It Gives Me Great Pleasure to Present the Presidents Report for the 2018/2019 Yachting Tasmania Annual Report
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It gives me great pleasure to present the presidents report for the 2018/2019 Yachting Tasmania annual report. This year saw something that has not happened for some time. The Mersey Yacht Club hosted 2019 Oceania & Australian Laser Championship. A huge fleet of Lasers raced on Bass Strait in championship divisions for Standard Rigs (Olympic single-handed dinghy), Radials and 4.7s. Best performance by a Tasmanian was 10th overall in the Laser 4.7s by Anna Vaughan, while Sam King, in his first season in the Standard Rigs, finished 13th overall. In the Radials, William Sargent finished 18th overall. I was lucky enough to be able to go out on the water as a spectator (thank you Roger King and his family for having me) and although there was not a single race run on that day it was great to see a nationals being run out of Mersey Yacht Club again. I am sure that all the competitors had a great time and congratulations to everyone involved. In January the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania conducted the Australian Youth Championship on behalf of Australian Sailing. A fleet of 160 plus off-the-beach boats comprising young sailors, aged under 19, from all Australian States and several Pacific countries competed in Bic Techno 293 sailboards, Bic Techno Plus sailboards, Laser 4.7s, Laser Radials, Int 420s, Int 29ers and mixed crews in Nacra 15 catamarans. At stake, in addition to achieving success in these highly competitive, off-the-beach racing classes, is the honour of being chosen in the Australian team to compete at the 2019 Worlds Sailing Youth Championships. In the Laser Radial, Will Sargent was the top Tasmanian finishing tenth overall. Finn Buchanan came fifth in the Bic Techno 293 and four Tasmanian crews finished in the top ten of the 29er class. Oscar O’Donoghue and his crew, Rupert Hamilton, finished fifth overall, Ethan Galbraith and Charles Zeeman finished sixth with Charlie Goodfellow and Jacob McConaghy eighth and Alice Buchanan & Dervla Duggan came tenth. Alice and Dervla were the first female crew and were selected in the Australian Youth Team to represent Australia at 2019 Worlds Sailing Youth Championships in July 2019 at Gdynia in Poland. Alice and Dervla finished 13th overall which is a fantastic effort and Australia finished sixth overall. It is great to see so many of our younger sailors doing so well. The annual Interdominion Secondary Schools Team Championship was hosted in Hobart by the Sandy Bay Sailing Club, with Yachting Tasmania committee member Nick Hutton as race officer. Students from The Friends’ School, Hutchins and Fahan schools, plus Scots College and Ascham from Sydney, scored 51 wins for a total score of 44 points over five days of racing, defeating the New Zealand schools, Marlborough Sailing Team, Nelson College and Nelson Girls College who scored only nine wins and 8.5 points in the series. The Interdominion championship, also included an open and female division titles for individual schools. Friends’ finished top individual school team with 12 wins, with Hutchins scoring 11 wins, Scots College and Fahan 10 each and Ascham eight wins. In the individual open contest, Friends also finished at the top of the leader board with 15 wins, Hutchins 11, Scots and Nelson College seven each. In the female division, Ascham had seven wins, Fahan four and the NZ team from Nelson Girls College one win. The annual Tasmanian Sailing Awards, recognising the contributions to the sport over the past year were held at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. In total, 15 awards were presented to members from at least seven different clubs, headed by the prestigious Tasmanian Male and Female Sailors of the Year awards. The Tasmanian Female Sailor of the Year was Dr Jessie Andrewartha a member of Wynyard Yacht Club and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, who earlier this year finished first female skipper in the World Championship for the International Mirror class. Sam Tiedemann was named 2018-19 Tasmanian Male Sailor of the Year. Sam helmed his father’s, Shaun Tiedemann’s Sydney 36er, Philosopher, to win the Maria, Launceston to Hobart and Bruny Island offshore races and the Combined Clubs IRC point score last summer. Philosopher also won IRC Division 3 of the Australian Yachting Championships on Port Phillip in January and Sam was a member of the winning crew in the SB20 Australian championship. Youth Sailor of the Year award was Will Sargent, who had an outstanding range of national and international racing successes over the past year, from winning the Australian Schools Match Racing Championships to the Tasmanian Laser Championship and the Laser bronze medal at the recent Pacific Games. Offshore Sailor of the Year was Phillip Turner, owner of Alive, the overall winner of the 2018 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Official of the Year is Ian Ross, a National Race Officer and an integral part of the RYCT and DSS race management teams, including the SB20 Nationals and pre-Worlds. A significant award each year is the Volunteer of the Year and this year it was awarded to Scott Ragg. Scott was pivotal member of the organising committee of the Australian and Oceana Laser championships hosted by the Mersey Yacht Club in Devonport last summer. Chris Symonds was named Sailor of the Year with Disability, Mike Darby was Coach of the Year and the WYC as Club of the Year. Sophie Ciszek, of Ocean Respect Racing won the Sustainability Award, Gregory Rowsell from Port Dalrymple Yacht Club was the Instructor of the Year and Darren Flanagan, of Lauderdale Yacht Club won the Sport Promotion award. The Sport Professional of the year was Oliver Burnell from Sandy Bay Sailing Club and Alison Viner of Port Cygnet Sailing Club won the inaugural SheSails Award. A Lifetime Achievement Award was also awarded to 100-year-old Wynyard Yacht Club member Richard Lewis who has been an active member since 1965. In 2018 Australian Sailing introduced the Barrenjoey Pin to recognise the legacy and history of Olympic and Paralympic class sailing in Australia. The Barrenjoey Pin is named after the 5.5 metre yacht Barrenjoey in which Bill Northam and his crew won Australia’s first gold medal in Olympic sailing. Four Tasmanians who have represented Australia in sailing at the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been honoured as recipients of the prestigious Barrenjoey Pin. Peter Atrill, who competed in the single-handed Finn class at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Gary Smith and David Connor, who sailed in the Flying Dutchman class at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and Matt Bugg, who represented Australia at the 2012 London Paralympics and was a medallist at Rio in 2016. Congratulations to all of you. I would also like to congratulate Robert ‘Biddy’ Badenach on being made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019 for his services to Yachting and Australian Rules Football. Robert is a Past Commodore of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania (RYCT) and a Life Member of both the RYCT and Derwent Sailing Squadron. Australia Sailing’s premier keelboat event, the Australian Racing Championship (previously known as the IRC Australian Championship) will be hosted by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in January which will coincide with 75th anniversary of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. I look forward to both of these great events and encourage all of you to ensure that you get to appreciate them either through participation, volunteering and as a spectator. I would like to welcome the Dunalley and Marion Bay Sailing Club on becoming members of Yachting Tasmania this year. Thank you to Oliver Burnell our former Events Coordinator for all of his efforts and also to Glen Stanaway our regional manager. Glen will be returning to his role of Head of Safety, Rules and Representation at Australian Sailing, but will continue to be a part of our Tasmanian sailing community as he and his family will remain in Tasmania. Local Chris Jones, has appointed as our new regional manager and I am sure everyone will join in welcoming Chris as our new regional manager. To all of the Board of Yachting Tasmania, thank you for your efforts over the past year and to Felicity Allison, Richard Fisher and Stephen McCullum who will not be seeking re-election, it is much appreciated. I look forward to the upcoming sailing season and wish everyone the very best for a safe and enjoyable time on the water over the next year. Richard Batt President Yachting Tasmania .