News Letter - March
2006
The Club’s Learn To Sail program for 2005/06
has now been completed. The harbour beach has been
a hive of activity on Saturday mornings with the LTS
dinghies being transported to and unloaded on the
beach, the club’s rescue boats being set up
ready to assist and, of course, the Learn To Sail
participants. This season we had several adults taking
part in the program. They were able to choose to sail
in either a keel boat or a Mirror dinghy. The committee
recognizes that the Mirror dinghies used in the LTS
program are well past their use by date, and being
of timber construction there is a high maintenance
cost both in money and time, which at times can stretch
the club’s resources. Hopefully in the not too
distant future, if finances allow, they can be replaced
with something more suitable.
A learn to sail program like ours doesn’t just
happen. It requires a lot of time, hard work and dedication,
and for this our thanks and appreciation must go to
Peter Geekie, Matt Armstrong and Russell Smith, a
most professional trio and a credit to the club. Our
thanks must also go to those parents who regularly
help out on the Saturday mornings and among those
are Peter Bourne, Pat Shaw and Peter Gardiner. Coaching
the young, and not so young, learn to sail participants
can be a very rewarding and satisfying experience
and it would be great to see a few extra people gain
their coaching accreditation.
Marengo Picnic Pirate Day
I’m sure that you have all heard of the much
sought after pirates treasure supposedly buried at
Queenscliff. Well rumour has it that it was never
buried at Queenscliff but in fact is buried somewhere
on the Marengo beach, and that Pete Geekie claims
to have a map showing the location of the treasure.
So Pete has organized a treasure hunt for all those
who participated in the Learn To Sail program (and
anyone else who has a spirit of adventure). I promise
you it will be a great day.
Details are as follows:
Sunday April 2nd (backup on Sunday April 9th)
9.00 Meet at the harbour to rig the LTS boats
(please be on time)
9.45 Briefing on Treasure Hunt and distribute
treasure maps before setting sail
10.00 Depart from Harbour
Expected arrival time Marengo Beach 10:53 and 5 seconds.
Lead parties to breach fortifications.
Ransack of town…’X’ marks the spot
of the buried treasure. Beach activities and short
sailing adventures (weather permitting). Distribution
of rum and salted pork. Watch Pete Geekie walk the
Plank.
BBQ lunch with parents, LTS helpers and other club
members. Keel boats will sail around at 10:00 too.
Parents and friends are welcome to come on these boats.
Please contact John Marriner 52374227. Regular club
members are welcome to sail their boats around too
and enjoy the picnic and fun. Think about how to dress
up your boat. Parents and friends who wish to be involved
with bbq and transport of equipment, please call Pete
Geekie 52377178.
Wye River Challenge 26th February
What a fantastic day that turned out to be! Five boats
- Not Your Average White Boat, More Hypertension,
Tumbleweed, Jubilation and Interlude - and many enthusiastic
crews left the Bay at 10am for the 13 mile trip to
Wye River. With light winds and a rather lumpy sea
it didn’t look good for an enjoyable trip, but
the breeze soon picked up and all the boats quickly
had their spinnakers flying for a great downhill run
to Wye River arriving at 1.00pm just in time for an
enjoyable meal and some well deserved drinks at the
Rookery Nook Hotel. Lunch on the deck of the pub,
watching the boats at anchor in the bay, soaking up
the sun – life doesn’t get much better!
Geeks & Stewie, who can probably claim credit
for having sailed the first fireball round Cape Patton,
chose to trailer their boat home to Apollo Bay while
the four keel boats had a hard bash to windward. Matt
showed the big keel boats just how fast a Diamond
can sail to windward and arrived back in the harbour
well ahead of them. Will we do it again? You bet we
will.
New Rubber Duck - or a boat with
no name. (How about those learn to sail kids coming
up with a name for the club’s latest acquisition)
At the moment it’s sitting on its trailer in
my shed getting all those fiddly little bits &
pieces fitted, and it looks great. Its vital statistics
are:
4.3 metres long, 30 hp outboard, passenger capacity
8. Check it out on Saturday, or maybe jump aboard
for the Pirates Picnic Day.
Club Sponsored Courses
Yachting Victoria will be running an instructors course
in Colac on the weekend of June 23, 24, 25. They are
also planning to run a power boat course in Apollo
Bay in the near future. This is a full weekend course
and goes into a lot of detail on boat handling and
navigation. These courses are interesting and well
worth the time. The club has received some grant money
to pay for these courses. As numbers of participants
have to be finalised, please let me know if you are
interested ASAP.
Apollo Bay Music Festival
21,22,23 April
Right about now Russell Smith will be starting to
crank up the pressure on the club’s role in
its celebrated Hot Dog Stand. Going over lists of
bread rolls, hot dogs, sauces, serviettes etc from
previous festivals, he will be organizing supplies
for this year’s hot dog stand. This is the club’s
main fundraiser for the year and so it is vital that
it gets the full support of all members.
Rosters will soon be sent to all club members with
details of their allocated times to man the hot dog
stand. It’s not all hard work, it can be fun!!
Teams Event
The club has received an invitation from the Queenscliff-Lonsdale
Yacht Club to enter a team in the inaugural team racing
charity trophy to be held at Queenscliff on 28th May.
There will be a maximum of 6 teams competing with
7 sailors per team. The Queenscliff-Lonsdale Yacht
Club will supply Pacer dinghies for the event.
Queenscliff is a great place to visit and with the
market being on at the same time as the dinghy race
that makes it even better. Should be fun for everyone.
Give Pete Geekie a call on 52377178 and tell him you’re
in.
Cheers
John
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