Category: Latest from Double Bay Sailing Club

The Women's Regatta

It’s official! She’s back!

The Women’s Regatta will be returning to Double Bay Sailing Club on Saturday 3 December 2022. The one-day event will include races on Sydney Harbour, great food, entertainment, and activities aimed at women of all ages who currently sail an ILCA / Laser dinghy, or who are looking to return to racing.Double Bay Sailing Club will also run a series of small-group training clinics in the weeks leading up to the event, focusing on improving sailing skills such as race starts, upwind technique, and downwind technique.“After the disruption of the past two years, it’s fantastic to be hosting the Women’s Regatta again, and to establish this as an annual event in our racing calendar,” said Tory Epworth, Secretary

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Women's training and coaching

Photo credit: Diana Chen

Pia Hattersley reports:Over the past few months DBSC held a series of four Women’s Regatta laser training and coaching sessions.The sessions were conducted by DBSC member, the suitably qualified and fabulous Sylvie Stannage. Sessions covered general boat handling, upwind, downwind and race starts, across a range of wind speeds on various Saturday mornings during winter, including Saturday just past at the onset of this vile weather we are experiencing. One participant had even driven with her laser from the Central Coast to join this particularly soggy, but fun, training session!The training is part of DBSC’s ongoing initiative to support women in sailing and aimed to improve racing technique and confidence for female sailors. The sessions were extremely well received, with participants

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Sustainability at DBSC

As you all know, the club has been pushing hard at sustainability initiatives. We are in the process of publishing updated information on our website.In the meantime, however, we noted an announcement by Vaikobi to partner with Terracycle® for sailors, and ocean enthusiasts to send back or drop off their old gear at a designated location, to be collected and made into new products. For now, the Zero Waste Box™ system by TerraCycle® will be implemented at the Vaikobi Sydney headquarters in Warriewood on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. More information on this initiative is available here.We will find a way to coordinate the collection of clothing for recycling. If you are interested in helping with this initiative please contact our sustainability officer, Katie McHugh or our volunteer coordinator Kirk Marcolina.

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SHIP! Watch out!

Commodore Steven London recently attended an event by Port Authority of New South Wales conducted to remind recreational users of the harbour that it also remains a commercial port. With Covid lockdowns and travel restrictions eased, we can expect the harbour to become busier again this summer.To the Captain on the bridge, a laser is a tiny speck in comparison to the vessel. Not only that, but owing to the vessel’s size has large windage, is difficult to turn, and it might surprise some at how fast they are moving.

To the Master on the bridge, you are barely visible.

A laser capsizing in front of a commercial vessel will not have a good outcome for you. Please stay

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More information

Thank you to the members who are sending through information for the newsletter. If you have content for the newsletter, please email it to newsletter@dbsc.com.au by midnight Monday.View results here.The club’s calendar can be viewed and subscribed to here.Make a tax deductible donation to DBSC here.

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RACE REPORT 05 JUNE 2022

Our PRO on the day, Daryl Lawrence, reports:A cold stiff 15knot breeze from NNW greeted a sparse fleet for Sunday morning. Seven standard rigs plus one visitor and nine radial sailors raced heats 13, 14 and 15 over a short course tucked well into Double Bay. The course was lengthened for heat 15 with little time wasted between races. It meant everyone was back to shore by 10:30 for Paul’s hearty vegetable soup and a hot shower. The Championship results saw Evie Saunders score three bullets by convincing margins. Full rig heats were shared by Geoff Kirk (heats 13 and 15), and Nick Pellow took out heat 14. On handicap, Evie won heat 13, and Brooke Wilson won both 14 and 15 … so an all-female affair for the radials. The standard riggers saw Geoff Kirk winning heat 13, Nick for heat 14 and Mark Lewkovitz in heat 15. Thanks to Daryl, Jim  and

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NOT ALWAYS AS IT LOOKS

Sometimes things aren’t always what they look like…Last week it was reported that Martin White had a capsize problem at the bottom mark and spent some time there. Martin has corrected us that this was not quite the case. He did have an incident with another boat and waited to collect himself and ensure the other sailor was okay. Upon realising the fleet were some distance ahead by then, he did some mark rounding practice.There’s an important point in all of this, which is the obligation under the racing rules to render assistance. The Racing Rules of Sailing are all rooted in the basic principle of sportsmanship. So much so, that the very first rule of racing (1.1) reads, “A boat, competitor or support person shall give all possible help to any person or vessel in danger.”We’d like to congratulate Martin on this display of sportsmanship at the club, and

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