2020 Annual General Meeting Held

Owing the challenging Covid-19 situation the 2020 AGM was quite different affairs to usual. Normally we like to sit down for a very long lunch in the Blues Point Hotel with a bit of AGM business conducted between courses. This year a small group of members met in Lavender Bay, strictly adhering to social distancing guidelines, and got straight down to the agenda and completed the AGM in a record 13 minutes (sic).

Firstly, congratulations to Hugh Babington and Megisti for a clean sweep of the Spring and Autumn series as well as the overall Club Championship 2019/20. The other winners are listed in the Commodore’s report of the 2019/20 season which is attached at the bottom of the report.

Talking about the Commodore: the club would like to express a big think you to Chris Winston, who after 1 year as Vice- and 2 years as Commodore stepped down from the committee and handed the helm to Michael Jansen (if you haven’t met Michael yet, please find below a short biography).

The 2020/21 season BPYC committee will be: Commodore - Michael Jansen; Vice-Commodore - David Swain; Treasurer and Secretary - Bill Steenson; Ordinary members - Carl Braden; Joerg Klug and Hugh Babington. Thank you to Jeri Childers how stepped down from the committee.

At the AGM the club granted life membership to Dolf Gulicher for his exceptional service to the BPYC.

A warm welcome to Michael Jansen, 2020/21 Commodore of the BPYC

‘Outside of working as an IT Program Manager, I enjoy being on the water with mates and forgetting the worries of the world.

I started sailing in my early twenties on a Paper Tiger cat that I rebuilt from "junk" and had great fun.  My next foray into keel boat sailing was at MHYC on a Hood 23 "Namara".  Many years as a loyal crew, I started Wednesday sailing with the same skipper on an Adams 10 "The Force".  I started offshore sailing on a Cole 43 "Ruff n Tumble" including several Mooloolaba races and the 1984 Sydney - Hobart.

In 1985 I came over to BPYC racing on "F22 @ 10" with Alan Rintoul for many years while still racing Wednesdays on "The Force."

I also started sailing at SASC in their twilight races on different yachts and ventured on my 2nd Sydney - Hobart on A21 "Wide Load" a Swarbrick 41 from SASC and MHYC.  That was in 1989 and I can talk about that another time.

In 2000 I raced in my 3rd Sydney - Hobart with my friend John Cameron, a former CYCA Commodore on More Witchcraft.  
My last Sydney - Hobart on a Foundation 36 (look it up) was in 2004 and I actually crossed the finish line for the first time.

More recently I have been racing in the BPYC races on "Martela" the IMX38 never missing a race, and continue to enjoy the sailing and the people at BPYC.’