SoPYC 77th Summer Sailing Season Opening Day
Patron, Vice Patrons, Life Members, Past Commodores, Immediate Past Commodore, Visiting Commodores and Flag Officers from Kindred Clubs, Distinguished Guests, Vice Commodore, Rear Commodores, Management Committee, Members, Staff, Friends and Guests, I Welcome you all to the South of Perth Yacht Club and our 77th Summer Sailing Season Opening day. What a glorious day to celebrate the start of another season of sailing.
It is with pride that I stand up here as your newly appointed Commodore and I would like to take this moment in thanking our Immediate Past Comm Michael Cook (Cookie) for his service to the club over the past many years. He is not completely off the hook with Officer of the Day duties still perform. We know how much he hates a microphone!! To the recently retired Flag Officers, Stephen Grover (Crowbar) and Carl Pettersson I would like to thank you for your service to the club and the support you have given me.
A New Team, Fresh Ideas, New Directions, Change, Progressive! These are a few the ways to describe our new Management Committee Members and Flag Offices. We not only have our clubs First female Flag officer…we have two. I am excited and looking forward to meeting the challenges over the course of the next twelve months with a talented and dedicated group of people within the leadership of our Club.
Today is all about our Club and our members and those that are eagerly awaiting to participate in a new season of competition. Having been involved in the schedule for the 2022/23 Sailing season I can honestly say that there is something for all ages, abilities, and classes of vessels. Keelboats, Off the Beach, Offshore and even the Power mob get in some events throughout the Summer months
Whether you sail on a Division 1, SS80, a H28, Spacey 27 or 22, a Red Witch, 125, Optimist, Laser a FF15 or even a DF95 there is a Plethorea (thank You IPC) of events to keep you entertained and active over the summer months.
In between our regular sailing schedule, the club will be hosting or be involved in numerous events. In November and December the club will hold its Wilson Marine Goolugatup Sailing Carnival over two weekends, the first being the pathway classes and the second being for club and invited classes. This event is the club’s premier regatta and is all about having fun. All our Kindred clubs are very welcome to participate.
The 125 Nationals will be hosted over the New Year period and quickly followed by the Open Skiff Nationals in early January. The club in conjunction with Swan River Sailing will host in March the 2023 Champion of Champions, Women’s State Keelboat and Youth State Keelboat Championships. Many of our Flying 15 sailors will also be competing in the FF15 Worlds off Fremantle. We wish all the competitors in all these events’ great success. The Club will be right behind you!
A number of our Members, particularly from our H28 Fleet, will be attending the 2023 Australian Wooden Boat Festival which is held in Hobart, Tasmaina every second year. They intend to man a stall with the main attraction being our very own Boat Builder Len Randall and intend transporting an actual H28 over to Hobart as part of the Festival. Our H28 fleet will also celebrate their 60th Anniversary of sailing at SoPYC.
The Norm Cox – Yimbala/Eun-Na-Mara will again be run in the new year. This event was revitalized early this year with great success, and we wish to grow the event bigger in 2023. For those that don’t know about this event, it is what we call our cross over which brings two Sections and skippers of Sail and Power vessels over to their respective Dark sides! Sail Skippers will skipper in a Power yacht Time Trial and Power Skippers will Helm in a Twilight Yacht Race. This event brings all our Sections together for lots of friendly competition and fun.
I can not finish up without Thanking a few people. Firstly, to the Army of Volunteers that contribute to the successful running of events throughout the year. Whether it is the Race Officers, Start Teams, Mark Layers, Support Boats, Beach Marshalls, Galley Volunteers, Captains and Vice Captains, Committee members, Photographers, and so many more all your efforts are greatly appreciated. Thank You.
Thank you to our Vice Commodore Dave and our Secretary Tracy who have put many hours into organizing today.
To all our staff in Administration, Grounds and hospitality, and in particular our On Water Group assistant Matt Doyle, who has been acting in the sailing Administrators role, I thank them all not just for today but for all the efforts throughout the year on behalf of the club. Thank You
To Our Sailing Captain Glen and Vice-captain Wendy Jorgensson, Our Centreboard Captain Iain Sommerville and Vice-Captain Mary-Ann, Our Junior Captain Regen Sommerville, and our Offshore Captain Chris Hinds we wish you and your respective sections a safe and a successful season.
Finally, I wish all our Members and Participants, not only from our Club, but from Kindred Clubs ‘Fair Winds and following Seas’, for the summer Season.
Thank You.
