From the Tiller

The coming weekend marks the end of the summer sailing season and our Learn to sail program. Note we have winter sailing once a month. Put those in your calendar as we encourage everyone to participate. The centreboard group sails in the mornings when the breeze is generally stronger. 

The annual ASC Presentation day will be held on the 24th May after the yacht race. Awards and trophies will be presented for sailing achievement across centreboard & yacht classes along with the club perpetual achievement & volunteer trophies.  

Two weeks ago we had 70 dinghies racing on three courses as part of the Pittwater Off The Beach regatta hosted together with BYRA and RPAYC which also included MJ, Spiral and Waszp championships. Fifteen boats from ASC participated and we had some place getters, Glenn Attrill, Nicholas Chan, Charlie Quinn, Rafael Cockle, Tasman Young, Otto Cockle.  

Special shout out to Division winners, Glenn Attril, Charlie Quinn & Rafael Cockle.

Click here for results.

Wishing our O’pen Skiff sailors all the best in the Speers Point Regatta 28-29 March and yachts Kookaburra and Papillion all the best in the Pt Stephens regatta 13-18 April. 

Helena van de Linde

Commodore

Winter sailing dates:

Sunday 24 May* *This date has been moved from 17 May on account of the TP52 Pittwater regatta

Sunday 14 June

Sunday 19 July

Sunday 16 August

Presentation & Awards - Sun 24th May (after sailing)

Awards will be presented for most enthusiastic and most improved in Blue & Red Groups, along with spring, summer and club championships for all centreboard classes. Awards are also presented to the winners of each yacht series along with a couple of trophies for fastest yacht etc. Centreboard & Yacht racers will be awarded for 1st, 2nd & 3rd places.  

This is an important day for us to acknowledge members who volunteer as well as those who have achieved outstanding sailing results. Awards for top male, female & family sailors as well as a number to recognise those who have contributed most to the club. 

So please join us to support the club and show your appreciation for those who have excelled. You might have an award to pick up yourself ! The BBQ will be on & the bar open to enjoy our great location on a winter’s afternoon.

Sunday 29 March 2026 Last weekend of Summer Season

Thank you to all the canteen volunteers (blue group parents and Bronwyn Quinn). Who have kept us in pies and sausage rolls. Next weekend we plan to cook Eggs/Bacon for the Blue/Red groups and a free sausage sizzle for the Yachts and PM Centreboard for a festive end to the summer season. 

Pittwater Off the Beach Reggatta 14-15 March

This would not have happened without planning and collaboration with the other clubs. Thank you to the volunteers who make stuff happen - canteen and bbq, on water support, race control, boat portaging and also the committee members who met with the other clubs to plan for this regatta. 

We had one guest volunteer, John Hardy. Kingsley met John because he was moored in a Lagoon 57 (Catamaran) near RMYC and they got talking. John and his partner Pauline are both dinghy sailors and world yachtspeople. John was the Commodore of Burnham on Crouch sailing club in the UK and offered to assist with the mark laying as a volunteer. He came for a sail with us on a club Spiral last weekend. They have family here and in New Zealand and have both sailed from UK here a number of times. They will be leaving again soon but expect to be back because they think we live in Paradise.

Trailers

You may have noticed a couple of trailers in the grass area inside the bend. One is the club trailer we acquired with our most recent Puffin Pacer and another is Tony Cockle’s trailer to take multiple Open Skiffs to regattas. We have setup a booking system in RevSport for members who wish to use or borrow the trailer - send your request to info@avalonsailingclub.com.au

Response Crews

Our sailing program would not work without the response crews who are among the first to arrive and last to leave on Sundays. They get the response boats ready. Lower the response tenders and coach boats and motors off the deck, blow up the marks and lay the dinghy course and over the last number of years have offered expert race control and yacht starts. Their expertise is responsible for us having a great sailing/racing program. The people who work with us are typically school age to early school leaver age before they age out of the role and at the end of this season we will be saying goodbye to some of the familiar faces Chris Wyton, Ned Masters, Kaelan Gregory,  Jarvis Saunders and welcome our new head response crew Jeremy Coulston-Jones, Finn Parr and Charlie Gibson. If you see Chris about next weekend make sure you thank him for his reliable service and leadership of the response crew. 

AED and CPR Refresher with Louise Lindop - Tuesday 14th April, 6:30pm to 7:30pm

Judy Davie (of Clareville Fitness) and the community of Hilltop rd residents have arranged for an AED to be installed at the Clareville shops and Louise Lindop has offered to once again run a training/refresher session on CPR and Defibrillator use. This is a free session  from 6.30 to 7.30pm after which people might like to stay for a drink and a chat

Club house improvements over winter

Winter is a good time for us to attend to improvements to the club house. This year our focus is to improve some of our lighting and doorways and to replace or turn over some of the boards on the outside rigging deck that are showing significant signs of wear.

We will announce via Whatsapp when we need volunteers  to help. 

We will also be launching another tax -deductible Australian Sports donation fund to help fund some of these necessary improvements.