It’s been a busy start to the season and unfortunately, I haven’t had time to write regularly.  I still don’t have time, but there is too much to miss the opportunity to mention.

Optimist WA Teams Racing Championship

Last Saturday, our young Optimist sailors entered two teams in the WA Optimist State Teams Racing Championships and managed to be in both finals and came  2nd and 3rd.  Great work team !!!

It was a great event that required launching at 8:00 am for the tow across to RPYC and coming back in a 25-knot storm around 1:00 pm.

Fantastic to see all the really good skills, teamwork, and sportsmanship on display.  The format is 4 on 4 with each team only allowed 3 Gold fleet sailors and 1 Silver fleet sailors.  So, it’s an opportunity for our more experienced sailors to help out the younger ones coming through.  This is exactly what happened with sailors such as Aaron Teo helping out his teammates and sacrificing winning the race.

Open Day

Most of these sailors then backed up for Sunday’s open day and helped as volunteers with new potential sailors.  I’d like to say a big thank you to all of these sailors, their parents, older sailors, including the Program of Merit applicants and the coaches for an outstanding effort.  The community spirit is exactly what we needed to demonstrate to the public.

Keelboat Training

The ss27’s were the second keelboat fleet to get coaching on Saturday with legendary America’s Cup professional sailor Don MacKracken giving his time to help out.  Unfortunately, the 3 boats that requested coaching all retired, so we observed the race, took video, and had a lively debrief with the other teams.  Was a very difficult day with a strong and gusty westerly wind.  Hopefully, everyone got something out of the session.

The main topics discussed were:

  • A little on weather and strategy (Survival strategy was mentioned 😊)
  • Sail selection and setup (There was an extreme difference in all the boats setup)
  • Crew positioning, particularly in maneuvers, with an emphasis on using weight at the widest point of the boat and minimising anyone going on the centreline or bow.

  • A lot of discussion from Don and me to simplify the boats to make them easier and more welcoming to new crew. However, many teams seem to have lots of experience with double poles and extra sheets and seem to prefer that setup.  Don who is one of the best bowmen in the world certainly recommended keeping it simple.

In any case, every class is different and as long as a thought process has gone into it and a system (Playbook) developed and followed so everyone knows what is going on is OK.

For other classes wanting support, please email me at to link up some suitable times and format.

State Keelboat Regatta for Youth and Women

We are still looking for numbers for both teams, so please register your interest and we can schedule a week of intensive training

Links
https://sopyc.com.au/sailing-academy/2020-youth-keelboat-states/
https://sopyc.com.au/womens-keelboat-states/

Other Exciting Things Going On

Windsurfing Training – Our Friday windsurfing and cross-training is starting to pick up, with 9 Windsurfers last Friday and other teenagers doing the Out There Sailing.  We also have some Wing Sails to experiment with and hopefully foil boards coming soon as the easiest foiling entry point.

Keelboats – BW8’s – With the BW8’s back in action, they are already booked out for courses, and we are putting on more every week including this week’s session for the parents of sailors already training.

Kite Foil Training – In collaboration with Perth Kite Racing  (PKR) Association, we are seeing some really exciting training on Thursday

afternoons.  These craft do 35 knots whilst training and racing and are made up of sailors out of other classes and non-traditional sailing backgrounds.

Scouts – We are also doing a collaboration with the local Seas Scouts group out of their Waylen bay location with 20 young people trying out windsurfing this Saturday.

I’m looking forward to the future when we will see more of these types of activities feed new people into the club.