Special Events
To say that the Special Events involving the WBSLSC each summer were successful over the summer of 2024 is something of an understatement – they were Spectacularly Successful.
After the restrictions and difficulties of the pandemic era were put behind us, we saw that there was a massive desire by the community to get out and about again and participate in activities that were available and appealing. Over the thirty-eight years since we launched the inaugural Channel Challenge at San Remo, we have steadily built up a loyal and engaged band of competitors who support our events, especially the Channel Challenge. However, we were still pleasantly surprised to see the results of this year’s three Bass Coast Series events with the Cape Paterson Aquathon, the San Remo Channel Challenge and the Cowes Classic all registering record numbers with each event surpassing the previous highest number of competitors by at least one hundred – an amazing achievement – while the Little Penguin Dash for Juniors recorded another increase of nearly 40% in only it’s third year.
Several factors have contributed to this ongoing success with the calibre of our core Special Events Team being a major reason as well as the strong operational relationships we have with our strategic partners who have a stake in these events. Mick Sully, Melina, Graeme Burgan, Max Eldridge, Ryan Box and myself, along with our timing guru, Geoff Nield, have become a close team, all in control of our own areas, and with the support of so many other Club Members we now have the format pretty well worked out. This year we also had Georgie Wettenhall and Michelle Murphy put their hands up to become part of the leadership team and they will add a lot to our capabilities in coming years. This group help set up the Channel Challenge and we work closely with the PINFC in organizing the Cowes events as well. The Cape Paterson team also work in conjunction with us to ensure we have uniform categories and pricing over the whole Bass Coast Series and they appreciated that they were able to use a lot of Ryan’s design work when sending out their comms. Then on the day at San Remo we have a huge amount of club members helping with Water Safety, the Race Centre, First Aid, the Transition Area plus the Start and Finish lines before we bring everyone together to make the Prize Presentations while our members are also cleaning up. This is one of the club’s biggest days of the season and there is normally a good contingent of Members who come back to the clubhouse for a drink, feed and to wind down. I do feel that the potential for members to get together on Channel Challenge night can still be further developed so that it is automatically a packed house every year.
We now also have a good group of stakeholders involved with the events each year and there is a great level of co-operation with them that makes the organizing and operations of these events run smoothly. This group includes our major sponsors - the Bass Coast Shire, Rotary, Bendigo Bank & the Phillip Island Nature Parks, SES, Traders groups, Police and the management of the San Remo Hotel and the North Pier Hotel in Cowes. With the involvement of these external groups the events have really become a ‘Whole of Community’ affair.
We have now developed the Special Events to the point where the Bass Coast Series has linked the events well and created more interest as there are now 16 categories for competitors to compete for $4,000 in prizemoney to the individual winners.
The Little Penguin Dash is growing in stature each year and now has 140+ Local and Melbourne Juniors participating to take home their Medallion for completing the course; no extra prizes as this event is just about participation and taking the 9 to 14 year-old kids through the various stages until they are ready to take on the bigger events.
We were all pleased to see a marked improvement in numbers at the Cape Paterson Aquathon this year with an increase of about 40% on their previous highest number of competitors. The improvement for the Cowes Classic was similar and it all stems from the good vibe created with a Series of well-run events in our beautiful part of the world.
Finally, we should all be proud of how our longest running event – the iconic San Remo Channel Challenge - has developed into the biggest Aquathon held in Victoria each year and with the entries having reached 750 this year we now have the pleasant problem of deciding when we cap the number of entries to make sure we don’t exceed the required level of safety.
One issue that the club as a whole needs to address is that of planning and preparing for succession in the Special Events Leadership group, particularly in my own case. I hope to be able to lead the team for the 2025 & 2026 events, especially as the 2026 Channel Challenge will be the 40th edition of our favourite event. But by then I will have reached the grand age of 77, and while still willing to help out indefinitely I think it is best for the club to consider someone from the next generation to take up the reins for the 2027 season.
The team is already at work on next season’s events and the schedule has recently been decided on and will be advertised publicly by the time we hold our AGM.
Cape Paterson Aquathon Sun 19th January
Cowes Classic & LPD Sat 8th February
San Remo Channel Challenge Sat 1st March
Special Events Coordinator
Ron Nicholson