John & Pat Dillon and their pre-teen children, Bernadette, Kathy, Michael and Steven joined Westernport Yacht Club in 1970(?). My family, of similar ages, joined the Club the following year and we soon got to know the Dillons, and competed against them, as they also had a Heron sailing dinghy.
As well as both being involved in all the Club activities, we attended State and National Sailing Championships. Then the advanced 125 Sailing Dinghy with spinnaker and trapeze appeared. Along with Ralph Lloyd, John and I bought kits and helped each other to build our new boats. In the 125s our children became expert sailors.
By this time we were both members of the WYC Committee. In 1978, I was elected Commodore, and John Vice-Commodore. We had those positions for 2 years and then in 1980, John was elected Commodore and served 2 years as such.
It was about this time that the Club commenced conducting sail training courses and John and I were both actively involved over many years, both of us having turns as being the Principal. For training boats we used Sparrows. By this time, John’s sailing experience had changed to sailing a trailable yacht, a B63, and he was part of the strong TY fleet we had at the Club. As a group the TY sailors sailed Western Port extensively, had trips to the Gippsland Lakes and also to North Queensland. A most important aspect of changing to TY sailing was that Pat took up sailing and joined the crew.
John was an engineer and prior to retiring worked for the Weather Bureau. He was able to put this skill to good use at the Club installing radios and the public address system. As well as that, both John and Pat contributed greatly to the social activities at the Club. In recognition of John’s many years of service to the Club, he was honoured by being made a Life Member, and one of our out-buildings carries his name.
About 10 years ago, after retiring from sailing, John and Pat joined the Balnarring Bowls and Social Club and both were involved in Club and Pennant bowling. In taking up bowls at Balnarring, John followed a tradition for ex-Commodores of WYC. John was also a member of Balnarring Probus Club.
Last Modified on 06/12/2017 17:35