ALBURY WODONGA YACHT CLUB Sail Away D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 To be a thriving place where people of all ages and abilities come to discover the joy of sailing. What’s On! From the Helm Stuart Richardson - Commodore Saturday, 6th DECEMBER Hi All, for those of us lucky enough to be at the club last 9.00am-1.00pm Start Sailing 2, Start Racing weekend witnessed a fantastic sight as the fleet left the club on 1.30pm-5.30pm Better Sailing, Tackers 2 Saturday for the annual Tallangatta cruise and returned on 1.30pm-4.30pm Sailability Sunday morning. They had good wind on both days with a nice Sunday, 7th South Easterly to sail into on the way up and nice Northerly on 9.00am Laser 4.7 “Intergalactic” C’ships and the way home on Sunday. Great to see so many participating in Opti Swamp Cup social sailing events. Hopefully we will have a lot more of it as 12.30pm Christmas Fun Races/Party/Santa our cruising/social sailing program matures. Well done Terry 1.30-5.30pm Tackers 1 Kerr for organising the event. Saturday 13th 9.00am-1.00pm Start Sailing 2, Start Racing I think organised social sailing is an aspect of our sport that is 1.30-5.30pm Better Sailing, Tackers 2 under emphasised in our club. My personal interest is in racing Sunday 14th but I’m glad to see members actively involved in cruising. As a 9.00am Club Championship Racing club we are very well geared for competitive sailing with 1.30pm-5.30pm Tackers 1 weekend club championship races and several members 2.00pm Introductory Racing regularly competing at State and National regattas. It would be Saturday 20th great to see the same focus and level of participation in regular 9.00am-1.00pm Start Sailing 2, Start Racing club social sailing. Wednesday 31st 7.00pm New Year’s Eve - informal social At the recent Yachting Victoria Conference, Alister Murray of gathering @ Club Ronstan Australia gave a speech to close the conference and shared a conversation he had with one of Ronstan’s largest Extended calendar later in this edition. international retailers. The retailer was saying he didn’t Full Calendar available on our website. understand why sailing continues to be referred to as a sport. He sells over $800m of sailing gear each year (that’s right, 800 CHRISTMAS PARTY million dollars worth) and only 2% of that is for racing. Gives you some idea of the scale of the recreational sailing market world Sunday 7th December 2014 wide. What made Alister’s speech most interesting was his comments Come and join in the fun on how he thought Australia could improve its international racing results – more Olympic Gold. It’s not about more funding races/party/Santa and we don’t need more championship racing for our juniors and youth sailors. We have plenty of high quality structured Fun Racing from 9.00am coaching programs so we don’t need more of that. In Alister’s Party/Santa from 12.30pm view we need more participation in social sailing and I tend to agree. Social sailing is an ideal way to attract people to the Connect with us on Social Media! Website: www.awyc.yachting.org.au www.facebook.com/AlburyWodongaYC twitter.com/AlburyWodongaYC www.youtube.com/user/AlburyWodongaSailing instagram.com/alburywodongayachtclub SAILAWAY DECEMBER 2014 From the Helm cont… The Festive Season – sport. It’s fun, less stressful than racing, cheaper Fun and Games! and does not have to be as formal or organised. Leanne Thomson – Rear Commodore Much more relaxing. Something anyone can do. Shrek and Princess Fiona will host the Intergalactic So how does this relate to our Tallangatta Cruise Championships (Laser 4.7’s), Swamp Cup (Int Optis) or other social sailing events we may run? By and Rainbow Reachers (Ozi Optis) on Sunday increasing participation. If all our members invited December 7th. two or three new friends to come along to a social This is a Fun Event open to all ages but restricted to sailing event just imagine how many people would members and guests, including AWYC Discover potentially come back to be involved in the sport. Sailing Centre students that have completed Better Some of these may want to do some training and Sailing as a minimum. maybe join in club racing. If they have some skills, some of them may travel to compete in State and The racing format will consist of Mini Sprints, National regattas. And who knows, one day, one of Windward/Return to finish (reaching course for them may even win an Olympic gold medal. Rainbow Reachers), 1 lap per race. Invite a friend out to have a sail. Share our great Club training Lasers and Ozi Optis (Tackers boats) sport. are available for hire for the morning @ $30 each. Be sure you book prior to the day. Junior Run Regatta For more details and boat hire contact Donald or Member Contribution – Laura Thomson Leanne Thomson. Email: [email protected] The juniors are holding a Junior Run Regatta on Mobile: 0467 355 258. the 31st of January and the 1st of February. This event is completely run by the juniors of AWYC and Stay and party after the sailing with the AWYC is their major fundraiser of the season. Money raised Christmas party. Bring a plate and relax on the lawn will go into the junior fund to be saved towards with members, family and friends. Santa will arrive something to improve junior facilities at the Club. around 2pm with presents for the kids. (Parent deliveries to training room desk prior to 1:30pm The event will run over the entire weekend with please). registrations on the day from 11 am (Saturday.) The cost of regatta entry will be $20. There will be an New Year’s Eve at the Club this year will be an invitation race beginning at 2pm that day. At the informal event. The cafe will be closed but members conclusion of that race our very talented juniors will are invited to join other members in celebrating the be doing performances for your entertainment as arrival of 2015. Weather permitting the wood-fired part of a talent show. A dinner will also be available oven will be lit, otherwise BBQ facilities are that evening and the menu and cost of the meal will available. Camping is free for members and any be advised closer to the date. guests staying over are to pay $10 per person per night. Sunday racing will commence at 9am with a briefing at 8 am. The course will be a windward return and we will be aiming to get in as many sprint races as possible before 11am. There will be one division and results will be on corrected time. A presentation will commence as soon as possible after racing. This event was run two years ago by the juniors and was quite successful and A LOT of fun! The juniors organise the whole event, from manning the on water boats, being race officer and working in the galley, it is a great way to get everyone involved. This year we are hoping it will be bigger and better than ever! To be added to the junior roster, or for more information about the event, please speak with our current Junior Rep Alex Bejsta or Laura Thomson. 2 SAILAWAY DECEMBER 2014 Discover Sailing Day Leanne Thomson – Rear Commodore Thank you to all the members who helped out at our Discover Sailing Day (and to those who could not attend but helped promote the event with their family, friends, neighbours and schools). We had 95 visitors register and go for a sail, with many others viewing the action from the shaded lawn whilst enjoying a pizza or cold beverage. Once again our youth members shined - taking kids for sails in the Tackers boats and others out in the Pacers. The day was a success with new members signing up and others enrolling in sailing courses. Below are some comments from happy customers. Hi Leanne, Emma is very much looking forward to the Little Tackers program. We came out for the open day and had a great time. Had to drag her away at 4pm after having been on boats non stop for 4 hours! The open day was fabulous, many thanks to those involved. Anna Sullivan Hi Leanne, I think I met you at the Discover Sailing Day last Saturday. Thank you for that, my husband, Peter, son, Kobi, and I enjoyed it very much, and appreciated the opportunity to find out about your club. Peter and Kobi (who is 13) would like to attend your start sailing 1 course……... Thank you Kathryn Wood The galley was humming ! Junior members of our Club gathering Thanks to owners and crews who to help out at the Discover Sailing Open made trailables available. Day. Thanks to junior members who Getting ready to welcome visitors to the Cooking up a storm at the pizza oven. provided sailing experiences - great Discover Sailing Open Day. work team! 3 SAILAWAY DECEMBER 2014 Discover Sailing Day cont… Left: Helping out in the galley. Right: Many families enjoyed the experience of sailing together ______________________________________ Sailability Neil and Toni Payn – Sailability Coordinators Hi Everybody from the Sailability team. We have now had our second session of the season, the weather was not the greatest resulting in a few cancellations on the morning, however this was positive for the 18 participants who did brave the cooler weather as they had longer on the water.