Scott Leary launches Princess Royal Sailing Club’s season, Chris Oldham named Sailing WA volunteer of the year

There was a full house at Princess Royal Sailing Club for the launch of the new season on October 25. Current members, life members and some excited new members joined past commodores to hear an address from Scott Leary, the member for Albany. Mr Leary spoke of the history of the club and made special reference to the dozens of volunteers who do so much work for the organisation. He then officially opened the 2025-26 sailing season. Prior to Mr Leary’s address, Chris Oldham was presented with a trophy recognising him as Sailing WA’s volunteer of the year. Oldham received his award from Benn Gray, PRSC’s training and development director. Oldham has coached and trained mainly juniors for a number of years and certainly deserved recognition. Following the official opening, seven yachts from the racing and cruising divisions competed in a short course harbour race. Many of the boats were overloaded, which slowed them down when the southerly wind dropped from 18 knots down to eight knots near the end of the race. Stephen Lee in Flasheart, and Peter Bane in Dunluce were the stand-out pair with the lead changing from time to time and Lee finally slipping away to a handy advantage. Wayne North was doing well with Just Grace and held on to third place for the duration. Peter Boshell had his faithful old Blue Argo moving extremely well and was looking good for a place on handicap. The unofficial results, which brought a few laughs at the presentations, were as follows. First: Blue Argo, Peter Boshell. Second: Dunluce, Peter Bane. Third: Rollicking Randy, Benn Gray. Fourth and Fastest: Stephen Lee.