Sailing Administrators - Report

Alison Harrison & Karen Holdway

Your Southport Yacht Club Sailing Office Team have several primary priorities: 1. Manage Sailing Divisional Races and Programs and Special Events/Regattas 2. Manage and Activate Learn to Sail Programs (Junior and Senior) and 3. Support Sailing Members and to tell their sailing stories – our favourite part ☺ The list goes on… and covers everything from management of Boat Bailments through to Support Boat Maintenance (but that’s the boring stuff).

To say it’s been an interesting and busy 6 months in Sailing at Southport Yacht Club would be a massive understatement and the next 6 months is set to be even more interesting and bigger! We’ve had gale force winds, super swells, and torrential rain events on a continual basis and if that’s not challenging enough – then there’s the little to no wind occurrences, that have all resulted in numerous divisional and special event abandonments and reschedules – All this aside, we’ve all managed to stay relatively sane during the process ☺

Photo by Linda Caerdinael

ADULT LEARN TO SAIL

For those ‘non sailing’ readers …learning to sail can focus the mind and body ‘in the moment’ and learning a new skill also allows you to momentarily leave your comfort zone and immerse your thoughts on the experience of being out on the water. That's not forgetting the benefits of connecting with others and the social support, you receive through being a member of a crew on a boat and a sailing club - spending time with others.

SAILING THERAPY

Speaking of Sanity…………..it probably won’t surprise our regular sailors, that a sailing does wonders for the soul and the mind and that time spent on the sea is immensely therapeutic. The dreaded ‘Covid’ is still ‘hanging around’ and it has impacted so many of us (both physically and mentally), making things that little bit more challenging to operate at times. If Covid and these stressful times has taught us anything, it’s the awareness that it’s “OK to not be OK”! Sailing allows you to get away from our overstimulated daily lives and helps to disconnect with the chaos and stresses of life (for a short while anyway) it also connects us with the peacefulness of nature, and this brings us to our ‘Learn to Sail Programs’….

CREWING OPPORTUNITIES AT SOUTHPORT YACHT CLUB

Sailing may seem like pleasure of the wealthy but – that’s not the case at Southport Yacht Club – we have an amazing down-to-earth Club, and our Hollywell and Main Beach Club Houses are warm, welcoming, and very social. Southport Yacht Club has some fantastic opportunities to not only ‘Learn to Sail’ - but to crew on some of our Skippers Boats. If you are not boat owner and are interested in the sport of sailing - we make it easy and affordable for you to try out Sailing without having to immediately subscribe to annual Membership. Southport Yacht Club provides a “SailPASS Membership” at a minimal cost, which then enables you to access crewing opportunities for sailing on our beautiful Gold Coast waterways. Crewing opportunities are available on a Wednesday and Thursday, as a part of our Inshore Division and Twilight Racing Programs. For Further Information: https://southportyachtclub.com.au/sailing-notice-board/

JUNIOR FLEET AND LEARN TO SAIL It has been fantastic to see an increase in Junior Fleet participation numbers over the past 6 months - Sundays and our Thursday Squad Training is very busy and we will see an increase in numbers again when summer hits. We look forward to seeing our ‘juniors’ journey’, through their Sailing Pathways at SYC.

SIP N SAIL CATCH UP EPISODES

This year we introduced the Sip n Sail series of fun and casual catch up / episodes with our sailing Members, Volunteers, and staff. We want to express our sincere thanks to Ben Downey, who has gone above and beyond in chasing you down ☺ and extracting some fantastic stories of your sailing journeys and adventures. A big thanks to those who have been a part of this so far – many more to come - Your Stories Make Our Club!

Addison Newlan • Mike McGehan • Xavier Doerr • Emma Hutcheson • Greg Forgan-Smith • Neil Rowsthorn • Lisa Beecham • Ben Noonan • Andy Lamont • Joshua Green • Commodore Drew Jones

BAILMENT/BOAT STORAGE – HOLLYWELL

The 2022/2023 Bailment Register is now complete. Completed Agreements (along with a copy of your current insurance documentation) should be forwarded to the Sailing Office as soon as possible. Please contact the Office for questions about Bailment – sailing.reception@sycgc.com.au. REMEMBER - participation in a minimum of 60% of the Events listed in the respective Divisional and Special Sailing Calendars is required to adhere to Bailment Conditions.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT

Shout out to our regular FB contributors who have shared some of the most picturesque and enjoyable memories over the past few months and a special mention to our regular contributors Linda Caerdinael and Lori Clements (love your work girls!). Remember – if you are a Skipper or a registered Crew member of any of our Divisional Races, there are group Facebook pages you are welcome to join! (you must be an SYC Member) – they include:

• Southport Yacht Club Inshore Division • Southport Yacht Club Offshore & Twilight Divisions • Southport Yacht Club Off The Beach Multihull Division • Southport Yacht Club Dinghy Division