After two weeks of Easter school holidays, followed by two long weekends in quick succession, you might think the LSC crew would be easing off the throttle a smidge as the days start to draw cooler (at last!) and shorter ... far from it! The ‘blue sky white star’ team has been taking salutes, pounding pavements, pumping out some cool weekend tunes and generally cooking up a storm – and there’s more in store!
“It’s hard to believe it’s been two months since Craig and I relocated to the One Mile,” said Julie Hackett, one half of the no-longer-new Little Ship Club management team. “The pace has been nonstop but it’s been terrific to get to know the locals – not only the Club members and regulars but also the other businesses and suppliers on Straddie. There’s so much opportunity here if we all work more collaboratively and the feeling in the community is really positive.”
April was certainly an eventful month, with the Club’s Fishing Section monthly competition, the school holidays, the annual ‘Commodore’s at Home’ events, sail-past and blessing of the fleet, and the ANZAC Day long weekend, at which the Little Ship Club’s Commodore Roger McDowall was invited to take the march-past salute at the Dunwich cenotaph.
“Coming just a week after our annual ‘at home’ events, ANZAC Day was quite an honour indeed,” the Commodore said. “It was quite impressive to see Little Ship Club Members marching – all in step, I might add – under the command of Past Commodore / Honorary Life Member Arthur Mobsby, with Vice-Commodore Chris Goodhew leading the group.”
As readers might recall, the April weekend weather was patchy at best, but this failed to dampen attendance afloat at the Club’s annual sail-past with almost two dozen vessels participating. Ashore, the reintroduction of the pie warmer at the Club’s Destroyer Bar, with the famed curry-and-prawn, lamb-and-rosemary, beef-with-burgundy, chicken-and-vegetable and lasagne pies has proven to be an outstanding success.
“The pies have become runaway best-sellers,” says Craig Hackett, “and they’re a hearty meal and a core part of our extended bar snacks menu, especially now the days are starting to cool down. Outside our core bistro hours, our visitors and guests can pretty much enjoy a good feed any time the Club is open, which is becoming a really popular offering.”
Another popular resurgence is on the musical entertainment front, with a growing playlist of artists and diverse genre of gigs starting to appear on the waterfront of the One Mile.
“We’ve had such a fabulous response to the restart of our ‘Music by the Bay’ program,” said Julie Hackett, “that we’re now being contacted via the Club’s Facebook page with suggestions and recommendations for performers! We’re now working our way through those contacts, giving artists a try-out, and starting to build a program to take us through Winter.”
Sunday 12th June promises to be the next big musical gig at Little Ship Club, with the first ‘Jazz by the Bay’ afternoon for 2016 set to warm up the golden winter afternoon on the One Mile waterfront.
At the Club, repair work will soon commence on the roof of the Bistro; once complete, new clears will be installed. This should enhance prospects of being able to meet client requests for weddings and other functions when the weather conditions are less than favourable.
Another project being undertaken by managers Julie and Craig is the development of the Club’s ‘Moreton Room’ into an area more suitable for corporate meetings and business conferences.
“We have so many different spaces, both indoors and outdoors, as well as a range of covered areas in between, here at the Club,” Julie says, “that we have the ability to cater for many different types of events, functions and meetings”. See you at the Club!

• Taking the salute at the Sail Past!
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