The racing was exciting, the weather glorious and the harbour and Mosman Bay sparkled like diamonds. What a fantastic gathering the Winter Series crews had back at the club after race 3.

Watching the foiling cats of Sail GP suffer the vagaries of an Easterly wind recently confirmed that sailing is not always a spectator sport. The reward we sailors enjoy requires “skin in the game” and dealing with whatever conditions “Huey” might send.

The winter months are supposed to be a quieter time at the Amateurs. The winter series of races is just over and we can spend a little time at home before starting to prepare our boats for the Spring and Summer racing. This year has seemed to me to be a lot busier than normal.

We are already well into racing and I wish you all a safe and successful
time on the water. Since Christmas there have been three races abandoned due to storm warnings, so when we do manage to start a race we should be truly thankful.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a new member to our
club — just launched on Sunday 1 December. A brand new, freshly
caulked, Ranger-class yacht called Volunteer, with sail number A6.

“When too much sailing is barely enough!”
Adapted from the famous saying of Roy Slaven and HG Nelson

Next year, Hoana will be one hundred years old — I think! I bought her thirty-eight years ago, and everybody told me that she had been launched in 1920. Then, when Joe Adams gave me the line drawings which he and the next owner, Hank Kauffman, had made of her, I noticed that 1920 had been struck out, replaced by 1924.

On the eve of the year’s longest night, bathed in the luminous glow of a full moon, Sydney Amateurs marked the winter solstice with a soiree! A spirited company of crew members and esteemed guests, from the ship James Craig, revelled in a fabulous rollicking celebration.

We all have our foibles. Among my lesser obsessions is the urge to waste inordinate amounts of time fossicking on the internet for old images of boating on Sydney Harbour. The detail in glass-plate photography from a century ago is endlessly evocative.

Two weekends in May were set aside well in advance for a Working Bee. Planned in
detail by Bruce Dover and Trevor Cosh, work was allocated to the about 90 members
who volunteered to help.