freshwater bay yacht club

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CLUB IN FOCUS: Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (RFBYC)

RFBYC is situated between the Swan River and Indian Ocean.  The waters off RFBYC offer superb sailing conditions in protected and pristine sailing waters.  The sailing arena provides stadium style racing in the natural amphitheatre of Freshwater Bay with excellent viewing for spectators from the Clubhouse and grounds. 

Above image credit: Oliver Hartas

The Freshwater Bay Boating Club was established on 14 December 1896. Aubrey T. Sherwood, Collector of Customs, who had settled in Peppermint Grove after his marriage to Louisa Wisdom, called a meeting of eighteen of his friends that evening in his home at the corner of Irvine Street and The Esplanade. With distinguished citizen 52 year old Edward Keane in the Chair, they agreed to form a club and for that club to build a jetty for their boats out into the Bay from the foot of Irvine Street. In 1903 the Club changed its name to the Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. Roland Smith, as Commodore 1932-35 had played a crucial role in three developments during the thirties. The liquor license, the Royal Charter and the move to Keane’s Point.

13 June 1934 “His Majesty the King had been graciously pleased to approve the use of the prefix ‘Royal’ by the Freshwater Bay Yacht Club”.  From there on, the Club has grown to be the wonderful venue that it is today. Vibrant with year-round activities on the water and ashore and known around the world to be a leader in the sport of sailing and boating.

Current Commodore: Gary McNally

We have around 2,100 members across all categories and support a range of activities for all ages, junior’s right through to the seniors. There is a healthy balance across all ages and excellent participation. Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club is a family friendly environment and we see many families enjoying the Club together. Juniors are encouraged to play a role in the running of the Club and this is done through the Junior Committee. Sailing Opening Day includes a proud moment where the Junior Committee and Flag Officers stand alongside each other to celebrate all members of the Club and open the summer season.  A new initiative in recent years, members built two wooden St Ayles Skiff’s on the Club grounds. They regularly row the skiffs on the Swan River, several times a week all year round and have travelled to regional river locations and interstate to events such as the Wooden Boat Festival.

In the past few years we have focused on increasing the number of members in the 18-35 age bracket and through a review of the cost and activities, the Club is seeing a positive trend in this area.

The Strategic Plan targets an increase in the number of female full members. This is being achieved through opportunities for women to have greater participation in the activities of the club, be it sailing, power boating, rowing or social events. In sailing, the #WomenWhoSail and #GirlsWhoSail weekend events have been successful and the Women’s Keelboat Squad now has well over thirty ladies who train together with the goal of team selection for the Women’s State Keelboat Championships, now a competitive process for the RFBYC girls.

Another new initiative in 2019, the Club opened its doors to the public, hosting its first Community Open Day. The event was part of the Australian Heritage Festival, a national event by the National Trust. Two heritage tours of the grounds were held, guided by the enthusiastic members of the Club as well as a display of sailboats, power boats and training activities. Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club is blessed with members who are willing to lend a hand and volunteer their time to the Club. Many were involved in a successful day, shared their passion for the Club to the guests. A great opportunity to showcase the beautiful grounds, display a taste of all of the activities and welcome applications for membership.

Member achievements: We are very fortunate to have a long history of World Champions and Olympic medalists.  We have three honour boards at the Club recognising all our World champions, Olympic Representatives and Olympic medalists.  Special mention should go to Rolly Tasker & Huck Scott who won Australia’s first Olympic medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne where they won silver in the Sharpie Class.  Other Olympic medalists are Belinda Stowell, a Gold medal at the 2000 Games in the 470 Class and Elise Rechichi a Gold medal at the 2008 Games in the 470 Class.   Peter Gilmour is also a stand-out on our honour boards, winning multiple World Match Racing Championships, a World Two Ton Championship and World 12 Metre Championship.  Peter’s sons, David, Sam and Lachy Gilmour are all World Champions in either team racing or match racing.

More recently, we had members competing in the World Sailing Cup Series in Japan, Matt Wearn (Laser), David & Lachy Gilmour (49er), Caitlin Elks (49erFX) and Zoe Thomson (Laser Radial) all campaigning for selection to the Tokyo Olympics.  Zac Littlewood (18 years) is a youth sailor to watch out for in the future, having won a Laser Radial Men’s World Championship in 2018.

Club achievements: Some of the more recent achievements for the Club in its 123 year history are:

• Recognised as the Australian Sailing Club of the Year in 2016-2017 and WA Club of the Year for 5 years running.  Finalists Australian Sailing Awards for 4 years.
• Host Club to many international class events such as the Dragon, Etchells and Flying Fifteen classes held offshore.
• Successful hosting of the 2019 International WASZP Games and Australian Championship.
• Host of the 2017 World Match Racing Tour, Australia, raced in M32 class catamarans.
• 2019 is the 30 th year of the ICR, formerly the International Classes Regatta and one of the largest dinghy regattas in the state.
• Refurbishment of the Roland Smith Room and Bowline restaurant. Now a grand ballroom and members dining area with spectacular views across Freshwater Bay.
• RFBYC Training Centre becoming one of the largest Australian Sailing Training Centres in the country.
• Ongoing co-hosting of the Warren Jones International Youth Regatta for Swan River Sailing with Royal Perth Yacht Club.

Recent success stories include:

• Growth in female participation
• Retention of youth sailors and young adults
• High calibre volunteer Race Management Teams
• The Club hosted the World Match Racing Tour Australia in 2017 in the M32 Class catamarans.  This was an exciting period, in particular for our own match racing sailors, with some qualifying to compete in the event on home waters.
• In January of this year, we hosted the Dragon Nationals & World Championships and soon after we hosted the WASZP Nationals & WASZP Games.  Both significant events and an absolute pleasure for our volunteers and staff to be involved with.
• We won bids to host the Etchells Worlds in November 2020 (with RPYC and venue partner FSC), Flying 15 Worlds (with venue partner FSC) in February 2021 and the Contender Worlds in January 2022.

Classes supported and types of sailing:

               Classes:

• Optimist, O’pen Skiff, Mirror, 420, Laser, 29er, Waszp, 49er, 505, Contender, Moth
• Etchells, Dragon, Flying 15, Couta Boats, Sports Boats
• Division 1-3 Keelboats – assorted yachts ranging from 5 – 13 metres in length

               Core Club Racing:

• Twilight Sailing:  October – April (Wednesdays)
• Club Keelboat Racing:  October – April (Saturdays)
• Mid-Week Club Keelboat Racing: All year round (Thursdays)
• Off-the-Beach Racing:  October – April (Sundays)
• Frostbite Keelboat Racing:  May – September (7 race day series – Sundays)
• Dinghy Winter Series: May – September (6 race day series – Sundays)

               Offshore Racing:

               The following races are run between November and April

• Rockingham Race Regatta/IRC States/Youth Cup Series
• Bunbury & Return Race
• Roland Smith Race

Key Club events include:

• All of the above, plus
• ICR – Dinghy Regatta
• JESS Match Cup – Grade 5
• Sailing Institute Match Racing Regatta – Grade 5
• RFBYC Club Best Regatta
• Governor’s Cup pursuit race (with RPYC)
• Old Gaffers’ Regatta
• Swan River Retro Series (alternate years with RPYC)
• Warren Jones International Youth Regatta (alternate years with RPYC) – Grade 2

Programs offered:

Discover Sailing Centre – We have a strong reputation as an outstanding training facility.  Our overall participation and transition into membership has increased slightly from the previous year, resulting in strong continued growth in active junior and adult sailors at the Club.  In addition to regular school holiday and weekend programs for children and adults, our Training Centre offers a full range of programs engaging school groups, members and the public.  In 2017-18 we saw our Training Centre acknowledged as the largest Discover Sailing Centre in Australia based on total participation numbers in accredited Australian Sailing programs. 

She Sails – Women Who Sail and Girls Who Sail are camps held annually bringing female sailors together from all over WA to celebrate the fun in sailing. It’s a weekend of forming new friendships, sailing different types of boats in different formats of sailing in a relaxed & fun environment.  In addition, the Club has run for the past few years a successful Women’s Keelboat training program attracting over 30 sailors.

Sailing Institute – During the Winter months, sailors between 12 and 30 can join our squad training groups which enables experienced and professional sailors to coach and mentor young and enthusiastic sailors keen to learn from the best.  The emphasis is on opportunities for youth and young adult sailors as the Club focuses on membership retention in the 18-35 age bracket.  The Sailing Institute structure enables the young sailors to gain teamwork and communication skills using our BW8 keelboat fleet for fleet and match racing.

Adventurer’s Club – Our Adventurer’s Club has rapidly grown in popularity over the past 2 years.  The sails are scheduled once a month from October through to April on Saturday mornings.   Members are invited to participate in their own boat or borrow a Club boat to sail to a mystery destination on the river.  The focus is fun sailing under the supervision of instructors.  We regularly have anywhere between 35 and 50 sailors with one Adventure Sail, we saw 90 sailors participating. 

Members and staff of RFBYC are committed to the Club as a centre for excellence.  The focus is not just on winning, but on inspiring individuals to be active participants while enjoying and pursuing yachting and boating activities including hosting and organizing local, national and international yachting and powerboat events.

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• Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, Western Australia, Australia

Western Australia

Peppermint Grove

Sailing / Yacht Club

Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club

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Commodore Richard Timms

Contact Person

General Manager Andrew Stachewicz

While Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club may be the home to high performance Offshore and Fleet racing sportspeople, we also partner with local community & schools. At Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club our focus is not just winning; we hope to inspire individuals to be active and participate in the sport. The primary objective of our Club is to provide encouragement of amateur to professional level yachting and boating activities including hosting and organising local, national and international yachting and powerboat events.

In 1896, the distinguished colonist Edward Keane, along with Aubrey Sherwood, Collector of Customs and some of their local friends agreed to form a sailing club and build a jetty for their boats at the foot of Irvine Street in Freshwater Bay. Some 116 years later, after two world wars, endless regattas, world, state and local club championships, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club continues to thrive, prosper, and bring together Club Members and their families at this same picturesque location on the banks of the Swan River.

(08) 9384 9100

(08) 9385 1483

[email protected]

Contact Person Email

http://www.rfbyc.asn.au/

Leading Yacht Clubs • Working Together • Sharing Experiences

RFBYC Sees Membership Growth as People Stay Close to Home

Susan Parker

Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club

June 23, 2022

In 2021, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (RFBYC) experienced a rise in female participation from younger age groups; a shift from the influx of “Over 30s” in the previous year. This rise is reflective of the quality of the Club’s programmes aimed at female sailing introduction, tuition and participation at all levels. The Dinghy and Training Centre and its Sailing Pathways Program played a significant role in making sailing more accessible and credit must go to the Club’s coaches, trainers and instructors for their hard work.

Male membership numbers rose substantially in the Under 16, 21–24, 31 to 36+ and Associate groups. A moderate reduction was experienced in the 16–17 and 18–20 groups. Numbers were static in the 25–27, 28–30, Country, Reciprocal and Special groups.

Female membership numbers rose substantially in the Under 16, 21–24, 36+, and Associate groups. Growth was static in the 25–27, 28–30, 31–35, Country, Reciprocal and Special groups.

The Club held eight New Member Nights in 2020-21 including a Youth “Transition to Ordinary Membership” night, celebrated in the Members’ Bar where 23 youth members celebrated their shift into adult membership.

The Club’s membership numbers over the last five years by Category can be compared in this table:

The Club has worked diligently on strategic planning for Membership and recognised the importance of increasing member numbers. The strategic planning included a review of membership of the 15 membership categories and found that they remained relevant.

Focus in 2022 and beyond will be on developing other forms of membership that may fill perceived gaps and create new opportunities.

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Business Description

Here at Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, we are proud of our yachting heritage and the success of our sailors at Club, State, National and International level. We are equally as proud of the hundreds of young sailors who pass through our training programmes each year and of the sailors who take part in a regatta for the first time.

We’re also proud of our work with school and the community, making sailing and boating experiences available to those who would otherwise find the participation hurdle just too high.

Members of this Club come from all walks of life, united by a passion for being afloat and enjoying friendships that, in many cases, endure for a lifetime. So whether you have ambitions to be a Club sailor or a world beater, you won’t find a better club than Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club to call home.

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• Hobbs Place, Peppermint Grove Western Australia 6011, Australia
• 08 9286 8200
• [email protected]
• http://www.rfbyc.asn.au
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For the first time Rosatom Fuel Division supplied fresh nuclear fuel to the world’s only floating nuclear cogeneration plant in the Arctic

The fuel was supplied to the northernmost town of Russia along the Northern Sea Route.

The first in the history of the power plant refueling, that is, the replacement of spent nuclear fuel with fresh one, is planned to begin before 2024. The manufacturer of nuclear fuel for all Russian nuclear icebreakers, as well as the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP, is Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Joint-Stock Company (MSZ JSC), a company of Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL that is based in Elektrostal, Moscow Region.

The FNPP includes two KLT-40S reactors of the icebreaking type. Unlike convenient ground-based large reactors (that require partial replacement of fuel rods once every 12-18 months), in the case of these reactors, the refueling takes place once every few years and includes unloading of the entire reactor core and loading of fresh fuel into the reactor.

The cores of KLT-40 reactors of the Akademik Lomonosov floating power unit have a number of advantages compared to the reference ones: a cassette core was used for the first time in the history of the unit, which made it possible to increase the fuel energy resource to 3-3.5 years between refuelings, and also reduce the fuel component of the electricity cost by one and a half times. The FNPP operating experience formed the basis for the designs of reactors for nuclear icebreakers of the newest series 22220. Three such icebreakers have been launched by now.

For the first time the power units of the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant were connected to the grid in December 2019, and put into commercial operation in May 2020. The supply of nuclear fuel from Elektrostal to Pevek and its loading into the second reactor is planned for 2024. The total power of the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP, supplied to the coastal grid of Pevek without thermal energy consumption on shore, is about 76 MW, being about 44 MW in the maximum thermal power supply mode. The FNPP generated 194 million kWh according to the results of 2023. The population of Pevek is just a little more than 4 thousand, while the FNPP has a potential for supplying electricity to a city with a population of up to 100 thousand people. After the FNPP commissioning two goals were achieved. These include first of all the replacement of the retiring capacities of the Bilibino NPP, which has been operating since 1974, as well as the Chaunskaya TPP, which has already been operating for more than 70 years. Secondly, energy is supplied to the main mining companies in western Chukotka in the Chaun-Bilibino energy hub a large ore and metal cluster, including gold mining companies and projects related to the development of the Baimsk ore zone. In September 2023, a 110 kilovolt power transmission line with a length of 490 kilometers was put into operation, connecting the towns of Pevek and Bilibino. The line increased the reliability of energy supply from the FNPP to both Bilibino consumers and mining companies, the largest of which is the Baimsky GOK. The comprehensive development of the Russian Arctic is a national strategic priority. To increase the NSR traffic is of paramount importance for accomplishment of the tasks set in the field of cargo shipping. This logistics corridor is being developed due regular freight voyages, construction of new nuclear-powered icebreakers and modernization of the relevant infrastructure. Rosatom companies are actively involved in this work. Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL (Rosatom Fuel Division) includes companies fabricating nuclear fuel, converting and enriching uranium, manufacturing gas centrifuges, conducting researches and producing designs. As the only nuclear fuel supplier to Russian NPPs, TVEL supplies fuel for a total of 75 power reactors in 15 countries, for research reactors in nine countries, as well as for propulsion reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet. Every sixth power reactor in the world runs on TVEL fuel. Rosatom Fuel Division is the world’s largest producer of enriched uranium and the leader on the global stable isotope market. The Fuel Division is actively developing new businesses in chemistry, metallurgy, energy storage technologies, 3D printing, digital products, and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. TVEL also includes Rosatom integrators for additive technologies and electricity storage systems. Rosenergoatom, Joint-Stock Company is part of Rosatom Electric Power Division and one of the largest companies in the industry acting as an operator of nuclear power plants. It includes, as its branches, 11 operating NPPs, including the FNPP, the Scientific and Technical Center for Emergency Operations at NPPs, Design and Engineering as well as Technological companies. In total, 37 power units with a total installed capacity of over 29.5 GW are in operation at 11 nuclear power plants in Russia. Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Joint-Stock Company (MSZ JSC, Elektrostal) is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of fuel for nuclear power plants. The company produces fuel assemblies for VVER-440, VVER-1000, RBMK-1000, BN-600,800, VK-50, EGP-6; powders and fuel pellets intended for supply to foreign customers. It also produces nuclear fuel for research reactors. The plant belongs to the TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom.

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