Our Homegrown Sailors @ PYC

Bob Ford Life Member of Parkdale Yacht Club 2022
Bob’s commitment to Parkdale Yacht Club has come to the fore over the last 20 years. He has been a long term office bearer on the Committee, Commodore twice from 2005-08 and again in 2015-18 and Vice Commodore until 2024. Bob helps organise the working bees at the Club and manages the maintenance of the Club building. He volunteers regularly as the Officer of the Day and has overseen club racing and results. His wide sailing experience has evolved into a new role of Race Officer and he has officiated at a number of State and National titles held at the Club. Bob’s building experience has been put to the test by keeping the old club building operational for so many years beyond its “Use by date”. But once it was obvious the building was not going to be viable for much longer Bob was instrumental in negotiating with Council firstly for our Club building to be renovated and then influencing the design and construction of our current new building. He worked tirelessly to ensure the new club building would be innovative and versatile so it would meet our current needs and future demands. Bob’s roots in Parkdale Yacht Club are deeply entrenched, extending from his childhood to the present. He has made many life-long friends through the Club and his love of sailing. He continues to actively promote the community sailing spirit of Parkdale Yacht Club and believes the Club to be a valuable asset to the local community. A life membership with Parkdale Yacht Club is well deserved and Bob is extremely proud to have received it.
Bob Ford and his father John alongside their Mirror Dinghy at PYC	Grandpa supervising the boat building at home	Checking the sail set in his backyard

Nick Bez-Australian Sailing National Sport Promotion Winner 2022 

Congratulations to our very own Nick Bez, who has taken out the Australian Sailing National Sport Promotion category!  His hard work, promoting the sport of windsurfing, has been recognised nationally at the Australian Sailing Awards.

Nick has an insatiable appetite for Windsurfing and has held the titles of World Champion, National Champion and State Champion and inputs an extrordinary energy into the growth and promotion of the Windsurfer community through his involvement in the Windsurfer Class Association of Australia (WCAA) and Parkdale Yacht Club. In particular, NIck has been recognised for the outcomes achieved from the 2022 Australian Windsurfer Class Championship held at yours truly in January this year, in which he established a large inventory of photo and video content for promotional use and strong social media engagement both locally and all over the world.

Nick Bez, we are very proud of you!

Australian Sailing National Sport Promotion Finalists

Paul Grimshaw - Life Member of Parkdale Yacht Club 2023, PYC Committee member, Past Commodore (2000-2003) Rack Master, Trainer, and Life Member of the Windsurfer Class Association 2023

Paul is one of seven kids, all of whom were introduced to sailing at PYC to give their mother a well-earned break on weekends. With their continued involvement spanning many, many years in various roles, Paul's parents became stalwarts of PYC and eventually Life Members.

Paul was an eager participant in his family's developing interest in sailing and after learning the basics, he crewed a Flying Ant named 'Sheegwee' as a junior with his brother. During the off-season, this boat would be a permanent fixture in the lounge room for ongoing maintenance and numerous applications of varnish.

Over the years, Paul has gathered numerous sailing experiences and accomplishments and we, as a Club, are now the fortunate and thankful beneficiary of his wealth of knowledge. Some of Paul's most notable achievements include:

• Encouraging his twin children to get out on the water, teaching them and watching them develop into established winners amongst the windsurfing fraternity.
• Organising the Blue Diamond Windsurfing event for numerous years along with the rest of the Grimshaw clan. This in turn, lead to PYC becoming the unofficial headquarters of Victorian Windsurfing and our Club benefitting from the Class' involvement to the extent that we now have more than 50 boards stored and sailed.
• Competing in numerous ocean yacht races, earning a line-honours win in his division in a Sydney to Hobart race and crewing on 'Prime Example' in several Melbourne to Hobart races.
• Competitively hitting the race course, winning the Windsurfer Nationals Course Racing Championship for his weight division in Adelaide in 2020. To this day, he remains heavily involved in the Windsurfer Class Australia not only as a sailor, but also in his role as Treasurer and new Life Member of the Windsurfer Class Association in 2023.

Paul has and still does an absolute truckload of work around PYC and continues to be the driving force of our Learn to Windsurf program. On the set up of our new Club, he was instrumental in the construction of storage racks downstairs and is a major contributor to the maintenance of our building, especially with anything electrical.

His Life Membership with Parkdale Yacht Club is well deserved and we are extremely grateful that Paul has continued the Grimshaw family's enormous contribution to our Club and followed in his parent's footsteps with his unwavering passion for PYC. 

A heartfelt congratulations to you Paul.

Ross Clayfield - PYC past commodore (1997-2000) and rear commodore, National Race Officer

Ross has been a long time member of Parkdale YC, both as a sailor and committee member, including past commodore and rear commodore, and still volunteers his time on Sundays in the Race Tower, using his extensive knowledge, to keep us safe and following the rules of sailing. Thanks Ross. You are a valued member of our team.

Ross Clayfield shares his sailing history. Take a read!

"As I have recently given up off the beach sailing (about 18 months ago) I thought I would reflect on my nearly 60 years sailing and 40 + years as a member of Parkdale Yacht Club.

I started sailing in 1967 when I was 13 years old at Safety Beach Sailing Club in a Mirror dinghy that my father and I built from a kit. I sailed with dad for a few years and then I built a Mosquito and sailed on and off for a number of years mainly due to work transfers to different parts of the country.

I Built an Arrow and joined PYC in 1982. At that time there was a more diverse range of boats. There was a good fleet of Arrow and Cobra Catamarans and a miscellaneous fleet of Monos including Javelins, 125s, Sabres, Minnows and Windsurfers.

Most years we would go to the Arrow Nationals that rotated between Qld, NSW, SA and Vic. We have made many good friends amongst the Arrow family although over the last five years there has been a steady drop off of some of the older sailors.

In 1985 I was transferred away from Melbourne and my membership lapsed. I returned to Melbourne at the end of 1990 (this time for good) and resumed my membership. By then the Arrow fleet had decreased a bit and I can’t recall if there were any Javelins.

After several years I joined the Committee and was a member for 11 years including three years as Rear Commodore, three years as Commodore and one year as Treasurer (my wife was also the treasures for about seven years). I well remember freezing committee meetings in the middle of winter in our old clubhouse.

In 2019 I was asked to re-join the Committee mainly to represent the Catamaran fleet that was rapidly shrinking. In 2021 I stood down from the Committee as I had retired and Heather and I had quite a bit of travel planned and I would not have been able to participate regularly in Committee work.

The Rear Commodore position at the club is mainly to arrange the sailing side of the club and I thought I should learn about Race Management. Over about seven years I completed the Club, State, National and International Race Officers courses, getting accredited to National level. To get accredited to International level required self-funding to go overseas to get International experience, being self-employed and with a young family that was not possible.

In the early 2000’s I was a Race Officer for seven years at the Sail Melbourne International Regatta and was also on the Race Management Team in 2006 for the Volvo Ocean Race in port race and the restart when the Volvo boats went on the next leg to New Zealand.

In 2005 I was invited to join the YV Safe Boating Policy Committee (SBPC) to consider and make recommendations on the ISAF (now World Sailing) Rule 40.2 that required trapeze harnesses to be fitted with a quick release mechanism. I also made recommendations to revise several clauses in the Part 2 Special Regulations in the Blue Book and these were accepted and published in subsequent editions.

In about 2008 the (SBPC) was dissolved by YV (I think it was a bit political) and 18 months later YV formed the Risk Management and Safety Committee and I was invited to join. The trapeze harness was still a live issue and the committee spent considerable time making submissions, however nothing ever became of our work and to this day the issue has not been resolved.

For a few years I was involved with the junior training program and both my children learnt to sail at PYC, I even built them a Minnow but the both decided that sailing was not for them (I feel that I have failed as a father).

I recall a number of working bees at the old clubhouse including major works to upgrade the ladies bathroom, replacing the windows along the front of the building, upgrading the kitchen and extending the deck.

For the last 10 years or so the catamaran fleet slowly decreased mainly due to the sailors increasing age. Since COVID I had been the only cat sailor and last year age also caught up with me, although about 14 years ago I got into crewing on a keelboat and hope I can continue for a few more years yet.

I realised that I could not go cold turkey and not spend Sundays at the Club so this last season I volunteered to work in the control tower and hopefully can keep it up for a few more years.

In my time at the club I have made good friends with many past and present members and really enjoyed the sailing and social aspects of the club. It’s a little disappointing that the Mono fleet has decreased over the last few years but it is great to see the Windsurfer fleet has grown substantially since I first joined PYC.

I would like to commend the Committee who put in so much time and effort over a number of years to finally get Kingston Council to agree to rebuild our clubhouse to the fantastic facility we now have.

Ross Clayfield

 More homegrown sailors coming soon.....