COMMODORE'S COMMENTARY A Report from Commodore David Stone

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope you all had an enjoyable and restful festive season and that you were able to spend time with family and friends. Hopefully you got rather more use of your boats than I have. What with an influx of family until New Year and going back to work on the 5th, there was not a lot of opportunity get away. Hopefully I will get some time away before the summer ends. Its been all bad as I have just come back from a week in Honolulu. Susie had to go to a conference so Harry and I went along and went to the beach while she worked.

This promises to be a big year for the Club. We will start the first stage of the refurbishment project and we will be successful in our fundraising. While we have not done so well to date, I am confident that this year will be more productive. I will keep you informed of progress in coming months.

Talking of fundraising, the Vice and I both weighed in on New Year’s Day and have begun our weight loss programmes. I haven’t had a drink for a month which is not bad going. However the drought is set to break this weekend as I am going in the Mahurangi Night Race so at least one drink will be in order. In any event we need to kick-off the fundraising programme around our weight loss efforts. I have asked a member of the General Committee to run the fundraiser so more details will appear shortly.

For once I don’t have a lot to say (a miracle some of you may say) so rather than blather on, I will be brief. Go out and enjoy the rest of the sailing season, stay safe and I hope to see a good number of you either on the water or down at the Club.

Happy sailing
David Stone

 

REAR COMMODORE'S REPORT John Ford

Happy New Year everyone.

We had a very pleasant Christmas cruise this year, two weeks on Great Barrier fishing, diving, and socializing. There were a couple of unpleasant draughty nights but on the whole a fabulous cruise. We were accompanied for the most part by Mike and Wendy on Dog box. The water was a tad cooler than usual for the December/Jan period but we still found plenty of fish, crays and scallops. The live bait tank was always holding a fresh feed.

One night we even filled a large salad bowl with beautiful whitebait. At this point I must admit that Mike and Wendy with better lights (we had only a torch) filled a larger bowl than us. (OK Mike!) Just egg and whitebait fritters for breakfast and dinner for a few nights. This was a welcome change from crays, scallops and fish. Oh for a humble sausage after ten days of sea food.
We did have a major glitch, when the house battery bank died after day two. I made the mistake of buying a cheaper $360 12 volt portable fridge that drained the batteries and they wouldn’t re-charge to any extent with the motoring we were doing. Hooked it into the 240 Volt when we arrived home and it took 3 days to cool down. So did I.

We had a few big nights ashore at a friend’s house and had the barbecue flashed up with some magnificent meals. We sat on Norm’s deck, wine in hand, full as butcher’s pups, looking out towards Wellington Heads with not a worry in the world. Some friends brought a large Protector over for four days - that is brilliant to dive from so we were able to dive some spots that I wouldn’t otherwise get to.

Unfortunately, apart from Dog box, we saw only one other DYC boat over the whole two weeks. We anchored a few nights in various Fitzroy Harbour bays and did look out for other members. We did see Daniel Leech and his fiancée Kelly on Fitzroy wharf going to the mussel festival as we were leaving. We only stayed for an hour early on, picked up the filled tanks, and shot out for a dive. We planned to leave early the following morning as the weather was due to break the following day.

We left at 0600 the following morning and had a dream run home in flat seas, saw a whale and plenty of dolphins on the crossing, stopping for a bit to catch some snapper to bring home.
2010 should be a fantastic year for the club. We will hopefully get the funding, and then the building alterations underway. What a difference this will make.

With luck we will have another three months of summer cruising so look forward to seeing you at the Clubhouse and on the water.

Well the beard has been shaved off, and now it’s back to b..... work!

Cheers
John

 

FROM THE SAILING MASTER Desiree Coleman

What a great summer so far. I hope everyone has made the most of the good weather over Christmas and New Year.

The Gulf Harbour (Peter Blake Memorial) race was a success with very fickle winds There were 7 starters in A and 8 in B. The successful boats being Graham and Val in Masquerade for A and Garry and Sue in Aqualust in B. A great dinner by Gulf Harbour Yacht Club, prizegiving and a very pleasant sing-a-long on Janesta.

We then all lined up for the Home Again race. Very frustrating conditions with the wind coming in from all directions which saw 7 starters in A and 4 in B.

Graham and Val got the double in A and Bob in Who’s Who in B.

Congratulations and well done! Not any easy race. A big thank you to Rob and Diane in Janesta who was our finishing boat and start boat in the morning.

Thank you also to Bill and team who did a great job back at DYC. Thank you to Graham being a able OOD.

The two handed around Waiheke was postponed and will be rescheduled on the 27th March.

As this goes to print we are praying for good conditions up to Mahurangi and the round the islands race.. The following weekend is Islington Bay race and ladies helm home.

The joint picnic with Wakatere Boating Club on Sun 21st Feb followed by the Duder Cup Regatta on Sat 27th Feb.

As you can see we have a full Feb programme so here’s hoping for fair winds.

Cheers Des

 

TRUANT"S JUBILEE Martin Foster

.On December 19, 2009, a special relaunching of the 28foot Woollacott sloop Truant took place at the Devonport Yacht Club to mark the yacht’s 50th Jubilee. Honours were performed by Gail Woollacott who, fifty years previously, as the eight year old youngest daughter of John Woollacott had performed the original launching. It was a grand affair although the weather, a somewhat cool blustery westerly, was not very summery for the occasion.

Truant was designed and built by Bert Woollacott’s son John in 1959. The yacht was built in the open
under canvas covers on John Woollacott family’s front lawn in Wairoa Rd in Devonport. Truant is built of single skin construction on permanent frames and steamed timbers and planked in North American Oregon pine.

Following her launching I used to crew on Truant on a number of long distance blue water races including three Whangarei-Moko Hinau Islands -Poor Knights races and a number of other local blue water classics. On one Whangarei race we got a real pasting. Racing in an easterly gale we were one of only three yachts out of a fleet of eighteen which were able to complete the course. On another occasion I sailed with the family one Christmas holidays up north as far as Doubtless Bay and return.
After taking over the yacht in 1967 I owned her for the next thirty one years and raced and cruised in her extensively covering many thousands of incident free nautical miles. I have kept a log book of all my sailing experiences in Truant including a record of all the crews who have sailed with me over the years. My sailing highlights in this fine little yacht include a five month voyage around New Zealand in the summer of 1972/73 and racing in the first Two Man Round the North Island Race in 1977 in which Truant won the Borough of Devonport Trophy for the first Devonport yacht on handicap [there were ten Devonport yachts in the first race].

The voyage to Stewart Island and back up New Zealand’s west coasts was a real adventure and was to prove the yacht’s sea keeping abilities under some pretty atrocious weather conditions encountered in southern latitudes. In those days navigation was by traditional means, sextant and chronometer and where radio coverage was not what it is to-day, No mobile phones either! Altogether I have done quite a bit of offshore sailing but this particular voyage will always remain the highlight of my fifty two years of yacht ownership.

I treasure the memories of all my voyages and of all those who have sailed with me in Truant. Truant has always been a happy ship; has never let me down and believe me we have sailed through some really tough situations! She has also taught a number of young men a lot about seamanship and who have gone on to make their mark in the sailing world.

In order to take over Ladybird in 1997 I reluctantly had to part with my beloved yacht and sold her to an old friend of mine, Mike Sweeney who used to crew with me as a teenager. Mike eventually sold Truant to Mike and Tash Strong who later came into partnership with me in Ladybird and sold Truant to her current owners Bill Rimmer and Steve Hinton.

There were between seventy and eighty persons who attended this special relaunching which was celebrated with bubbly and mince pies kindly provided by Truant’s current owners.

Martin Foster

 

STORIES FROM THE PAST Chris Leech

Over the coming months I will include some old naval sayings, which will intrigue all and offer an explanation as to their origin. (Reproduced with kind permission of the RNZN Museum)

Make headway:
Progress in any activity
Forward motion of a sailing ship.

Make heavy weather of:
Make a task more difficult than it actually is
Ships struggled sailing against adverse winds and waves, making headway difficult.

Money for old rope:
Financial gain for very little
Sailors in port short of cash would sell lengths of old rope. (see also slush fund)

Nail one’s colours to the mast:
Show determination; make intentions known
A ship’s flags were known as ‘colours’. In battle the combatants tried to seize the colours flown on the opposing ship. To nail colours to the mast made them difficult to seize and signalled a resolve not to submit. (see also pass with flying colours and show your true colours)

Nipper:
Young lad
Where the anchor cables on the largest sailing ships were too thick to bend around a capstan, they had thinner, messenger lines attached. Those thinner lines were joined, or ‘nipped’ to the thicker cables by young boys, who became known as ‘nippers’.

No great shakes:
No great value
When a cask became empty, it was taken to pieces, or ‘shaken’, so that it could be stored more easily in less space. The staves and hoops that made up a barrel, which on their own had no use (or value), were known as ‘shakes’.

No room to swing a cat:
in a confined space
Floggings using a cat (cat o’ nine tails) were carried out on deck because of the restricted space and headroom below decks, where there wasn’t the room to ‘swing the cat’.

CR Leech ED*

 

MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY

Regular updates of the Club’s Members’ Boat Directory and Members’ Directory will be posted in subsequent Devonport Yacht Club News issues, as required.

You are invited to paste these amendments into your yearbook.

 

	NEW MEMBERS
TYPE	MEMBER NAME
Family Membership	Anthony Macpherson and Phillippa Sherry, Lydia Sherry & Grace Macpherson
Ordinary Membership	Douglas Moore
Associate Membership	Rubin Levin Susan Waddell

 

CHILDRENS" CHRISTMAS PARTY NATASHA STRONG

A CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS PARTY THANK YOU

On behalf of the Devonport Yacht Club, the social committee would like to thank
Don Anstiss for judging the artwork for the 2009 children’s Christmas party colouring competition.

Thank you Don!

CAMERA CLIPS Kids Christmas Party

Kids Christmas getting ready for the rush	Kids Christmas Party - All aboard
Kids Christmas - Graham in control	Kids Christmas - walking back with Santa
Leaving Auckland behind	Greig on TiriTiri Islandl
Harry on Ladybird	Sylvia getting use to cruising life
Nats on Helm, Sylvia keeping a watch	Thelma - oh so close to being home

 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The article in the December newsletter suggesting that our Commodore and his vice get fit and lose some kilos reminded me of the fitness campaign that the Offshore crew carried out during the 1970s and 80s when we were doing a lot of serious ocean racing. The crew made up of DYC members Ray Shaw, his son Raymond, Phil Warring owner of Ebb Tide and Keith Douglas the owner of Shimmer and myself used to meet twice a week at the yacht club and all jog to the Masonic Hotel where we would drink for a couple of hours and anyone that could make it back to the yacht club was considered fit enough to continue racing. It was a very enjoyable way of keeping fit.

Frank Warnock.

MARORO

Today we hauled Maroro, sorry no one had a camera except my phone so not a very good quality image.

This photo is Siobhan Hall collecting a feed of large mussels from the hull. The kelp was also impressive.

Lets not let all our boats get to this stage!

Kind regards
Derek Snowball

Dear Neil

RE: OCEAN CRUISING DIVISION REUNION

Herewith the closing chapter.

A note of thanks to everyone who registered, and special thanks to those who came from far and wide to make this Reunion the success it was. The day was everything we had wanted it to be a Reunion. And what a wonderful turnout of old faces came out of hibernation. In many cases, faces not seen in years. Thank God for the name tags. We had a total registration of 163, 10 didn’t make it, and 15 just “turned up”. The weather was better than had been forecast and everything except the Club speaker system went off without a hitch. Our apologies to those unable to hear anything of our formal part of the afternoon from all accounts that was almost everyone!

A highlight was having two of the original OCO Committee ( formed August 1951) join us - Harry Pope and Neil Coleman - looking very sprightly and both as sharp as tacks. Unfortunately, another original of that same committee, Mait Hillson, although registered didn’t make it on the day.

Then we had the announcement that the 9th Blue Water Medal award is to be made posthumously to Sir Peter Blake. In acknowledging that the Blue Water Medal is awarded for “a most meritorious voyage or race” Geoff Bullock wrote in his proposal to the RAYC General Committee “I would like to propose that Sir Peter is awarded the Blue Water Medal as recognition of a truly extraordinary yachtsman and seaman by viewing his life as a voyage.” We are delighted that this proposal was accepted.

It was great to have Tony Armitt, first recipient of the Blue Water Medal in 1959, find time to call in, albeit ever so briefly. We also had Mac Nell, the third medal recipient 1970, choose to join us forsaking a weekend away on the water - sorry about that Norma, and the unexpected bonus was Rebecca Hayter, daughter of Adrian Hayter the second recipient, make an appearance with the medal awarded to her Dad back in 1963.

Before we put everything back into boxes and into the archives, there are a few people to be acknowledged, beginning with the R.A.Y.C. Commodore, Graham Jones. Initially he had no idea what “OCO” meant or represented. We were horrified. However, he is a quick learner and his total support and enthusiasm for the Reunion was evident from our first Meeting with him.   Nothing was a problem, and his generosity and that of his Flag Officers in donating us use of the Club Rooms for the day was very much appreciated.

Thanks are due to Graeme Orchard for his support, time and for being our mentor about all things “Akarana”. Also, to Tony Whiting for his enthusiasm, generosity and his “just leave it with me” approach, thus carrying on superbly from where D’Arcy left off with. Tony’s power point presentation of old OCO party photos took us on a trip down memory lane and aroused much amusement. Did we really ever look that young and dress up like that? Then there is that Neil Burgess! If you have wondered how we found you, now the secret’s out. He was responsible for many of you being unearthed. Beware; he just seems to know where people have relocated to. Neil, your enthusiasm and assistance was invaluable. Thank you.

Thanks to those two have phoned, written, or emailed, it has been the icing on the cake knowing how much you enjoyed the day.

Finally, some bright spark has pointed out that the 1st August, 2011 will be the aGO’s 60th Birthday. If anyone wants to organise a Birthday Party then we have an excellent data base from which to commence!

May the Festive Season, and 2010, look after you well. Kindest regards,

Lee, Barbara, Coleen & Elaine

PS: If anyone has mislaid a blue folder, containing lots of wonderful Blue Water Medal history and with Air New Zealand Auckland to Suva Yacht Race 1979 printed on the outside please give Lee a call 536-5526.

EDITOR'S CHALLENGE

Welcome to 2010! We have all been on holiday, some having trips away (even if it was just to the corner dairy) so now is the time to put fingers to key board (or even pen to paper) and write down what you did… even some photo’s would go down well – remember this is your Newsletter for your stories…… by now you will be tired of hearing from me! If you have never written anything for the Newsletter so far now is the time! I hear so many stories of trips overseas, trips out to the barrier etc so why not share them with everyone else?

So this is the challenge… write something now and email it to me on tashmike.strong@xtra.co.nz

 

NOTICE BOARD

Treasurer Required Accounting Knowledge Essential MYOB System Assistant Treasurer available for day to day input etc. Approximately 3 hours weekly There will be a good transition period Attendance required for monthly meeting (3rd Tuesday of each month) Honorarium payable Ring Matt (445-7188) or Sue (445-2815) Friday Night Members Draw Here's how it works; Every Friday evening a Member’s number will be drawn If your number comes up you must in the clubhouse and be in possession of your membership card to claim the Prize No winner, and the prize Jackpots to next week The weekly prize is a $20 voucher from one of our local businesses Devonport Hammer Hardware Glengarry Wines, Devonport Evergreen Books, Devonport Be there to Win  Chequers Catering WE DO GREAT WEDDINGS / PRIVATE PARTIES AT HOME / GIVE US A CALL North Shore (Gay Larner) 021776701 New Market kitchen 524 2606 Posted 2/7/2009