Vice Commodore Vanessa Dudley finished her 25th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on the 31st December, just the third woman to have sailed than many races. She was rewarded with a medallion at the Prizegiving Ceremony to mark the achievement. Vanessa is a long term member of our club and has won two Laser World Masters Championships in her age group.
Click here to read her interview with Di Pearson on Sail-World about the race. It was clearly a tough one!
Meanwhile at home, also on new year’s eve, club members Jacqui Winship and Jeff Loosemore decided to watch the famous Sydney Harbour fireworks from their Laser. Jeff rigged the boat with the necessary Nav lights and added some Christmas lights to the leech of the sail. In Jeff’s words:
"We were lucky with the wind. Launched a bit late about 9:30 in zero wind. Paddled for awhile then dug into a solid easterly. Sailed right down the edge of the exclusion zone through the masses to about Fort Denison. It seemed that with our sail and lots of lights we had more liberty to go where we wanted. Zoomed around and found Bruce and tied up behind with furled sail ( no battens) Took off again at 1am and I did a few circles around yachts for a laugh. Sailed home is a nice NE with partial hiking and Jacqui sailing all the way with me on the foredeck and teaching Jacqui wave surfing across the sound. Had to paddle the final leg into the club, cold and tired at 2:45am"
