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Club Captain’s Notes In this the Centennial year of the Challenge Trophy, the Association Cup is back where it belongs and when all is said and done racing and sailing at Royals seems to be going OK. Its clearly a good time to move on and after three years at the wheel, this Club Captain has called for a change of watch. I am very pleased to announce that I will be nominating Captain David Ellis for the position of Club Captain at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting. I am confident that he will, if elected, bring new ideas and a fresh approach to the development of the Club’s racing and sailing program and thereby the benefit of the work which has been done over the past few years. Such is the nature of progress. This is also time to formally thank Past Commodore Graeme West for his unstinting and relentless work as Club Coxswain. Graeme joined the Club in 1962, serving his 4 year apprenticeship through the Committee system to become “Commodore without a Clubhouse” in 1970 after the fire of 6 September. Never a man to be daunted by a bit of smoke, he quickly set about the task of coordinating the construction of the current club house before completing his term in 1972. After a brief respite, or possibly reincarnation, “Westie” was to be found participating and eventually leading the on water race support team. Initially providing his own boat Lancer, then helping to secure sponsorship for others and more recently overseeing the maintenance of the whole fleet. Its not a part time job and we owe Graeme a lot. Thank you. Alistair McBride has generously agreed to accept the position of Club Coxswain and has already assumed duties. Alistair is an experienced seaman who was heard to mention that “he wanted to give something back to the sport” ...... have we got an opportunity for you ! Alistair, who acquired a Master’s Ticket Class 1 during his time at sea, spent a number of years driving somewhat larger ships than we have on offer but has also clocked up an enviable number of passage miles in Yachts. He joined Graeme West’s on water race support team last year and will be a worthy successor. Welcome aboard. The Race just past The editor insisted that we had to have proper coverage of the Association cup – and so we shall.(Ed, thanks Justin) Race Director, David LeRoy and I, who drive the selection process always receive numerous questions... why did you choose that team and “what’s Toe Cutter doing in the IRC A team when she is unbeatable in AMS” and “What is this doing racing in the AMS B team when Executive Decision and Top Gun are an unbeatable in IRC combination”.... and so on. Well, the Association Cup is an altogether unusual trophy... Over the 4 races, the weather typically ranges from drifters to blows with some of the races favouring big boats (wind dropping out syndrome), small boats (wind strengthening) and possibly small boat disasters (not enough wind to finish.) Each Club has four teams of three but: In any race only three of the teams count In each team only the best two boats count. In some of the divisions its effectively a two horse race, in others there may be four effective competitors. Neither Sandringham YC nor RYCV has boats which can dominate three divisions but the winning Club has to pick teams such that its best two boats in three of the 4 divisions beat the competitions best two – across the full range of weather conditions. As it happened RYCV was able to win three of the divisions in two of the four races and it was “Royals - 2, Sandringham – 2” in the others. Confusing, sure is, and team selection is definitely not a task for a defence committee. While poor team selection can cause the best team to loose the opposite isn’t true. One has to start with good boats and crews and in this connection we were very well served this year. The Cup is an occasion for new sails, sail measurement and updated certificates and all skippers made a special effort for the event.
Thanks to John Duffin for his last minute measurer’s duties and also to Rob Hanna of Shogun. Rob, who has been a member of RYCV, gladly agreed to join the team again this year only to discover a couple of days before the event that a change in the working of the Notice of Race required that he change all his sail numbers ! It’s just as well he has a sail maker in his team. Our strongest team Was IRC Division 2 – Executive Decision and Surprise, who proved to be the wining team in all four races while Michael Hiatt’s Living Doll was the best performing individual yacht, achieving three firsts and an equal first. Perhaps the most interesting result was in AMS Division A where the team of Wake, Godzilla and Chutzpah achieved a first or second in every race and the second best boat was either 3rd of 4th. Many thanks to the teams including those who raced in the wrong division to protect the Club’s team result in designated conditions where we would otherwise be vulnerable. IRC A Team Living Doll Shogun Toe Cutter IRC B Team Executive Decision Surprise Western Morning AMS A Team Chutzpah Godzilla Wake AMS B Team Espresso Remedy Top Gun Michael Hiatt Rob Hanna Robert Hick Grant Bottica David Ellis Justin Brenan Bruce Taylor Andrew Munroe Scott Lidgett David LeRoy Greg Tobin Max Peters The season ahead A Club Captain’s first year is never truly his own and planning for the new season is already well advanced. There are a few new initiatives and some interesting developments. Wednesday Night Summer Races Following the discussion from “Skippers Night”we have been working with Hobson’s Bay Yacht Club to develop the new format. The fleet will be split into two Divisions racing on separate courses. This will reduce congestion at marks and enable the Race Director to set course lengths appropriate for the fleets. Racing will be in combined RYCV and HBYC fleets starting in the following sequence:- Small boats. Diamonds and F15’s Big boats The divisional break points of the fleet are yet to be finalised and will be based on the elapsed times of the total fleet. Range Division 3 yachts and some of the slower boats in Division 2 are expected to fall within the “Small Boat” start. There will be an overall result for each Division as well as separate RYCV and HBYC trophies as at present. A new Thursday Night Race The Wednesday twilight fleet, although competing on two separate courses, will still be big and competitive and it is recognised that this may not suit everyone. What happened to that relaxing Wednesday night social sail ??? So, numbers permitting we are going to introduce Thursday twilight races. The race will be open to yachts from both HBYC and RYCV with a pursuit start. Arrangements will be made to ensure that the Wednesday night “after sail” social tradition will live on. Overnight Bay Racing Series In recent years the popularity of overnight bay racing has dwindled but it was not always so and the Club Captains believe a resurgence of interest is at hand. An ocean race experience without the “pleasure” of Bass Straight . The five “top end” Clubs have agreed to re-organise their respective overnight races with a view to attracting larger, and better supported, fleets comprising entries from all 5 clubs. The series will open on 26 October with the Livingstone Trophy which will have a revised format. Newsletter of the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria • June 2007 25
Page 1 and 2: June 2007 Flag Officers Reports Liv
Page 3 and 4: COMMODORE’S REPORT Michael Smith,
Page 5 and 6: Membership Committee Deanne Colledg
Page 7 and 8: hundred metres. Without much breeze
Page 9 and 10: Top: Laurelle just outside Sydney H
Page 11 and 12: Doyle Sailmakers Whether you plan t
Page 13 and 14: Single Handed to Port Fairy and ret
Page 15 and 16: ‘Warrin Bunjil’ moored in Port
Page 17 and 18: Photo: Ewen Bell Newsletter of the
Page 19 and 20: I cannot conclude without reporting
Page 21 and 22: The Black Bottle - A Personal Refle
Page 23: Tall Ships Victoria Peter Harris Ta
Page 27 and 28: Lively Lady returns. David Seaman O
Page 29 and 30: Newsletter of the Royal Yacht Club
Page 31 and 32: And when that’s all in, you may h

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