Recognising decreasing membership numbers among their youth, Sandringham Yacht Club (SYC) instigated a J/70 program to attract and retain youth and intermediate members at the Club – and it has been a big hit. SYC is very grateful to all the members who have supported it and enabled it to happen.
The Club realised it was crucial to develop a group of high quality sailors to compete nationally in keelboats and to train youth and intermediate sailors to provide a resource of crew for boat owners. Among other things, participants are taught the finer art of racing rules, tactics, sail trim, boat maintenance, team building and communication.
The first edition of SYC’s J/70 program in 2023 was a success and was built on for the second, launched in October 2024. Changes this season include the addition of a ‘Youth Squad’ for members between 14-18 years, replicating a similar model to that of last season’s Advanced Squad.
The overall J/70 program is available to young members at SYC in the form of social, development, youth squad and advanced squad programs. J/70s are sailed around the world and are becoming increasingly popular in Australia. Some of the joys of this user friendly, fast, fun keelboat is that it can be sailed by any combination of females and males and any age group – and it is simple to trailer to events.
There are six SYC owned boats (Zephyr, Sirocco, Mistral, Auretta, Ora and Tramontana) and 27 sailors in the various J/70 programs, all of whom had the opportunity to compete at the Nationals in January.
Gemma Burns, SYC’s J/70 coordinator, is an enthusiastic supporter of the program. “I love the community the J/70 programs are creating at Sandy,” she says.
“Seeing young members connecting, making lifelong friends while being active and improving their sailing, has been really rewarding. Especially in the Youth Program where the kids are becoming young adults by learning keelboat skills and the highs and lows of sailing with four other people.
“The program is about more than improving skills in sailing, it’s creating pathways to continue in our sport by building connections and upskilling our younger sailors to jump onto larger keelboats.”
The Youth squad (14 to 18 year olds) is coached by Mark Wolfenden. The current eight sailors in the program are aspiring to progress to the advanced program while aiming to gain keelboat experience.
As part of this, they recently sailed two different J/70s at the nationals in January, taking on some of the heavyweights of sailing, including the top three teams skippered by Chris Dare, David Doherty and Stephen Proud.
Mistral, skippered by 16 year old Carla Maertens, was best placed, impressively finishing 12th overall from 21 boats. Sirocco did not disappoint either.
Another offering for our 14-18 year old members is the Development Program. Sailed on weekends and school holidays in training blocks of five to seven weeks, it acts as a taster for J/70 sailing. This focus is to introduce young members to the basics of keelboat racing and developing the various skills required to undertake all crewing roles, and is a great stepping stone into the Youth Squad Program and for those transitioning out of OTB youth classes, School Programs, OutThere Sailing Programs etc.
The Advanced program is for 18-35 year-olds. The 19 budding champions presently taking part are coached by veteran sailor, Barney Walker. He is a highly respected sailor who has sailed 36 Sydney Hobarts, represented Australia internationally and he has significant keelboat expertise to pass on to program participants.
Walker says, “They’re fantastic boats, fast, good sail plan, great fun to sail and learn on.
“Participants are extremely fortunate to have this opportunity at their doorstep. When I was growing up, we had to beg, borrow and steal to go sailing. The Club has done a great job giving these kids a chance to sail up to a high level, because the class is active in Australia. There’s good sailing for them to be had.
J70s are exhillarating – Downunder Sail pic
“A real focus of the program this season has been on their teamwork”. Some did well at Nationals, finished sixth (Tramontana skippered by Hayden Brown) and seventh (Ora skippered by Josh Griffith).
Lulu Di Sciascio is one of sailors in the advanced program. The 19-year-old joined the program six months ago and has gained so much from it. “And I really like the team I’ve sailed with on Auretta,” she says.
“I’m from Geelong and moved to Melbourne for university, so it was a really nice way to join the Club and make new friends,” says Di Sciascio, who was the first to join the program from outside SYC.
“It’s really good sailing with like-minded people. It’s been a bridge between my junior sailing at Geelong to keelboats at Sandringham and I’m enjoying my coaching from Barney. I’m soaking it up – like a sponge.”
Di Sciascio also sings the praises of the J/70s too: “I really like the J/70 and the opportunity to learn different roles. I’m up the front of the boat and looking forward to moving to the back. Keelboats are where I see my future, including continuing to sail on the J/70s.”
Another one of those benefitting is Brandon Demura, who is also on Sandy’s J/70 Committee that guides and directs the program.
“When we first started, it was a lot of trial and error getting to know the boat and the team, but in the second year our sailing has progressed a lot. What I’ve got out of the program is the competence and ability to compete against some of the best sailors in Australia,” Demura says.
“The boat is quite technical and relies on strong team work to have the confidence to pull off manoeuvres and to do them without thinking about what has to be done. I like that you can race it at the top end of the fleet, but as we’ve seen, it’s popular for Thursday twilights too.
“It’s pretty remarkable what’s been given to us. We are incredibly grateful to the Club to have access to the J/70s and the coaching. We’ve been able to improve our skills, not just in sailing but in maintaining and looking after the boats. We want to give back to the Club, crewing for members and bringing new sailors through,” Demura concludes.
Auretta and Sirroco go hard at it – Downunder Sail pic
SYC realised the program required a social sailing element if it were to attract and keep youth at the Club. To that end, a social program was also created. The Social Program is offered on weeknights (18+ years) as part of the Thursday Twilight keelboat series. For those under 18 it is offered as part of the Off the Beach Friday twilight racing. It is primarily focused on providing social and fun sailing opportunities in a relaxed environment where sailors can mix with each other, sail the J/70s, meet like-minded people and have a great time at SYC. In the interest of attracting new members to the Club and the social J/70 program, SYC encourages members to bring friends from outside the Club under the Sail Pass scheme. To connect with either of these groups, assuming you fit into the age brackets please reach out to Gemma Burns in the Boating Office on [email protected]
Over and above the social on-water programs, young member nights were also created to connect our young members socially. These are organised by SYC youth member Mischa Suda together with Gemma. The aim is to give young members the opportunity to get to know each other better in a social environment and form connections whilst hopefully falling in love with the Club.
“The SYC J70 Young Members Nights have been really rewarding to organise. Seeing 120 young members in the Clubhouse was something that I have never seen before in my 10 years as a member at SYC. We have gone from strangers to a strong community full of authentic, like-minded individuals. This has all come from two Young Members Nights, and as such, I can’t wait to watch this community continue to grow. We are very grateful to the SYC Members for all their support. It’s great to belong at such an amazing yacht club. Words can’t describe how much this community at SYC means to me” Suda says.
To keep informed about the next Young Members Night, you can also reach out to Gemma on [email protected]
SYC’s J70s on Port Phillip – pic courtesy SYC
Di Sciascio agrees: “I love the social side. As a new person to the Club, I didn’t have to walk in alone. It’s hard to come into a new Yacht Club on your own. I knew some people, but when you haven’t been part of a Club before, it’s hard. The young member nights have been lovely. I feel very welcome. I’ve met lots of people I can call friends now,” she said.
Another important aspect of the program is that the squad members are required to volunteer a certain number of hours to give back to SYC. This can be in the form of race management duties and or maintenance of club boats. During the recent Cadet and 29er State championships, it was great to see this in action with J/70 squad members on the mark laying and rescue boats.
For further information on the J/70 program, contact Gemma Burns, SYC J/70 co-ordinator: [email protected] , phone: (03) 9599 0917 or visit the Club website
Di Pearson/SYC media