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OTB 2 August Exciting News & Updates

Friday, 2nd August 2019

Dear OTB sailors and friends,

James here from the Boating Office! Apologies in advance for the rather lengthy update to follow but there’s so many things worth updating for you!

Considering our leader and regular editor is currently a litter busy overseas at the moment, I thought I’d take this opportunity to get a note out to you all and give you an update on the latest news! It’s amazing just how busy things are here at the club in the middle of winter. While we’re struggling in the cold at the moment, we have many fellow OTB sailors who have decided they need to get away this winter and are currently competing in various regattas throughout Europe. To check out all the latest results, click here. Best of luck to these sailors for the remainder of their respective regattas!

In addition to the above, we also have three of our young Opti sailors embarking on their first overseas regatta. Dmitry Sorokin, Liam Stevens and Lottie Griffith will travel to China this weekend to compete in the Qingdao International Training Camp and Regatta. Good luck guys, and enjoy the experience! You can read the report here.

Bringing it back a little closer to home, there’s also plenty happening. Entries are now open for Sail Sandy which is on the 12-13 October. Based on discussions with various classes, this year’s event is going to be massive! We already have Down Under Sail signed up to help us with the media coverage and to help build the hype so it should be a good year as we aim towards 250 boats!

However, as Sandy members, we need your help! There are two ways you can help us…

  1. If you’re a sailor and intend to sail in this regatta, please enter! This is the easiest way to build the numbers and it attracts more entries from sailors who aren’t from SYC. You can enter here – www.syc.com.au/sail-sandy Thank you to the seven SYC boats who have already registered!!
  2. If you’re not sailing, or if you’ve got children who will be, we need your help as a volunteer!!! Filling volunteer roles for four course areas and also on-shore roles can be quite hard so any assistance is appreciated! You can register you interest to volunteer here – www.syc.com.au/expressions-interest-volunteer/

THANK YOU for helping support our premier OTB regatta and one of the biggest dinghy events in Victoria each year!

Whilst we’re on the topic of entries being open, entries for Sail Country opened yesterday. Given the size of the sailing area, entries are capped at 200 boats. This year, the 200 entries sold out in less than nine hours…how impressive! It’s really great to see that of the 200 entries, 35 of these are SYC boats!

Leading into our next season of sailing, SYC has put on a series of race management training courses. These courses will be a great opportunity for all our volunteers and sailors to upskill and learn more about what is required to run a race. I would really encourage you to take a look at the courses on offer and if any of them are of interest, please sign up! Courses and dates on offer can be viewed here. We have a busy summer of regattas coming up so the more trained volunteers we have, the better! If you’re interested in signing up and assisting, you can see what regattas we are hosting by clicking here. If you’d like to find out more about these regattas, we are holding an information evening on Tuesday 13 August at 7pm in the Harbour View Restaurant. If you’d like to come along, email [email protected] with “I’ll be there” to register your interest!

Lastly, you know how they say to leave the best till last? Well, I’m delighted to share with you that the Tasar Worlds are coming to Sandy in January 2024! This is very exciting and we can’t wait to see the fleet grow in the lead up to this event with the goal of 120-150 Tasars! But that’s not all the good news…as many of you have most likely heard, THE BLACK SLUDGE IS GOING!!! The days of having to wade through the black sludge are numbered with the sludge to be removed in the next couple of months! Read more here.

See you around the club!

Best Regards,

James Sly
Sailing Manager