Sailing Club

Tell Tales

Great things happen for those that wait. After 30 years of various Learning to Sail Courses at Apollo Bay Sailing Club, last weekend we reached a significant milestone. Not only did the club receive 3 new training boats, it formally completed the induction, and signed up as a nationally accredited training facility called a Discover Sailing Centre (DSC). Australian Sailing came to town and ran a fabulous combined Instructor Sail Training and Power Boat Handling course for 6 fantastic ABSC members throughout Saturday and Sunday. Will W, Pat L, Charlie P, Anton T, Gary S and junior, Otto H all enjoyed the well presented course and successfully completed the many assessment tasks on delivering extensive aspects of sailing practice and theory as Instructors!  It is a fantastic achievement and the club is so delighted to have reached this milestone in becoming a DSC amongst so much joy and positive energy. Congratulations everyone!!

This summer the club will be able to offer a range of courses and training opportunities to a wide range of people. If you have friends visiting over summer who are keen to do a course keep an eye out for next week’s newssheet or the club website. The most significant course for the Apollo Bay community is the Friday night Learn to Sail Program. Designed for affordable inclusive access to sailing for the Apollo Bay Community. It’s a fantastic introduction to sailing and is easily shared with friends and family. This program is pretty much over for term 4 but it will resume for term 1 of 2026. Our final night maybe on the 12^th of December. This week we’re looking forward to the mighty Light Up the Bay from 5:30 on the foreshore.

Friday night sailing last week was a weather affected affair but there was enough of a gap in the rain and wind so 4 super keen sailors jumped in to improve their skills. Young Oscar from Forrest was the first junior to use one of the new training Optimists. They’re more forgiving and easier to recover from a capsize. Oscar found all of the above to be true. In possibly his 3^rd or 4^th sail in an Optimist all year, Oscar made the most of having so few other kids in the session, taking full advantage of having a coach, driver and support boat assist him to sail up and down wind. His tacking was so good, only getting stuck head to wind a few times. Oscar has made great improvement this season to become a rising star in the group. The club is stoked to see you making the most of the chance to learn to sail Oscar!

Due to Saturday’s dodgy weather forecast; cold, wet, swelly, poor visibility and strong winds, the main Saturday afternoon race fell short on willing participants. Rain cheques were issued in the hope of more summery and less wintery like weather coming to Cloudy, I mean, Apollo Bay soon.

The decision to cancel racing on Saturday will do the willing up and comers on As Ziff no harm. As Gary was doing the training course and Skipper Jess was out of town, they would have missed a day to improve upon close rivals Skiffle Beat, Black Pearl, Affrodite, April Dancer, SOTA and Euffamism. It’s a heart in throat competitive space at ABSC currently and of course new recruit Will W has proven that he’s more of a K.O. than OK on his OK dinghy. In any case, the effort that Gary has put into Ziff to make her too slippery and sleek is phenomenal. Given all the effort he has poured in to maintaining the 10 LTS boats, the 2 powerboats, the club’s policy documents, running the rescue boat at LTS and his support of the race and general committee, there is no one in the club who is more deserving of success in sail racing than Gary and his immediate ex Commodore skipper Jesse Morrow. Having done the training course, Gary will be overflowing with insight and ideas to advance the performance & position of As Ziff in its next racing appearance. Stay tuned!

Great learning and great fun at last weekend’s course

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.