Last Saturday saw the culmination of the 22/23 season with accolades awarded to honoured club members at our annual Presentation Night. Around 40 members enjoyed socialising over drinks and a BBQ dinner (thanks for salads and deserts to Susan and her merry band of helpers), so much so that proceedings did not get underway until well after 8pm!
First item of business, and to many the only reason to turn up, was the NASA Trophy. The good news is that as members we seem to be stuffing up less this year; the bad news is that we still provided plenty of ‘moments’ for Matt to generate 3 pages of closely typed material. Over the season, we had 3 broken masts, various collisions with buoys, capsizes, and a stolen medal, however Pete narrowly took the award from Craig with his outstanding ability to break other peoples boats and for falling down McRae YC’s stairs with style.
Results
| Series | Handicap Championship | VYC Championship |
| Leongatha Toyota | Gary Plozza | Matt Kiely |
| Commodore’s Cup | Sam McVilly | Matt Kiely |
| John Parry | Geoff Rippingale | Matt Kiely |
| Serious Surf | Gary Plozza | Shaun Freeman |
| Broadbeach Inverloch Health Club Tarwin River Marathon | Matt Kiely | |
| Club Champion, A Division | Wayne Smith | |
| Club Champion, B Division | Matt Kiely | |
| Club Champion, C Division | Paula Horton |
As you’ll see from the above, there was no surprise that Club Champion for this season was Matt who has promised to run improver courses so we can all try and catch up a bit. The winner of the Ralph Drake Brockman Trophy for Most Improved Handicap Champion was Gary, now getting the measure of his Aero. This achievement proved to be so exhausting for Gary that he left the party early to go to bed and missed the awards! Well done to all place getters, and in fact well done to all us sailors for taking on Anderson Inlet’s many foibles and not (generally) stuffing up too much!
Best Club Member of the year was awarded to John Fowler for his ongoing dealings with Council, chasing down grants, building a protection fence for the new AC and repairs to the front and side decking, with Steve Horton. This on top of his stalwart service and contribution to members through the Committee.
John and Elizabeth were thanked for their fantastic efforts in the tower and Susan for her feeding us each Sunday, holidays and high days. Their respective contributions are very much appreciated by the membership (and long may they reign).
The evening wrapped up around 9.30pm and we all went home suitably fed and watered, remembering the great sailing and social camaraderie we enjoy here and thanking our lucky stars that we missed the NASA bullet once again. All that is except Pete…