Lyn Hanlon and a young Tacker, with Ozi Opti sailing dinghies. Photos: Supplied.
BY HARVEY SHORE
Lyn Hanlon, one of Queensland’s best-known and loved sailing identities, has retired from the Darling Point Sailing Squadron (DPSS) after a life devoted to young sailors.
Lyn first began sailing as a toddler in a Sabot built by her father, George Stubbs.
George taught woodwork at the Darling Point Special School in the early ’60s and trained students how to build Sabot sailing dinghies there. George was also a founding member of the Waterloo Bay Sailing Club, which later merged with the DPSS and moved to its current clubhouse beside the Coast Guard base on Norfolk Point in 1974.
Joining the club as a teenager, Lyn sailed Flying 11s and 16ft skiffs, until the clubhouse was taken over by the Multihull Yacht Club in
the ’90s.
Activities at the DPSS took a back seat until 2008 when the Multihull people approached some parents (whose children were sailing at the time) and asked them to reinstate dinghy and skiff sailing at the DPSS. It then sprang back to life, reclaimed its clubhouse, and has grown stronger ever since. Today, it includes both Multihull and Sailability.
Lyn Hanlon joined the committee of the reinvigorated DPSS in 2008 and has been a leading committee figure ever since.
Starting from scratch, she and her committee made DPSS one of the premier sailing clubs in Queensland. They were the first club in the State to run Tackers Courses (a fun introductory learn-to-sail program for kids aged seven to 12 years) and have since introduced Junior Dolphins and Teen Dolphins programs for kids, sailing in Ozi Opti and in RS Quest sailing dinghies. They’ve held international sailing events and hope to be involved in Olympic events in future.
Lyn has also run the club’s Discover Sailing Centre since it began. “It’s been hard work but rewarding,” she said.
Now, after 15 years on the DPSS Committee, Lyn has retired. She plans to head off to the USA and Canada with her husband, Peter, and then visit Croatia and New Zealand.
