September 2024

Hello again and welcome to the 2024-25 season of the Port Lincoln Yacht Club.

If you are a returning member, welcome back again and if you are a new member, then thankyou for joining our club and I hope you get as much enjoyment out of your involvement with PLYC as so many of us have in the past.

Open day this year is set for October 12^th and will follow the format of years past with the official sailpast, followed by the “Commodores Cup”, followed by our opening night dinner at the club that I’d love for you all to get behind and support. We will be running with the online ticket system again as this really streamlines our catering on the night so keep an eye open on your emails for details on this as the day gets closer.

Last season was quite a successful one for PLYC both on the water and off. The clubs financial position is again solid, our membership numbers are not growing massively but certainly not waning, and our presence on the water locally, nationally and even internationally is ever strong.

This season sees PLYC hosting the Cadet class National titles between Christmas and new year and planning for this is well underway. This is a great opportunity for our Cadet sailors to take part in a national title in their home waters, something that not everyone will have an opportunity to do in their sailing journey. The last time these nationals were here it was a great regatta and I’m sure we will again show the rest of the country how good Port Lincoln is for sailing and how well we can run a regatta. This will of course be the pre cursor to the Sharpie class Nationals the following year for which plans are already in motion.

This year also sees the 75^th running of the Teakle Classic Adelaide to Port Lincoln Race and Regatta. In this day and age to see an iconic event such as this through to 75 years, I think is a real feather in our clubs hat and we are hoping to get a lot more both SA and interstate boats wanting to come over for this, the 75^th running. These 3 events are just another example of PLYC’s stature and our contribution to injecting thousands of dollars into our local economy through bringing people here, that ordinariliy wouldn’t visit and having them spending their holidays in or town and region.

The grant we received from Bendigo Bank has allowed us to set ourselves up for an extended time in regards to club power boats, We purchased a 2^nd hand 23 foot fibreglass Arvor in excellent condition which is now our new start boat and construction of a brand new course boat is well underway being built locally in Port Lincoln. We sincerely thank Bendigo Bank for their ongoing support of all local sporting and community groups and we look forward to seeing our new boats “on duty”

This year will see us again run a roster system for both canteen and pickup duty, both extremely important facets of our club that we cannot do without, the canteen and boatshed are the heartbeat of PLYC on any given Saturday and a great social space to catch up with others before the days sailing, and obviously we cant run without pickup boats for our safety and start boats to get us underway for the day. I know everyone seems to run a full calender in these times but our volunteering is the key to keeping our club alive and well so please get behind it. Our pop up Oyster/prawn shop will be operating again on cruise ship days and again this is run on a volunteer basis so any help would be great, this venture has had fabulous results for us financially and a huge thankyou must go to Kym Clarke Constructions for his more than generous donation of Oysters for us to sell.

Now in my second year as Commodore I’m very proud to be part of what this club has achieved over many decades and it’s a great credit to all involved however small or large the role has been. Here’s hoping this year we can add another successful year to the PLYC history books

I wish everyone a safe and fun season, sailing whatever it is you have chosen to sail for the year and look forward to seeing you all on the water and afterwards at the bar for a catch up and a de-breif on the days events and to celebrate the days winners, by this I mean celebrate all of us because we’ve just been sailing for the day so that makes us all winners!!

“To Foster a Love of the Sea”

Hayden McFarlane

Commodore

Port Lincoln Yacht Club