Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Opening Day of 131st Yachting Season

A speech delivered by the Honourable Justice Catherine Holmes, Acting Governor of Queensland.

Thank you all for the very warm welcome you have extended today.

This is the second occasion I have had the honour of acting as Queensland Governor — but as the first was during the very quiet New Year week more than eighteen months ago, I am delighted that my second appointment to the position has given us the opportunity to join you here on Royal Esplanade for this special Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron celebration.

We have just been privileged to participate with you all in the Opening Ceremony. The twenty-third Psalm for Mariners, the prayers offered by the Chaplain, and the Seafarer’s Hymn are all potent reminders of the power of the ocean and of the risks we take, as air-breathing, land-dwelling creatures, when we venture out into that realm beyond the shore.

One of the most striking aspects of the words and music we have just heard is that those invocations, those pleas for safety and deliverance, remain so powerful and relevant today. Despite the fact that man has mastered flight and walked on the moon, the ocean remains an alien world. William Whiting, for instance, wrote his hymn about the ‘mighty ocean deep’ more than a hundred and fifty years ago when he felt his life had been spared by God when the ship he was travelling on was almost lost in a violent storm, and the mariner’s version of the twenty-third psalm has an equally venerable history.

Many of the sailors here today will have had their own experiences of the power and fury of the ocean. Shared experience of that kind has bound the members of this club together now for a hundred and thirty-one seasons.

It is a rich history. The passion for sailing and the sea has not only formed the basis for great camaraderie, it has also enabled members to enthuse others. Sailing is becoming increasingly popular as a school sport and, in a very concrete indicator, membership of the Squadron has increased by a very impressive five per cent in the past twelve months.

But the indicator in which, I know, the squadron takes the greatest pride is that there has been representation of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in every Olympics since 1956. All three of those developments augur well for the future of sailing and of the Squadron. I very much hope that tall, salty tales will be told around the bar of this clubhouse for many years to come and that there will be many a glass raised to the success of Queensland sailors in the Rio Olympics in just eleven months’ time.

It is now with great pleasure, as Acting Governor and, by extension, your acting Patron, that I declare officially open the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s one hundred and thirty-first yachting season — and wish you all Godspeed for a splendid season ahead!