The club maintains a fleet of rescue boats but eventually every boat reaches its “use by date” where it is time for retirement, usually because the cost of maintenance is outweighing the cost of replacement, or because the boat has become unreliable. This month the club retired the 4.2m rhib “JayKay” and it is now enjoying its retirement as a row boat tender on Lake Glenmaggie (may need to check with Phil on this ….).
With every boat, there is generally a bit of history and JayKay is no exception. It came to the club as part of the sponsorship arrangement for the 1999 Combined World Championship which in itself has an interesting history. Previously every sailing class held their own World Championships, including each of the boats that competed in the Olympics. RBYC member Campbell Rose and DBYC member Peter Danks came up with the concept of running all of them concurrently in Melbourne which became the 1999 Worlds with RBYC hosting the Soling World Championships. They didn’t quite get all the Olympic Class boats but got pretty close, and they also included a couple of other major sailing classes, so at the time it was the biggest Olympic Class Regatta in the world.
World Sailing, the peak body for sailing, were clearly impressed and four years later started the World Sailing Championships which is now the largest Olympic Class regatta and the most prestigious outside of the Olympics. For the 1999 event, the then President of the International Olympic Committee, Mr Juan Anotonio Samaranch, donated a cup for the top performing country, and that has continued at the World Sailing Championships, so although World Sailing recognise 2003 as the first “World Sailing Championships”, the trophy clearly shows Melbourne 1999 as the first regatta that this trophy was awarded. So the 1999 Worlds has a really big, ongoing legacy.
The State Government was the major sponsor and part of the contribution was that each participating yacht club was provided with a 4.2 metre rhib safety boat which RBYC duley named JayKay, basically the initials J.K. for Jeff Kennett, the Premier of the day. JayKay has been a part of our rescue boat fleet and more importantly part of our sail training program, training many hundreds of kids over the past 24 years but being well past her prime it was time for retirement. The club notified Jeff Kennett recently about the retirement of the boat named in his honour and as part of his very gracious reply was the comment “might be an omen for his name sake”.