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Club Yachting
Link Healthcare Islands Weekend
By Norm Weaver
Everyone singing along with the night’s surprise entertainment
The Link Healthcare Islands Weekend in aid of the RPAYC Integrated disAbled Sailing the Wattle Cup. Ensign Boating sponsored a Bavaria Division and an Oktoberfest BBQ
was a huge success. It featured great sailing, excellent food and drink, wonderful after the race with Bratwurst and Lowenbrau flowing freely. Best Dressed crew prize
live music and best of all raised $40,000 for a tremendous cause.
was won jointly by Martin & Anna Cross on Antares and Wayne Wotton and the the
Saturday night kicked off the weekend with the RPAYC Gala Dinner, the club’s signature crew of Sobella. These boats also finished 3rd & 4th so it goes to show that dressing
social event of the year. A sumptuous 3 course meal was served in the newly refurbished up helps your performance!
Admirals Cup room by the club’s excellent staff, but this year there were a couple of The Club was packed all afternoon and everyone had a great time. With sponsorships,
ring-ins: ‘Maria the chef’ and ‘Tony the waiter’ turned out to be professional opera auctions, the raffle and other donations over $40,000 was raised towards IdS. These
singers! After serving the mains they surprised everyone by bursting into song and funds will be used to provide support to integrate sailors with disabilities into the
treating us to a show with numbers ranging from O sole mio to Hey Big Spender! Club’s regular sailing program, for example maintaining the specially converted
Fortunately this obviously spurred on the audience because the silent and live auction Sydney 38 yacht Another Challenge, supporting the not-for profit organisation
raised over $12,000! Originally scheduled to be a silent auction however one of our
Sailability and other projects to promote and support inclusivity for keen sailors of
guest was Vice Commodore Lionel Dooley from Bobbin Head Cruising Club who did
a great job as auctioneer for the three headline items: a day out on Matthew Flinders ALL ages and abilities.
donated by John Bacon, fully catered by RPAYC, a Mercedes for the weekend and a
night at Peppers donated by G Brothers, and a holiday on Hamilton Island donated
by Oatley Wines. A fabulous evening was rounded off with another quality musical
treat, The Tatum Trio, leading the dancing until late.
Sunday morning brought the Islands Race with 26 crews competing (some still a
little dusty from Saturday night!). A brisk trade was done at the skipper’s briefing in
the morning with the ability to purchase additional handicap time and specially
designed Islands Weekend flags and bandannas were also much in demand. Cruising
Division also had a mystery cruise and there was also large fleet of Couta Boats for
I would like to give my appreciation to Mandy Hansen and Suzanne Davies and all
club staff. The Activities Committee members made the event come to fruition: Annie
Taylor, Ann Asker, Colin Cook, Sal Ridulfo and Scott Dunstan. Finally I would like to
thank Link Healthcare, the major sponsor for IdS; Ensign Ship Brokers who sponsored
the Oktoberfest BBQ and Bavaria division; and all the individuals and companies
that donated auction lots and raffle prizes: Above & Beyond, Anna Cross, Bayview
Golf Club, Debbie Cordukes, FineWine Partners & Chateau Tanunda, G. Brothers,
John Bacon, Katie Spithill, Ocean Covers, Robert Oatley Vineyards, RPAYC and
Synergy & TaikOz.
2015 Edition
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