Sailing Club

Tell Tales

It’s a rare and precious joy to come across a young heart who plops into a sail boat and immediately exude pure pleasure as if they’d just plugged into the ultimate fountain of fascination. There is validity in the awe and wonder at the multi-dimensional beauty of and in the water that laps and sloshes along the hull as a sailboat guides across the sea. For a young heart, distractions abound due to the many other amazing aspects in the magic of a sail boat. Think Alison Lester’s Magical Beach. This is a truly beautiful experience in the almost complete absence for fear and apprehension. The beauty abounds and we celebrate these magic moments, drawing gracious inspiration to lean in, manage apprehension and access the pleasure of sailing in Apollo Bay each Friday night. What follows is a frothing passion for more and more chances to go sailing and have fun.

Last week Octavia kept a group on shore to become more familiar with boats and learn basic skills through listening, demonstration and fun games. Otto and Milo sailed a couple of Optis, zigging and zagging in fresh breeze whilst Pat and Geeks endured a hilarious transition in refining Patrick’s boat handling skills. Harry had great success in finally finding ease in being under sail. Towards the end, as the wind became more suitable for the young hearts, Anna Foletti skippered, and loved it.

Did you see the Man Of War jelly fish on the back beach last Friday? Russell Smith did and he said, “Did you see how long their tentacle were?... Try 4 meters long!!” Russell has spent considerable time at sea and walking on the beach in his lifetime in Apollo Bay. He’d never seem 4m long tentacles on a Man of War jelly fish and rarely had he ever seen so many of them along the beach. 

On Saturday afternoon, we held the Club’s planned Flying Fifteen Regatta. The event consisted of 5 short races which are run in quick succession. This makes for an exciting and demanding day on the water for the sailors. Unfortunately, the conditions on Saturday weren’t exactly ideal. Luckily, the light 4-5 knots east winds persisted make this a real and viable challenge even for all the sailors.

The first race saw Black Pearl finish first across the line, which looked like they might dominate the day. However, race 2 saw April Dancer take line honours with Ziff performing well in all races which helped change the momentum of the competition. The real standout though was Zebra Crossing (OK dinghy class), skippered by Will, who is a father of two of the junior sailors. He took the win in race 3 and was the most consistent sailor of the day, particularly upwind. What a knock out debut sail in Apollo Bay Will!!!

As the duty crew pulled the anchor on the duty boat, they came across these super long strands of strange looking blue organic material. They looked mysteriously like jelly fish tentacles and there were heaps of them. Suddenly, the mixed results and bazar sense of drag on the boats in races became possibly explicable. Ah, it all adds to the mystery and wonder that mariners marvel at. Thank you as always Russell Smith!

Results

Next weekend the club is looking forward to becoming a nationally accredited sail training facility. As a Discover Sailing Centre the club will be able to offer a range of courses and training opportunities to a wide range of people. The first is a dinghy instructor and powerboat handling course that will run over 2 days for 6 members this weekend. Friday night sailing is looking to continue its incredible streak of consecutive sessions and there is a BBQ scheduled for everyone on Saturday night.

Will’s OK dinghy lining up another K.O. (knock out) race result in the start of one of a series of races on Satuday. Only his first day’s racing in 20 years. He didn’t even have a start watch!! Congtratulations and thanks for coming Will!!		Otto and Milo, recent Juniour skipper contestants with their crews Geeks and Igor. Great day, Great learning and Great fun! Congratulations Otto!

Life is good. Come Sailing!

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

New Members Always Welcome!

Many thanks to Bendigo Bank for their support of Learn to Sail at ABSC.