ORCV Commodore Update - July 2020

To all our members, volunteers and competitors,

Hello once again. I was hoping to be able to announce the commencement of racing and return to face to face training. Alas that is not to be for some time yet.

It has taken us all a little while to digest the news from the State Government that we are going into lockdown for a second time. As much as we all don’t want that to happen, we respect the Government’s decision and will do our best to adhere to it for the benefit of the community.

Rather than focusing on we cannot do, we thought we would take the chance to let you know what we have been doing, can do and plan to do over the next couple of months.

• Our upcoming online Navigation training courses led by Rod Smallman and Will Oxley have been hugely popular with two repeats of the course sold out. We are working hard to get them ready and will ensure they are valuable and enjoyable for participants.
• We revamped the membership year and aligned it with the sailing season. This included three months of membership at no additional cost to members as some offset of the Covid19 restrictions to club activities.
• We have brought forward the AGM, it will be on the evening of the 14th September, prior to the new membership year. We will be conducting it on line, with an in person option if we can. We have decided to postpone the presentation component of the AGM until later in the year when we can meet in person to celebrate achievements together.
• We have welcomed to the ORCV General Committee two new faces, Jeremy Walton and Aidan Geyson who will bring a much needed fresh perspective to the club.We have prepared a new Constitution and a set of Bylaws for members consideration at the next AGM. This brings the rules up to date and provides additional governance and flexibility improvements.
• We have held the first Organising Committee meeting for a 2022 Pacific Race. We are hopeful to firm up on a date and a destination over the next month or so once we have the second meeting.
• We published a Notice of Race for the 1st welcome back to sailing inter club race. We will still be conducting this race together with our partner clubs, we just aren’t sure when that will be.
• We will firm up on what Ocean racing we can do in the lead up to Christmas. We will run the Coastal sprints when we can and still plan to run a Cup weekend race and the races over the Christmas New Year break. If we can race, we will. Destination and format may change, we will need to remain flexible and open to new ideas. Major races will be highly dependent on Government announcements and border openings, we may need to be creative and design a new race.
• We will be launching an offshore development program for people new to Cat 3 racing and those who may wish to step up to Cat2+ racing in the near future. We were about to launch this, but will hold off for now.

Australian Sailing is being supportive, they recently announced adding an extra 18 months to recently expired SSSC certificates. The Melbourne yacht clubs are collaborating behind the scenes which is great, probably more so than usual. The discussion and sharing of information between clubs we believe will carry into the future which is great for the sport.

Meanwhile we work hard to stay connected and look after our club and our members. I must acknowledge our hard working staff, Vanessa and Jen, who continue to work hard for the club despite challenging conditions and working from home.

Thanks also to go to our wonderful volunteers who keep the club moving forward, especially people in our three key teams. Tim Boucaut and Delma Dunoon in the marketing and communications team are working hard to help us stay connected and bring you the latest information. Simon Dryden is leading the training team, who are working flat out preparing the new courses in an online format which is a first for the club as well as revamping the SSSC course. Justin Brenan and his sailing team are trying to plan the unplannable, putting together the race program and preparing the offshore development program.

Finally, thanks to the hard working General Committee. John Gordon, our Secretary, has been working on membership renewal and the constitution changes. Simon Dryden, our Treasurer, has been dealing with finances, working through grants, job keeper and rental relief while managing to balance the books. Neville Rose has been improving our IT systems, a key foundation of the club. Meanwhile the other General Committee members have been doing their bit, assisting those already mentioned or improving the club in other ways.

So the ORCV really is a wonderful community. We will be racing soon once restrictions ease, when we do its going to be great !!

Martin Vaughan
ORCV Commodore