roles and Barbara-Dene has sat on General Committee before as Rear Commodore Juniors. Andy Gill is the new member of the team and will offer a younger perspective to the Committee.

IAN BURVILL

REAR COMMODORE SAIL

WE’VE BEEN FORTUNATE to sail over winter, while many other states are locked down. Bad weather caused the cancellation of a couple of keelboat Frostbite races and one Mid-Week race. Another Mid-Week race was lost, due to the lockdown in early July.

Brian Cain will retire as Mid-Week Race Officer at the end of the Autumn/ Winter Series on Thursday 14 October. Brian has provided high quality racing and entertaining presentations for many years. It won’t be a full retirement, as he will still be on the Saturday start boat team. Sandra Whelan will take over as the Mid-Week Race Officer at the start of the Spring/Summer Series.

The Club Best Regatta was held on Sunday, 22 August. The Race Officer, Kim Laurence, was assisted by Mark Crier, of RPYC, with his four robotic MarkSetBot marks. These devices enabled the course to be reset rapidly between races, in the shifty conditions. Eight fleets from the Club entered the regatta. It was won by Ethan Prieto-Low and his youth match racing team of Max Godfroy, Adam Brenz-Verca and George Boulden. The other two youth teams performed well: Zac Sprunt’s 29er fleet finished second and Lucy Alderson’s Akamai Race Team was fourth. Lucy’s father, Grant Alderson, was just ahead in third place with the older and wiser Radio-Controlled Sailing Team.

It was exciting to watch the Tokyo Olympics, especially the local sailors. Congratulations to Matt Wearn for winning the Laser event so convincingly. Matt, who hails from RPYC and FSC, was also a member of RFBYC until recently. Our own Zac Littlewood trained with Matt in the lead-up to the Olympics, then went on to win the ILCA Class 7 (Laser full rig) U21 World Championships in Poland in late August. We hope to see Zac in the Olympics in the future.

Several other Club members have been participating in European events. Ben Durham has been coaching the Australian Sail GP team, racing F50 foiling catamarans. His team won the Great Britain Grand Prix, in July, and the Denmark Grand Prix, in August. Mark Spearman was onboard for the British Grand Prix and has also been ocean racing on the JPK1180, Dawn Treader, and racing M32 catamarans with the Red Bull Extreme Sailing Team. Pete Nicholas (with Luke Payne) won the Swedish 505 National Championship in August. David and Sam Gilmour (with Yashiro Yaju) came third in the Yanmar Dragon Gold Cup, held in Marstrand, Sweden in August. Torvar Mirsky also competed in that event.

Eight bells for Ron Kempin, who passed away on 24 July. Ron tirelessly led RFBYC’s ‘Cruising in Company’ division for many years, in his yacht Samantha III. He undoubtedly holds the record for the most mast lowerings and raisings, on his journeys to and from the ocean.

Skippers, please remember to nominate for the summer season and ensure that your safety audits are completed prior to Sailing Opening Day on 16 October.

Note that, for the 2021–2022 season, skippers will be required to sign on their boat and crew via the MemberPoint app for each day of racing. The app was trialled, on a voluntary basis, for the 2021 Frostbite series. This enabled the system to be tested and refined. It was disappointing that only about one third of boats signed on during the trial. In the summer season, sign-on won’t be optional, so if you’re planning to compete on Saturday racing or Thursday Mid-Week racing, please take the time to familiarise yourself with the process. This is an important tool for safety (to know who’s on the water) and for compliance with the Australian Sailing prescription to Racing Rule of Sailing 46.

For twilight sailing, the SMS sign on system will continue. We’re also asking skippers, on a voluntary basis, to log onto the free Nebo app, to track their journey. This should enable the start team to track boats around the course. Users of the app can also see where all the other boats are. Please make the effort to participate in this trial.

I’ll see you on the water.

Everybody is eagerly looking forward to the move to the new Dinghy & Training Centre (DTC) which is expected to occur in November just in time for the ICR, presenting a wonderful opportunity for the Club to showcase the new DTC to the broader sailing community.

A big shout out to the army of volunteers that are assisting with the transition from the existing Clubhouse to the DTC. There has already been a huge work effort with the quarantine and disposal of un-registered and un-wanted dinghies and rigging, the installation of dinghy storage racks in the new dinghy shed, the clean out of the canteen, and the selection and ordering of indoor and

SCOTT MONRO

REAR COMMODORE JUNIORS

THE DINGHY WINTER SERIES was a huge success with 124 sailors participating over the course of the season, including visiting sailors from nine other Sailing Clubs. We managed to sail a total of 11 races, with only one race day cancelled due to poor weather. The final race day was an ‘end of an era’ being the very last day of dinghy sailing from the existing Clubhouse.

outdoor furniture. Packing up the existing Clubhouse is work in progress so that demolition can proceed in October.

At the recent Junior AGM, George Elms was re-elected as Junior Captain, supported by Amy Moore (Vice-Captain), James Pitt (Treasurer), Alex Molyneux (Secretary), Betty Moore, Sasha Monro, Alasdair Cameron and Angus Cameron. Judging from the speeches at the AGM, the key focus for the new Junior Committee is organising social events, participation and having fun!

A special mention for Zoe Thomson and Zac Littlewood who have recently travelled to Europe to kick off their Laser campaigns. Zoe is working towards pre-selection for the 2024 Olympics with Zac working towards selection in the Australian Sailing team by 2024 and then hopeful of selection for the 2028 Olympics. Zac is already off to a great start, winning the 2021 ILCA (Laser) Men’s U21 World Championship in Poland.

Congratulations to Team 29er achieving 2nd place in the 2021 Club Best Regatta, skippered by Zac Sprunt and crewed by George Elms, Vass Katsaitis, Xavier Bates and Pol Raffart. This achievement is testimony to the success of the Sailing Institute training programs and the sailing skills of our Junior sailors.

I recently attended a Professional Development and Pre-season Information session for our Club’s coaches and instructors, which included a guest speaker on child safeguarding. It was a very interactive session, with plenty of open discussion and great ideas on coaching, development opportunities and the sailing pathways for our Junior sailors.

Safety Sam celebrates his 1st birthday with 12 months of safety messages to the dinghy community. Safety Sam is doing a great job re-enforcing the importance of safe dinghy sailing and developing a positive safety culture amongst our Junior sailors.

I look forward to seeing everybody on Opening Day.

The Commodore’s Report continued from page 3

The Club’s new-ish website continues to be refined and implementation of MemberPoint and the associated On-Water Pass will also be progressively phased in to sailing and other events. I encourage all skippers and crew to adopt these processes to ensure the Club can offer the safest possible playing field and to ensure equitable access to our valuable and world class facilities.

Spring is finally upon us and Summer Season Opening Day is imminent. Our Bosun, Nathan Stronach, and his Grounds Team have their work cut out in getting the Club presentable, given the various building disruptions. I have no doubt we will look as best we can for the start of the season. I look forward to strong fleet participation, not only on Opening Day, but throughout the season. I hope to continue on Saturdays as over-worked, under-paid crew on Jim Wilshires Couta Eclipse and many Thursdays on my chartered Foundation 36 Cappoquin III.

A full program of sailing over summer will commence soon under the excellent guidance of Rear Commodore’s Ian Burvill (Sail) and Scott Monro (Juniors). Please refer to their respective reports herein.

I thank all Flag Officers, and the Honorary Treasurer, Mark Caddy, for their continuing service to the Club.

Best wishes to all members for a full and rewarding summer season.

ELISE MANNERS

REAR COMMODORE POWER

AS ANOTHER SEASON comes to a close, congratulations go to all competitors. We have seen great numbers competing in our weekly Club time trials, including a few new faces, which is great to see. We were well represented in the CPYC State Teams Events with RFBYC featuring in the top 10 at each event.

It should also be noted that the power section fronted a sailing team in the recent Club Best Regatta, coming a credible fifth. Well done team!

On Saturday, 7 August the John Cowen Memorial Trophy Time Trial was held. We had 14 competitors with the win going to Tim Cummins and Ken Stevenson on Havana with 6 points lost. A special mention to Bev Cowen and family, thank you for continuing to donate this trophy.

The 64th JM Zeffert Memorial Time Trial, competing for the coveted Kylie Cup, was held on Sunday, 29 August. We had a total of 45 boats from SoPYC, RPYC, CYC and of course RFBYC competing with 157 people staying on to enjoy the ‘pig on a spit’ lunch afterwards. Congratulations to Guy Skinner and Richard Evans from South of Perth Yacht Club, competing on Thanet, who was the winner of the Kylie Cup with 7 Points lost. This was certainly a hard-fought win with only 4 points separating the top 10 boats!

Power Closing Day was held on Saturday, 18 September with presentations in the Athol Hobbs Room. Congratulations to all place getters, most notably Tim Cummins and Ken Stevenson on Havana for taking out the Club Championship again with a total score of 138 points. A very close second was Evan Moore and Christiane Clyne on Kizuri with 131 points. The most improved skipper for the season was Andrew Gill on Card Shark and Stephen Lewis on Inkognito took out the WM Schofield Shield for winning on consistency. A big congratulations to all! It was definitely a close season that could have gone one of many ways and certainly came down to the wire!

The 125th Sailing Opening Day will be held on Saturday, 16 October. I encourage all power yacht owners to participate in the raft up and sail past. Further information on this will be available in due course.

This year, the Rockingham Race Regatta will be held on the weekend of 27 and 28 November. Power Yachts are encouraged to watch the start of the race then make their way to Rockingham in convoy and enjoy the festivities on the Saturday night at The Cruising Yacht Club. This is a fantastic weekend that includes both power and sail with moorings provided by TCYC. If you would like to join in the fun, please keep an eye out for further information.

A special mention and thank you goes to all our volunteers, most importantly our regular start boat attendants, Brian Cain, Mark Donati and Sandra Whelan as well as Peter Mason in the Start Box, without whom, our weekly events would not be possible. Also, a big thank you to Sharon Skinner for her tireless efforts as Power Administrator!

Finally, I encourage all members, power and sail alike, to give time trialling a go next season. It is a fabulous way to run your boats over the winter months as well as a fantastic opportunity to socialise with your fellow members in the Club afterwards. If you would like further information on how to get involved please don’t hesitate to ask!

I very much look forward to seeing you out on the water!