On Saturday 2 October it was my pleasure to host Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC, Tasmania’s new Governor and RYCT Commodore-in-Chief to take the salute from vessels participating in the 2021-22 Sailing Season Opening Day Manoeuvres. The weather forecast for a pretty miserable day obviously deterred a number of people to stay home. Nevertheless, for those that did venture out the actual weather was much better than forecast; how typically Tasmanian is that!
The Best Prepared boat beauty prize was awarded to Tilt (Peter Cretan), with the most imaginatively dressed crew award going to the recently renamed Priscilla of the Derwent (John Bourke).
In October we welcomed the Tasmanian Premier’s announcement that the Tasmanian state border will reopen on 15 December. This increases our optimism that we will have a Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race this year. “Planning with optimism” for the race continues.
During October the Board embarked on a formal Risk Review process, by initially filling in a survey of what individual directors considered to be our biggest risks across the business. These issues were discussed at a facilitated session at the October board meeting and work continues to prioritise the issues raised which will influence where we place our attention and audit focus into the future.
At the October Board meeting Vice Commodore Ross Mannering, supported by Director and Off The Beach Chairman Ed Fader, presented the draft OTB Strategy for discussion. The OTB Strategy is a subset of the overall Club Strategy and sets out in a structured manner the opportunities and priorities for investment required to support our growing OTB operations.
The 2021/22 Sailing Season is well underway, as is planning for cruising events including the Club’s Annual Picnic at Richardson’s Beach on Sunday 5 December.
See you on the water!
Richard Bevan
Commodore