GBBC NEWSLETTER CLUBMAN OF THE YEAR FINALLY PRESENTED

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1 GBBC NEWSLETTER December 2018/January 2019 geilstonbayboatclub.com.au Issue No. 27 CLUBMAN OF THE YEAR FINALLY PRESENTED The recent general meeting to approve the audited accounts for 17/18 provided an opportunity to present the award for Clubman of the Year to John Wilcox. John has been treasurer for some eight years and during that time he has overseen many projects that have put a strain on club finances such as the jetty restoration and slip upgrades. Although John has recently resigned from the role of treasurer the state of the accounts have probably never been better. Thank you John and congratulations on your award. Commodore s Report As we come to the end of another year I would like to thank all those members who have made a contribution, no matter how big or small, over the last 12 months. Worthy of special mention is John Wilcox who for the last eight years has ensured that our accounts pass muster. His Clubman of the Year award is well deserved. During the year our slips have operated almost to capacity, we have undertaken repairs to the jetty and have constructed six boat cages one of which will store dinghies and/or kayaks/skis. It would be good if we could attract kayakers as a new younger membership base because the age profile of our full members is not decreasing. Indeed kayaking is proving very popular and I note that the Clarence City Council has just opened the Clarence Kayak Trail. If you need to store a boat or a kayak then the club has some good introductory offers available. On the water we have seen a number of new boats join the fleet and the introduction of group starts has made it much more interesting for competitors. However, it would be good if we could get some assistance for our sailing staff and anyone interested should contact Vice-Commodore Tim. It is also good that the old tradition of crews coming to the club after a race to hear the results, take part in the six-pack draw and enjoy a crew meal, has made a comeback. Meals on a Wednesday night dropped off when the price was increased so it has been decided to reduce them back to $13 as that is obviously more attractive to some. Hire of the clubhouse is going well. Please support our Christmas Buffet on Friday 14 December. To conclude I would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year both on and off the water. Regards John Brierley 1

2 IN THE CLUBHOUSE CHRISTMAS BUFFET ON FRIDAY 14 DECEMBER From 6PM $25 Adults $10 Children 5 11 years. Under 4 free with a paying adult. LAST MEALS ON WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 19 TH.. Now back to $13 OPEN FRIDAY DECEMBER 21 ST. FOR BAR WITH BBQ OPEN ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 23 RD. FOR DRINKS AS USUAL CLOSED FROM 24 th DECEMBER REOPEN FOR BUSINESS WEDNESDAY JANUARY 9 TH.. The friendly club staff NOTICE TO ALL BOAT OWNERS GREEN ISLAND EVENT As mentioned in the Sailing Program the Green Island Race will be held on Saturday 15 December. On conclusion of the race it is intended to hold a bbq in Barnes Bay and cruise back to town on the Sunday. This is a perfect excuse for those club members who own a boat to use it and we look forward to your company. Please mark the date in your diaries NOW. 2

3 ON THE WATER Twilight Series 1 Race 2 on 2 November was blown out. Brierely Marine Sunday Series on 4 November saw four boats takes part Horizons, Bahloo, Minami and Ranaguri. Horizons and Bahloo worked up the eastern shore and were well ahead. However, Ranaguri and Minami went west and it worked for them but the advantage Minami gained was lost by not crossing the correct finish line. Lesson learnt know the course. Horizons took line honours with the other three boats all finishing within 91 seconds of each other. Ranaguri won on handicap. Just Cooking Oil Twilight Series 1 Race 3 was held on Friday 16 November in quite cool conditions with a good steady sea breeze that dropped out later in the race. 12 boats took part with new boat Ruffian (Greg Wilson) taking out the handicap win. Serenus (James Andrewartha) also joined the fleet. The group starts resulted in all competitors finishing with Horizons taking out line honours closely followed by Silicon Ship and Ruffian. A large number of competitors returned to the Club after the race to enjoy a sailor s meal, hear the results, award the winner s prize, and take part in the sixpack draw (won by Bahloo). None of the above could happen without the support of the sailing staff that set the courses and keep an eye on things. Many thanks to those involved especially Tim, Gerome and Richard. Horizons Sixpence Pinta crew working hard Serenus 3

4 Although the Just Cooking Oil Twilight race held on Friday 30 November was preceded by a few cloudbursts it did not deter 10 boats fronting for the start. Course B was set and the wind was relatively light and dropped right out on the run to the finish for all but the lead boats. Ruffian blitzed the field by leading from start to finish and winning on handicap as well. Serenus won the six-pack so was happy. Five boats fronted for the Brierley Marine Sail Day Race 3 held last Sunday. Wind gusts up to 30 knots made for heavy going and two boats Bahloo and Ranaguri retired. This left Pirates Pride, - first across and third on handicap with Horizons second across and first on handicap. Third across was Tara who took out the second handicap position. Ruffian Wild Winds GBBC and MYCT/LSC Sailing Program to 31 December 2018 December 7 Friday MYCT / LSC Brierley Marine Pennant A Race Hrs 15 Saturday Green Island Race / Cruise BBQ in Barnes Bay Afterwards 1030 Hrs January 11 Friday Nibbs Electrical Tw. Series 2 Race 1 13 Sunday Nibbs Electrical Pursuit Race Enter at BYC 18 Friday MYCT / LSC Brierley Marine Pennant B Race 1 BOAT CAGES & KAYAK/SKI RACKS AVAILABLE TO HIIRE The boat cages have now been completed and are available to rent. If you need to store a boat and are interested please contact Rear Commodore/Bosun Rod Milton, Committee member James Chesterman or Secretary Keith Bolton. Please pass the word on to your boating friends. One cage will contain racks for kayaks and surf skis and at this stage the club is obtaining quotes for their construction. GOOD RATES FOR THOSE WHO ARE FIRST TO HIRE. 4

5 ON THE SLIPS AND JETTY some recent haul outs DAD S ARMY The Dads are always up to something like mowing lawns, replacing gutters, packing gravel etc. AROUND THE CLUB We welcome the following new members. Martin Daly, Valdis Kogtevs, Dylan Keegan, Tony Barnett, Christopher Kemp, Kristy Wall, and Shaani Sharp. Position Vacant: Treasurer required to work with the Club Bookkeeper to oversight the Club s accounts. Anyone interested in taking on this role is requested to contact Secretary Keith Bolton or Commodore John Brierley. Navy phrases that have slipped into our everyday speech Ø Pull your finger out Canons were primed with a little gunpowder in the ignition hole. A sailor would keep it in place with his finger and had to pull his finger out just before firing. Ø Over a barrel Sailors were often strapped over a barrel before being flogged. Ø Long Shot The term refers to firing a canon beyond its range with little chance of success. Ø Above board the expression all above board refers to things on the top deck of the ship and therefore open to inspection. 5

6 Ø Square meal a sailor s plate or tray was a wooden square. Ø On the fiddle The fiddle was a raised lip around a sailor s plate. It indicated how much sailor entitled to. If he took too much, food touched the lip and sailor was said to be on the fiddle, which was a flogging offence. Ø Feeling groggy Too much grog Ø Pipe down At the end of day sailors would have to obey a call from boson s pipe, stop talking, turn out lights and go to sleep. FROM THE CROW S NEST Grayling heads to sea and ends up in Lindisfarne bay Not much wind to finish Twilight Race 4 but at least the rain stayed away. Brierley Marine Sail Day 3 was the opposite with winds continually gusting to 30 knots. Photo shows Pirates Pride and Horizons head to head 6

7 Wednesday Members Cash Draw Members cash draw takes place around 7.00pm You must be there to win SUNDAY RAFFLES Doing nothing on a Sunday afternoon! Why not come along to the club which will be open from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm. Every drink purchased comes with a raffle ticket Every 1/2 hour there will be a draw for a chicken or box of chocolates or something similar. THE NAVY IN HOBART This month we focus on HMAS Huon that was based in Hobart from 1924 to A HMAS Huon was one of six River Class Torpedo Boat Destroyers built for the Royal Australian Navy during the period During World War I they formed the Australian Destroyer Flotilla. Sister ships were HMA Ships Parramatta, Swan, Torrens, Warrego and Yarra. After returning to Australia at the end of WWI Huon s seagoing service was confined to Australian waters. In October-November 1919 she took part in a Fleet 'Spring Cruise' in Queensland waters and in January-February 1920 proceeded with the Fleet on a 'Summer Cruise' to Tasmania. Huon was one of the 26 ships and six submarines of the RAN assembled at Melbourne for the arrival on 26 May 1920 of the Prince of Wales in HMS Renown. In July she was one of the escorts of Renown for the visit of the Prince to South Australia. She returned to Sydney on 25 July 1920 and on 9 August 1920 paid off into Reserve at Sydney. On 22 April 1921 Huon recommissioned and served in Australian waters until 2 June 1922, when she again paid off into Reserve at Sydney. From 22 September 1924 to 26 May 1928 Huon was based at Hobart for Naval Reserve training, during which period she visited Melbourne and Geelong on a few occasions. On 28 May 1928 Huon returned to Sydney and finally paid off into Reserve on 7 June Without being again brought back into service, Huon was sunk by gunfire as a target off Sydney on 10 April (Wikipedia) 7

8 Builder: Commonwealth Naval Dockyard Beam: 24 foot 3 inches Cockatoo Island Sydney Laid Down: 25 January 1913 Draught: 8 feet Launched: 19 December 1914 Crew: 69 Commissioned: 14 December 1915 Machinery: Parson Turbines hp Displacement: 700 tons Armament: 1 x 4 inch, 3 x 12 pounder, 3 x 18 inch torpedo tubes Length: 250 feet 9 inches Battle Honours: China Station , Adriatic GBBC CLUB HISTORY Past Commodore Laurie Dean, also a founding member recently made available his notes that he has been keeping over the years that highlight significant events in the Club s history. It is intended to include some of these in this and future newsletters so the history is not lost. Thank you Laurie. THE YEARS 1967 and April 1967 Len Edwards, Erling Skabo, M Priestly and R Ford conceived the idea of a boat club in Geilston Bay. 2 May Public meeting held at Lindisfarne North Primary School with 20 attending. 13 June 1967 Public meeting, title GBBC adopted, draught constitution adopted, office bearers elected (President: L Edwards, Vice President: Frank Chelmick, Secretary: Erling Skabo, Treasurer: Jack Edwards, Committee: Paul Vertigan, Jim Lawler, Noel Harris). Proposed meeting with Clarence Commission to put case for launching ramp. 20 September 1967 Committee meeting decided to construct a launching ramp and set charges for its use, working bee organized for 19 October. Newsletter No.1 issued and membership stood at March 1968 GBBC obtains lease for launching ramp. Meeting to increase membership fee to $1.00 per adult and $0.25 for child. 20 June 1968 First navigation course completed and first navigation trial held. 27 June 1968 First AGM at Beltana Hotel followed by dinner $3.50 per head. Total income 67/68 $ Expenditure $37.43, annual membership $0.25 BACK TO BASICS at LINDISFARNE SAILING CLUB Dinghy sailing is becoming prohibitively expensive, pricing many potential participants out of the sport. One Hobart club wants to change all that. Hobart s Lindisfarne Sailing Club (LSC) has, since the middle of last century, filled a vital niche in the fabric of Tasmanian yachting. Never seeing itself as elite in either membership or classes catered for, 8

9 it has nevertheless been a constant contributor to the sport, producing National Champions, Americas Cup participants and a plethora of International sailors, whilst all the while catering for those who simply love their Sunday afternoon race and post sail social event. Dinghy sailing is, of course, the lifeblood of all sailing. A strong dinghy culture has meant that there have always been participants in all forms of sailing as those who have become competent dinghy sailors work their way into keelboat classes. Sailing is indeed a lifelong activity. However, the days of the Derwent being the home to several thriving dinghy clubs are gradually waning. Whilst there are pockets of strength in junior sailing, fleets of senior dinghy classes are remarkably small, compared to the Derwent of years ago. The club believes that one of the issues facing dinghy sailing is that the sport has effectively priced itself out of the market for a sizeable portion of the potential sailing demographic. Dinghy sailing in most of its current incarnations is a pretty expensive activity. The reality in our sport is that in many classes of dinghy, skill will get you towards the top of the fleet, but if you want to be serious, you need to spend some pretty solid cash to have the latest hull, rig and sails in order to match the other guy who is doing exactly the same. Whilst there are always those who want to play that game, and have the resources to do so, it also sidelines a big group of potential participants who can t justify the expenditure from already tight family budgets. We believe that there is room for a less expensive pathway into dinghy sailing. LSC has for many years been one of the clubs that has catered for the Sabre class, a relatively cheap ply or fibreglass single hander. The Sabre bucks the trend of cost, compared to many classes. A competitive boat can be purchased for well under $2000. Whilst the cost is lower, the standard of racing is exemplary, with a fleet big enough to cater for all levels of ability, meaning that no matter what your age, weight or sailing experience, there is someone else in the fleet who is about where you are. The reality for most Sabre sailors is that racing is great fun because there is always someone else at about your level. Hence, every finishing position is hotly contested. You don t have to win, or spend a fortune to be having fun in a dinghy at LSC. The club wants to take this concept further, by recreating the mixed dinghy classes of bygone times. If you think about midweek twilight racing in keelboats, large numbers of enthusiasts get their weekly race in fleets that contain a huge range of boats, from 20 to 50 feet in length. The fact that they re not one-design boats doesn t detract from the experience of any of the participants. By using performance handicapping, any well-sailed boat can win. LSC would like to offer similar racing on Sunday afternoons in dinghies. Hobart garages are jam packed with sailing dinghies and small trailable keelboats that are no longer used because class numbers aren t big enough to provide competitive fleets. LSC sees a niche for low budget, mixed class racing. So get your old Laser, Sabot, Heron, Mirror,125, Enterprise, OK, Cherub, Hartley, Rainbow or whatever else you have hidden away, and bring it down to LSC. If you have had the boat for years, get your kids or grandchildren into it. We ll handicap everyone in a fair way and run regular racing. Most importantly, it will be low cost. If you know you are never going to use that boat again, let us know what you have, and how much you would like for a young (or not so young) skipper to take it off your hands. Maybe think about donating the boat to a keen youngster. The club is keen to make a register of boats for sale on our website, so we can put buyers in touch with sellers. If you think you fall into this category, the club with details of what you have, and how much you think its worth. 9

10 The club has also issued an invitation to those who have come through the club in the past to re-engage. Many LSC members learned to sail at the club as kids. A few years later, they are the parents who bring the next generation down here to learn. Others have never left. If you sailed at LSC in the past, you re always welcome to come down for a look and a chat about what goes on these days. Maybe you have some spare time and would like to get involved on rescue boats, or the race committee? You might even find, like many do, that a look around inspires you to get that dinghy out of the shed. One of the major changes in the past couple of decades is that dinghy sailing is no longer just an activity for teenagers. LSC s demographic is heavily skewed toward adult skippers. They want to provide for a market that is currently not catered for. Racing in now out of fashion boats is no less exciting or competitive. For many, lower performance dinghies provide better racing, because the margin for error is greater. You can have just as close a race in a $500 plywood boat as you can in a $10000 one. The tactics are the same, the wind is the same, the enjoyment is the same. Costs of joining LSC are remarkably cheap, particularly compared to some other sports. Membership for a Junior is $90 per year. Senior fees are $170. (Less than 1 coffee per week!) Secure boat storage is available at the club for $2 per week. There is a strong determination to keep LSC going strongly well into the next 50 years, come along and be part of it! LSC conducts racing most Sundays in summer. For more information about LSC, go to the club s website lindisfarnesailingclub.org.au To register your boat for sale, or to find out more, secretary@lindisfarnesailingclub.org.au OUR SPONSORS are listed below. Please support them. Tas Marine Construction (Tom Wilcox) 10

11 For all your chandlery needs (John Brierley) New & Used Boats BOAT SALES TASMANIA JUST COOKING OIL (Helen & Jeff) Phone OTHER SPONSORS Chris Gray Bricklaying Rockcote Mechanical & Marine Services (Glen ) Roof Coatings Tas (Craig) CED Williams Glass Lindisfarne Service Centre Nibbs Electrical (John) North Sails Boat Biz (Fred) McDonald Builders (Maccaa) ABS Hobart 234 Elizabeth Street (Ivan King) Grating Tasmania 46 Derwent Park Road Just Cooking Oils 11

12 Mooring Doctor Rod Milton Argyle Carpet Cleaning Steven Gangell The Quilt & Pillow Factory (Helen & Jeff) 12