Friendships, mateships, lots of ‘~ships’ More numbers (more than six decades’ worth) cannot do justice to just a quartet of our passionate Volunteers … “We have not had a regatta where we have not been able to provide full coverage of Volunteers,” RQYS Volunteer Co-ordinator Phil Tooth rightly declaims, “and what we can achieve here with our Volunteers surpasses any other boating club in Australia.” It’s a precious thread indeed, as Mainsheet editor Matthew Tesch was reminded. This story had its origins in a chance encounter on the Eastern (Windsurfing) Beach / Brisbane City Council Dog-offleash sands in late July 2024. Transpired that it was with RQYS Volunteer Margy Porter’s equally-beautiful Ridgy-X- Kelpie pup “Harley” who, tragically, succumbed to a fierce cancer diagnosis before this piece could be completed for publication. We discovered this sad news, by equally casual chance, crossing paths with Margy on the Marina slipway at the end of her busy day’s regatta volunteering. It was a poignant, potent and tearfully-hugging testament to the ‘handrail’ of Margy’s focus and passion in her voluntary commitment to our Squadron: this amazing person, amidst the upheaval of moving house and dealing with the terminal diagnosis of her beloved four-legged companion, had still put in a full day’s voluntary effort out on Waterloo Bay and was simply looking forward to a frosty beer back in the Club that stinking-hot early summer afternoon. You can’t make this stuff up. God bless, Margy and Harley. Rewind back to September 2024 in the Bistro and it’s a completely different kind of mind-boggling encounter. Four closely-bonded women — Margy and her Squadron Volunteer friends Margurite Wood, Jan Kemp and Beryl Roberts — chat at the table, seamlessly finishing each other’s sentences in some kind of spooky synchronicity … … actually, belay that: it’s more like one person’s train-ofthought is auto-completed by another’s voice before the original words were actually uttered … then add the arrival of Volunteer Co-ordinator Phil Tooth and Beryl’s successor ‘photographer par excellence’ Spikey-Mike Middleton, and you find yourself floundering in three dozen simultaneous conversational strands … L-R: Jan Kemp, Beryl Roberts, Margy Porter, Margurite Wood (who’s not actually stroking Phil Tooth’s hair) and the back of your dedicated editor’s head Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Yearbook Mainsheet 2024 59 Connect with our incredible Volunteers
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mzg4Mjk=