Sailing Operations Managers Report

Simon Turpin

Southport Yacht Club

Since 1946

CELEBRATING 75Years

What a start we have had to 2021!

We have been so lucky being able to enjoy our wonderful sport of sailing since July 2020, unlike so many clubs in the southern states. Our hearts and sincere thoughts go out to them all and we wish them a speedy recovery to this Covid19 Pandemic.

Just before we experienced our huge Covid19 lock down with our neighbouring Brisbane City and surrounding suburbs, we were very lucky to host our annual Bartercard Sail Paradise Regatta. What an awesome Regatta it was, with over 50 boats competing throughout the four days from January 4th until the 7th. This enabled us to showcase our Club to some 1356 participants in total. Our Mark Dingley once again did a fantastic job as the Race Officer and again a huge thank you again to all of our Volunteers who helped and supported us throughout the Regatta.

Upon completion of the Regatta, we forwarded a survey to all the Competitors to see what we could do, to further improve our services and here a few of the quotes that came back that I would like to share with you all:

• Just a personal thanks for all of the effort behind an outstanding, successful regatta. Your on the water support and event coordination was fantastic. The watchful eye as boats crossed the bar really appreciated. I’m sure you have made the SYC sailors proud to be members of a great club. (you certainly did for me). Thanks again. • The regatta is a credit to all involved and SYC make everyone feel welcome. • Thanks for a great four days of sailing and a very well run regatta. We had a great time and hope we can return for more in the future • It is a great regatta, and all the staff and members at SYC made us welcome, and ensured an enjoyable time. • Made me proud to be an SYC member •Thank you for running a great event. Couldn’t have asked for anything better. Suffice to say we continue to be so proud of our wonderful Yacht Club and you our members. We cannot rest on our laurels as there are always lessons to be learned so as we can continue to further improve ourselves, however it is certainly encouraging when 98% of the feedback was this positive and rewarding.

Since we have come back to racing on July 11th last year, it is interesting to note that we have had 6,480 people participate in our sport of sailing in our normal divisional racing series throughout our 5 divisions. To break this down even further, I’ve included an overview of the participation between the five Sailing Divisions (excludes SYC Special events):

SYC Special events participation further improves this total by another 2,089 participants which brings the total to 8,569 participants enjoying our Club racing in just 7 months!

PHS Handicaps seem to be again a hot topic around the Club at the moment in the keelboat divisions and again I refer all relevant parties to the details of the ORC Club system which is managed by our national governing body Australian Sailing. I would like all of our Divisions to please again take a look at the ORC Club rating system (https://www.sailingresources. org.au/ratingshome_2020/orc_2020/ ).

PHS is a flawed quasi measurement system designed as a revolving door for encouraging fleets, however PHS ratings are certainly not a true reflection of a boats, nor skipper or crew performance. There will always be unhappiness in PHS calculations when skippers want to start comparing their PHS performance against what they believe their boat can or cannot do. This is why you will continually hear “we could not have sailed the boat any faster and yet we still only got a 4th place”. This will continue to happen with PHS ratings as the continual changing of the fleet, their participation in the series etc etc all effects overall PHS ratings. If Skippers and crews want to be able to measure their true performance then the only answer is a constant measurement system such as IRC, ORCi, ORC Club etc. This is why our Off The Beach Boats (Dinghies & Catamarans) have a Yardstick system for a true comparison of mixed fleet racing which allows the sailors to really assess their “performance”.

Our Offshore and Thursday Twilight fleets have grown with the skippers and crews becoming more experienced from more racing and are clearly yearning for “performance encouragement”. The only option to yield this is to adopt a constant, cost effective, measurement system such as Australians Sailing’s ORC Club.

Next seasons sailing calendar for our 2021/2022 is nearing completion by the Sailing Committee and I encourage you all to speak with your Sailing Committee Divisional Representative.

Special Regulations: Three new amendments have been added to the Australian Sailing Special Regulations, two of which were effective in December 2020. Amendment 7, Multihull Lifelines and Tethers changes the requirement for multihull crew to be wearing a safety harness and be clipped on at all times in category 1, 2 and 3 races. Amendment 8 allowing the use of watermakers to provide the water for crews in category 1 and 2 races. Amendment 9, Keel and Rudder Inspections will come into effect with the new version of the Special Regulations on 1 July 2021. This amendment brings Australian Sailing into line with World Sailing and their amendment to the Offshore Special Regulations to include keel and rudder inspection for Categories 1 -3. An article in relation to this new Amendment can be found at https://www.sailingresources.org.au/news/keel-and-rudder-inspection/ written by Australian Sailing’s Head of Safety Glen Stanaway. A Safety Information Notice giving further explanation via a collection of ‘frequently asked questions’ for Amendment 9 can be at https://cdn.revolutionise.com.au/site/lhniytnwaxdrnb26.pdf The Model Keel and Rudder Inspection form can be found at: https://www.sailingresources.org.au/safety/equipment-auditing/&quicklink=true/ Amendments 7 and 8 can be found here https://www.sailingresources.org.au/safety/specialregs/ The updated version of the current Australian Sailing Special Regulations can be found at https://www.sailingresources.org. au/safety/specialregs/

As you are also aware, the new Racing Rules of Sailing 2021-2024 have come into effect on January 1. Here is a good link from Australian Sailing that provides lots of information about these changes: https://www.sailingresources.org.au/news/changes-to-the-2021- 2024-rrs/.

On a final note, I would like to introduce the best “Photo’s of the ¼”, where you can send us “interesting” photos throughout the next 3 months and we will publish the best of the best. You can also send us a caption of the photo describing what on earth happened. It is important for us all to be able to have a laugh at ourselves, yes things happen out on the water, we are not always perfect, and we can all share in a smile together. Here a few happy snaps for you to peruse that have happened recently that put a smile on our faces:

I hope I don’t sink this! Theres no where to put my feet!! I just really am a big kid at heart.

Let’s try it this way and I bet we will beat those faster poled out spinnaker boats downwind!

The smile says it all! Faster Daddy!!

Look – no hands, wait….no bodies either, who’s got the remote control!

Our Keelboat Racing Instructor literally throwing himself (?!?) into the water for MOB recovery techniques in our Keelboat Skippering Program – now that’s dedication, thank you Mr Dingley!

Hopefully that brought your inner smile out a little.

Looking forward to seeing you at our awesome Club and especially out on the water enjoying our beautiful playground and our wonderful sport of Sailing.

Sincerely,

Simon Turpin Sailing

Operations Manager