Our club again participated in the Audi Week sailing program in partnership with the Rotary Club of Essendon North .

The program involved six young people from rural Victoria who had never experienced sailing before participating in a three day experience of a lifetime .

The six young people were –

Kirrily Hall from Bendigo
Sean Orr from Echuca
Matt Allen from Quarry Hill in Bendigo
Phoebe Lorincz from Castlemaine
Connor Bethune from Castlemaine and
Emily Thiesz from Daylesford .

They arrived in Melbourne on Thursday 20 January and attended the Australia Day lunch at Docklands and then enjoyed a dinner with the Essendon North Rotary Club .

On the Friday they received a briefing at Docklands regarding the race that they were to participate in on the Saturday and were colleted by our club members at lunchtime .

Through the good work of Chris Warner they visited Anchor Marine to hear about sailing from Chris and then watched a sailmaker in action before returning to the Morts’ place for a pre dinner swim in the pool and spa .

Our club then hosted a pizza dinner at the house of Barb Beed and Jeff Taylor with the other hosts as well as President Ross and Belinda .

The dinner was a great success with each young person telling their life story to date in five minutes .

Matt Allen who does stand up comedy entertained those present and Sean played the guitar and we all sang “Sitting On the dock of the Bay “ before retiring in preparation for an early morning departure to Sandringham Yacht Club the following morning .

The boat allocation  was

Sympatico – Phoebe and Sean
Stampede – Connor
Alex – Matt
51st Project – Kirrily
INSX – Emily .

The winds for the sail from Docklands to Geelong were very light and the sail took in excess of ten hours .

Kerry Warner , the chairman of the organising committee and a member of Essendon North Rotary , reported all the young people had a great experience .

The hosts from our club of the young people were Barb Beed & Jeff Taylor , Sue Jones , Lyn & Phil Mortimer and Sue & Phil Rowell .

Thanks particularly to Barb and Jeff for hosting the Friday night dinner and thanks to all hosts as well .

Another successful year of this project that has now been running for ten years .

Phil Rowell
 
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