Safety Beach Sailing Club NEWS 15th October 2025

Commodore's Address

A big thank you to all of the members that attended the SBSC Season Opening. The sail past went well, some members enjoyed it so much they went past a few times to make sure they got it right! Maybe they just could not believe the Commodore was in a tux!

Following the Sail Past we had around 120 members and guests to the Club. We were joined by Zoe Mckenzie, Federal Member for Flinders and also a sailor, Chris Crewther, State Member , Anthony Marsh, Mayor of Mornington Peninsula Shire Council and several Commodore's and Flag Officers from RYCV, RMYS, SYC, MYC, DBYC, BYS & McCrae Yacht Club. This year were also had many of our sponsors present many of whom spoke highly of the event and their enthusiasm for the Club.

The EC wishes all members a safe and competitive season and we look forward to some close racing.

Tony

Committee Structure Season 2025 / 2026

Please find this table below as a general reference for the committee structure.

If there is no email address against a member's name, please forward your enquiry to our secretary Veronica Psaila This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Executive Committee
Commodore	Tony Christmas	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Vice Commodore	John Weymss	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Rear Commodore	Tim Bardon	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Secretary	Veronica Psaila	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Treasurer	Duncan McColl	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Memberships	John Di Martino	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
General Members	James Anderson
	John Bacon
	Fiona Lowe
	Bill Manning
	Neil Whitaker
Sailing Committee
Rear Commodore	Tim Bardon	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Keelboat Captain	John Nicholas	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Off the Beach Captain	Peter Chipperfield
Discover Sailing Principal	Fiona Lowe	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bosun / Patrol Boats	Neil Whitaker
Junior Club Captain	Zac Lowe
Sail Peninsula Chair	John Di Martino	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
General	Bill Manning
Keelboat Committee
Keelboat Captain	John Nicholas	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tower Admin	Elaine Nicholas
	Amanda Malin
Race Management / RO	Geoff Eldridge	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Off The Beach Committee
	Peter Chipperfield
	Bill Manning
Race Management / RO	Geoff Eldridge	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Junior Sailing Committee
	Fiona Lowe	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	James Anderson
	Bill Manning
	Nick Meijer
Sail Peninsula Committee
	John Di Martino (Chair)	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	James Anderson
	Tim Bardon	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Tony Christmas	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Geoff Eldridge	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	John Nicholas
	Chris Parks	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Veronica Psaila	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Deirdre Snooks	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	John Weymss	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Linda Wooley
House Committee
Vice Commodore	John Weymss	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Yardmaster	Andrew Taylor	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Building Security	James Anderson	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
IT	Neil Whitaker	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
General	Bill Manning
Marketing & Sponsorship
	Tony Christmas	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Amy Larson	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Christina Chandler	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Newsletter & Socials
	Fiona Lowe	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Social Committee
	Gwen McAuliffe (Chair)
	Veronica Psaila	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Deirdre Snooks	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
	Jill Knight
	Melissa Kelly
	Mem Mackie
	Robyn Weymss
	Sallylou Hamilton
	Sheryl Schumacher
Risk Management
	Bruce Mansfield	This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Off The Beach News

Kon-ni-chi-wa Gang.

I'm just about to head off for a couple of weeks to the Land of the Rising Sun. Although looking at the weather forecast, it's more like the Land of the Falling Rain! But I couldn't leave without a quick run-down of Sunday's Opening Day Gala.

The weather of course didn't start out perfect, sorry about that, and there was precious little beach left after the week of heavy onshore wind. But undeterred, the trusty race crew of Geoff, Super D, Alister and Charlie M, Paul M and Moi set up the boats and headed out into the maelstrom. The RHIBs promptly turned tail and waited at our new berth for a bit until the wind eased somewhat. It did of course, and as there was a plethora (well, 8 OTBs and 8 KBs) on the water and eager to go, we all headed out towards Sorrento to set a course for the KB start.

Once they were happily underway, the OTBs lined up and followed suite. Camped out near the top mark in Sutherland rhib, I could see it was a tough slog going upwind, with Greg and James in the one and only Tasar way in front. Then came a couple of 420's, Ross M in his new Impulse followed by Grace L in her Laser, all in Div 3. Then not far behind were the 3 Div 2 Sabres of Rick P, Fiona M and James T. Interestingly, while Rick and Fi went right, James went left and ended up first to the top mark. On the second lap James went right with Rick and Fi going left, and what do ya know? No difference. All boats held position for the whole race as far as I could see with the exception of Fi pipping Rick right on the line!

The wind eased nicely throughout the race and the sun even poked it's nose out a few times, which probably made some of the people on the beach wish they had ventured out. Ah well, we'll put it down to Opening Day nerves. Luke M did come out in his new foiling Moth for a bit of a blast (and a few swims) but actually had it up foiling a lot of the time, which was pretty amazing for the first time out.

Before you knew it, with racing done it was back to the beach for the yachts and the dock for the race team. Another successful day on the water with no rescues required, with the exception of Katrina M, who had jumped on the rhib with Al and Charlie while we were waiting at the berth. When we came back, She hopped off on the wrong side of the gate and would have been stuck there all night if it hadn't been for Paul's local knowledge. A quick double back and all was saved, chalk up one rescue for Sutherland!

Back at the Club, all was pretty quiet when we got there. With all the boats packed up and no one on the deck, it seemed a bit of a ghost town, but soon enough the crowds arrived and everyone settled into the usual friendly banter and ribbing that makes SBSC such a great place.

I'll see you all in a couple of weeks, any problems, call Bill Manning (sorry again Bill).

Sa-yo-na-ra and kan-pai,

Pete Chippy

Keelboats

Aeolus tried to take revenge on us for failing to provide the appropriate sacrifices. But we beat the bugger anyway. Brisk breezes, a sail past under sail, cheers for the Commodore rightly returned, and well done Tumi.

During the morning there were conversations with Geoff Eldridge, who was not sure the OTBs would get off the non-existent beach nor that the ribs could safely set the windward turning mark for a line start. But in the end the fears were unfounded. The Tower set a course with two close reaches and a run; you may say a soldiers’ course. But what a course! Drag races can be fun as a speed test and (whoops, mentioning Ninjo again) we enjoyed it immensely. And our motor conked out (again!). Thanks to Woodsy for towing us home.

Tumi did miss out on a fun sail. Wind not far under our limit. Vincitore and Ninjo had a great start, neck on neck, Ninjo a couple of boat widths to windward, but just as we were about to hit the line both boats had to bear away to avoid a head-on collision with a white blind boat sailing back to the line from the on-course side for a head-on collision with little Ninjo. I don’t even know who it was! Thanks to Peter and his crew for making sure we didn’t have to hit Vincitore; we were the windward boat keeping clear. CAN EVERYONE PLEASE NOMINATE A LOOKOUT FOR THE PRE-START. It was a bloody scary start to the season. Brown deck.

Boat of the Week has to be Summer Breeze, 8th over the finish line but 1st on PHS. Beating one’s handicap is the point of these performance handicap pursuits. Please keep it up.

3rd over the line and 2nd place was Happy Days. First over the line and 3rd place was Vincitore. The bigger boats managed to stay ahead of the minnows. (Oh, and Ninjo came 4th on scratch and PHS. Sorry.)

Next week is the first Club Championship race for the keelboats. It’s a boat start with Amanda Race Officer nominating the course and recording the finishers. Le Tardis will be duty boat, manning the Tower and providing one crew member on the water helping with mark laying etc. Setting a good example for the season ahead.

Cheers

John Nicholas

Keelboat Captain

Refueling Tip

Did you know that it is illegal to refuel your boat with passengers onboard in Victoria? The Marine Safety Regulations prohibit fuelling when passengers are on board, and also prohibit restarting vessels with passengers on board after refuelling. An exception exists for places other than a wharf, jetty and pier if it is not practical or possible to disembark passengers before fuelling or restarting the vessel. Penalties apply for fuelling vessels while passengers are on board and for restarting vessels with passengers on board after fuelling.

Memberships

Currently, we have 66 outstanding invoices requiring payment that are approaching being 2 months overdue. The club is reliant on its membership fees and sponsorships to fund its operations and support all sailing, recreational and club activities. It would be greatly appreciated if outstanding fees could be paid as soon as possible. No membership payment means ineligible for yard storage and soon risk any racing results achieved!

Yard Storage

Members, please make sure you are paid or in the process of paying your membership to be eligible for yard storage. Allocations will be finalised in the next few weeks. If you still have a boat in the yard and don't plan to sail regularly, your boat may need to go on a top rack or be taken home to create space for the regular sailors. Fiona has been working towards numbering the yard plots to better record the boats in the yard. A numbering system is planned with a map and spreadsheet in the corridor for easy identification. However.......Fiona's new stencils are missing, suspected thrown in the skip during the working bee. Oh No!! Have you seen them? Or do you have access to a set of number stencils 150mm heigh for Fiona to borrow to complete this project. Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sail Peninsula

Sail Peninsula is planned from Friday 20^th February to Sunday 22^nd February inclusive, planning is ongoing. The Notice of Race and the link to enter will be provided in coming weeks.

ORCV

Full calendar of events can be found here: www.orcv.org.au/calendar

Rate Cuts

Are you getting the best from the interest rate cuts?

Why not speak to a local about refinancing?

What have you got to lose?

Home loan rates | Bendigo Bank

For Sale

Rick Potter has been diligently preparing "El Toro" for sale. This Sabre was built by long time SBSC member Drew Mattingley, who recently passed away. Drew was very generous in donating both of the Sabres to the club to help pay for our Junior Sailing Program. This boat still has a lot of adventures in it. It would be great if it stayed at the club.

Photos

What a great sight we had on Sunday with our opening boats all dressed in their fancy flags. Thanks for making the effort everyone. More photos of the day can be found on our SBSC Facebook Page

Submissions

If you wish to contribute anything to the Enews, please submit your content to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Tuesday 8pm each week to make the deadline. Please note submissions may need to pass through Executive Committee for approval from time to time. Love photography? Submit your Photo Of The Week to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in high res, (and it does not have to be about sailing). Follow us on our socials: Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok