The Club was crowded with sailors, volunteers, coaches and supporters from Thursday – Sunday of last week. RBYC was honoured to host Sail Melbourne, not just to have a front row seat to world class competitive racing but also recognising it is a terrific opportunity for race management teams and volunteers from different clubs to get together, share knowledge and improve their skills. This was highlighted as the Race Management seminar on Thursday evening which included feedback from sailors on what makes a good regatta from their perspective.
There is some terrific coverage on the Sail Melbourne Facebook site, including wonderful photos and video from Beau Outteridge.
www.facebook.com/sailmelbourne
Some observations from ashore…
- Only refillable water bottles were used by competitors and volunteer lunches were wrapped in paper instead of plastic.
- The hardworking volunteers really appreciated the creative display and the ability to choose their own lunch from a variety of options (thanks to Caroline Hollingsworth and her team)
- Members of GC helped out on the beach, which was a great opportunity to meet the sailors.
- Several young volunteers had the opportunity to chat to John Bertrand about sailing
- Olympians, coaches, enthusiastic Corinthians, parents, volunteers and staff all suffered the rain together as well as the sunshine
- We thank all the members for putting up with the inconvenience of losing their carpark.
- We were pleased to see several new volunteers helping out
At the presentation we acknowledged the VIC State Government for the ongoing sponsorship of the event. We thanked Regatta Chair Paul Pascoe, Principal Race Officer Peter Osbourne, and the Course race officers Ross Wilson, Gary Hosie, Kevin Wilson and Scott Lewellyn @ Sorrento, as well as the International Jury, recognising we were privileged to have such a wealth of experience out there. There were a couple of hundred volunteers over the four days from clubs around Port Phillip, including Mordialloc Sailing Club, Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club, Black Rock Sailing Club and of course our own team at RBYC. Australian Sailing is our partner in this event and has been the long-term driver of Sail Melbourne, and we thanked Meghan Densley and Lesley Fasala from Australian Sailing and their teams.
The RBYC staff put in a great deal of extra effort in the lead up to the event as well as over the past few days, General Manager Phil Hall, Boating Manager Colin Burgess, Functions Manager Caroline Hollingsworth and their teams.
We were proud to have the opportunity to showcase our club, and support so many sailors from our own club as well as visitors.