The venerable Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club has made headlines around the world for its inopportune adherence to its own rules, denying pop superstar Pink entry for not having ID.
In Australia for her Summer Carnival tour, the singer and her entourage attempted to enter the Club last week. Pink had reputedly already paid a 50 per cent reservation deposit.
The booking could have been momentous for the stoic local club, but the gathering failed to occur when Pink could not produce identification and was unable to sign in to the register.
Despite having paid in advance and quite obviously not under 18, the Club insisted she could not enter.
Under the Registered Clubs Act 1976, non-members are permitted if they live more than five kilometres away (or a distance specified by the club). In accordance with section 31 of the Act, visitors or honorary members should enter their full name (or surname and initials) and their address.
It does not specify that guests, particularly overseas celebrities, are required to produce photo ID.
The Skiff Club recently celebrated its 100-year anniversary, and takes its ‘no ID, no entry’ policy that everyone must sign in correctly very seriously.
However, it has since dubbed the incident “a misunderstanding” and denies media reports that Pink was “turfed out” as she had never actually entered, and elected to leave of her own accord after encountering the sign-in process issue.
Instead, the group walked down Manly’s Esplanade to 4 Pines, where the manager was more than happy to welcome the celebrity and her group of 15 people.
The Club has since offered to have the entertainer back, suggesting she could go out on one of their prized skiffs, but the Pink roadshow has already moved on, to Queensland.
An American singer, songwriter and actress, 44-year-old Alecia Beth Moore, aka ‘Pink’, was born in 1979.
She is in Australia with her husband Carey Hart, and their children Willow (12) and Jameson (7), and has been patronising Sydney businesses, seen riding around Circular Quay, and taking her family to a theatre production in Chatswood.
