Apollo Bay Sailing Club

Winter Tell Tales

20th August 2020

It may not be sailing season, but there have still been things happening that we thought were worth updating members and our broader community about.

Earlier this year (way, way back in a much more innocent time; when “isolation” was something that sounded like a nice couple of days away on your own to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet, a “hub” was something on your trailer that you might need to grease occasionally and had nothing to do with footy and a “corona” was just something you might enjoy icy cold with a few friends) we reported that the club had purchased a couple of small Opti dinghies and that a few of our junior sailors were putting them to good use.

Well we have just added a couple of Pacer dinghies to the mix. We hope they will be enjoyed by our junior as well as more senior sailors. They are ideal learning boats so we hope people will use them to take that next step to consolidate and improve their skills; or just enjoy a casual sail, if that is all they want.

At the season end we also reported on our first tentative steps at running an ‘all ability’ sailing program, with Scotty McDonald as test pilot. We ran that a few times successfully with the use of a borrowed boat from Royal Geelong Yacht Club and access to the gantry, kindly allowed by the Port of AB Harbour management. But this coming season we will be running that program in our very own Hansa 303. These dinghies are purpose built to allow access to sailing by people with limited mobility or other barriers.

And we have been able to achieve the above with grants from Federal Member for Corangamite, Libby Coker, and our very own Colac Otway Shire. Both were instrumental and our club could not have achieved so much without their support. Thanks also to our hard-working Secretary Stephan Ras.  

Back in January none of us was aware of what 2020 had in store. But as is the way in small communities resilience is not just a word, but through necessity, it has to be a way of life. And as is also part of that way, we will put this experience to good use one day, even if we don’t know quite how, just yet.

So, with that in mind and as sure as the wind will blow, we hope the people of Apollo Bay are looking forward. Towards that time when Saturday mornings will be filled once more with the sound of car horns blaring from the sidelines of the footy field, umpires’ whistles will be heard coming from the netball courts, the main street filled with the hum and bustle of the shops and Community Market and the sight once more of sails flashing, out there somewhere, on the glittering bay.

Life is good. Come Sailing!

To find out more please see our Facebook group - Apollo Bay Sailing Club.