ANNUAL REPORT SEASON

Transcription

1 ANNUAL REPORT SEASON

2 Agenda 1. Apologies 2. Minutes of previous meeting 3. Presidents Report 4. Treasurers Report 5. Regional Manager - Tasmania report 6. Northern-Vice President Report 7. North-West Delegate Report 8. Events Coordinator Report 9. Statement of Accounts 10. Sub Committee Reports 11. Election of Office Bearers - President - Northern Vice President - Southern Vice President - North West Delegate 12. Appointment of Hon. Treasurer 13. Appointment of Auditor 14. General Business 15. Meeting Close

3 ITEM 2 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING Yachting Tasmania Annual General Meeting 13/08/2016 Sandy Bay Sailing Club, Sandy Bay Present: Ron Bugg, Richard Batt Angus Sprott, Felicity Allison, Michael Vincent, John Lawrie, Richard McMinn, Stan Pickering, Bev Pickering, Peter Sluce, Gavin Adamson, Greg Rowlings, Roger King, Nick Hutton, Richard Fisher, Steve Walker, Tony Fist, Nick Connor Apologies: Donelda Niles, Mark Stephenson, Chris Symonds, Gail Moreton Meeting commenced: 12:35pm Meeting concluded: 2:52pm 1 Roll Call and Apologies 2 Approval of previous minutes No comments or corrections made Peter Sluce Moved to approve the previous minutes, Bev Pickering seconded. 3 Annual reports 3.1 President's Report: Ron Bugg Spoke to his report. Please see the tabled report for full details. - Ron highlighted the amount of work that went into the One Sailing process throughout the past 12 months. He noted that, despite the change in name for Australian Sailing, Yachting Tasmania has no plans to change the name, although the option is available if clubs and the board wish. He noted that Australian Sailing now coordinate and deliver sailing services and services to clubs, classes and sailors cross the country. - He thanked Clare Cromarty for her contribution to Yachting Tasmania for the time she was employed as the Events Coordinator. - Discover Sailing programs continue to grow across the state and work well to encourage new people to the sport. Twilight sailing also continues to bring new people into the sport. - Thanks went to Sailability for their work. - He congratulated Matt Bugg's achievements so far and wished him luck in Rio. - Ron Bugg officially resigned as Yachting Tasmania President. 3.2 Executive Officer's Report: Richard McMinn spoke to his report. Please see the tabled report for full details. - Richard Highlighted that the sport has seen growth in the state over the past 1 months with memberships increasing dramatically for some clubs while other clubs have seen decreases. - He offered his congratulations and best wishes to Matt Bugg for the upcoming competition in Rio. - He noted the very strong performances from Tasmanian Sailors in national and international competitions, most notably current world champions Sam Abel and Hugo Allison in the International Cadets and Chris Symonds in the Hansa He thanks Tasmanian clubs associated with hosting national and international competitions over the 2015/16 season - He thanked all the volunteers who help the sport continue to grow.

4 3.3 Nick Connor tabled his financial report and the audited accounts. There were no questions from the floor. 3.4 The northern report was tabled. No comments or questions were raised. 3.5 The north-west report was tabled. No comments or questions were raised. 3.6 Events Report: Richard McMinn spoke to the events report. Please see the tabled report for full details.- The open teams racing regatta was implemented for the first time this year in place of the open yardstick regatta that had seen declining participation over recent years. This event clashed with many club-based activities that restricted participation. It will be moved to the Monday of the Hobart Regatta long weekend to avoid such clashes. - Other events were held in the north and north-west of the state. - The dates for next year's events are as follows: Open Teams Racing Tournament: Monday February 13 Tasmanian Youth Championship/Schools Regatta: Saturday March 4 - Sunday March 5 Tasmanian Schools Teams Racing State Championship: Saturday April 8 - Sunday April 9- Questions were raised about the yardstick element of the Youth Championship and whether the event would be better off as a One-Design regatta. It was noted that onedesign trophies are already awarded for classes that field a large enough fleet. The yardstick component will remain to allow for participation in classes that cannot field a fleet.- A question was raised about whether or not Yachting Tasmania through Australian Sailing should introduce a keelboat state championship. No resolution was made.- A clarification was made to the tabled report. It was suggested that "if it is decided to hold all events in the south incentives will be provided to northern teams to compete". This refers to teams racing events only. 3.7 The Rules and Officials Report was tabled. No comments or questions were raised. 3.8 The Equipment Auditing and Safety report was tabled. No comments or questions were raised. 4 Election of Office Bearers 4.1 President: Richard Batt was the sole nomination and was elected uncontested (proposed by Ron Bugg; Seconded by Nick Connor) 4.2 Vice President North: Gail Moreton was the sole nomination and was elected uncontested (proposed by Ron Bugg; Seconded by Felicity Allison) 4.3 Vice President South: Greg Rowlings was the sole nomination and was elected uncontested (proposed by Angus Sprott; Seconded by Nick Connor) 4.4 North-West Delegate: Chris Symonds nomination and was elected uncontested (proposed by Manuela Klinger; Seconded by Mike Darby) 4.5 Board Members: The following board members were elected with no contest. - Richard Fisher (proposed by Ron Bugg; Seconded by Richard Goodfellow) - Nick Connor (proposed by Ron Bugg; Seconded by Richard Batt) - Felicity Allison (proposed by Greg Rowlings; Seconded by Ron Bugg) - Gavin Adamson (proposed by Tracy Matthews; Seconded by Claire Cunningham) - Colleen Darcy (proposed by Ron Bugg; Seconded by Felicity Allison) - Ron Bugg (proposed by Richard Batt; Seconded by Felicity Allison) 5 Appointment of Honorary Treasurer Nick Connor was appointed honorary treasurer for 2016/17 6 Appointment of Auditor Accru Accounting were appointed auditor for 2016/17 7 Appointment of Honorary Solicitor David Morris was appointed honorary solicitor for 2016/17 8 Subcommittees Rules and Officials committee: Nick Hutton was appointed as Chair for 2016/17 Safety and Auditing Committee: Chris Oh was appointed as Chair for 2016/17

5 Awards and Hall of Fame Committee: Gilbert Leitch was appointed as Chair for 2016/17 9 General Business 9.1 Australian Sailing: Steve Walker, General Manager: Commercial and Government at Australian Sailing (Former CEO of Yachting Victoria) presented on the status of the One Sailing process and Australian Sailing's strategic plan for (titled Advance Sailing). The focus of this Strategic Plan is to leverage the benefits made possible by the move to the One Sailing management structure to help clubs and classes to grow their capacity and capability. An emphasis is being placed position the sport as a leader in both management processes and participation. 9.2 Draft Rules of the Constitution: Ron Bugg noted that a draft version of a new set of Rules of the Association (Constitution) has been circulated and that comments, questions and observations are welcomed. This process has been initiated based on a review of the existing constitution and changes that have occurred as part of the One Sailing process and the move to the new Australian Sailing management structure. 9.3 Advocacy projects: Ron Bugg provided a brief explanation of existing advocacy projects that Yachting Tasmania is undertaking. The most recent and prominent of these are aquaculture developments in Storm Bay, the D'Entrecasteaux Chanel and Mercury Passage. He reiterated that Yachting Tasmania has no official stance on these issues until there is an overwhelming response from clubs requesting representation. 9.4 Any other business: Richard Batt wanted to thank Ron Bugg for all his work as Yachting Tasmania President over the past four years. 10 Meeting closed 2:52

6 ITEM 3 PRESIDENTS REPORT It gives me great pleasure to present the presidents report for the 2016/2017 Yachting Tasmania annual report. As incoming President, it was my privilege to sign on behalf of Yachting Tasmania the implementation agreement that saw the culmination of One Sailing. For over two years, the Yachting Tasmania Board, along with our fellow State and Territory Member Associations, have been working with the management and board of Australian Sailing to develop a new organisation and service delivery model for the sport of sailing. The new structure is to provide organisational efficiencies with the removal of duplicated services and the centralisation of common activities to free up the State Associations from administrative tasks allowing us to focus on the core development of sailing services. To do this, Australian Sailing accepts the full responsibility for the administration, direction, promotion and sustainability of sailing. While Yachting Tasmania and our fellow State and Territory Member Association Boards continue to be responsible to our member Clubs and Classes for ensuring that Australian Sailing delivers on those services, while providing advice and representation on State and Territory priorities. It is hoped that this reform will have a far reaching and lasting impact on the growth and sustainability of sailing in Australia. It puts our sport at the forefront of sports governance reform in this country, and puts Yachting Tasmania and Australian Sailing in a better position to build the capability and capacity of our clubs and classes, and deliver improved services to the members of the clubs and the sailing community. The implementation of this reform is only in its infancy and we are all working hard to ensure that this transition occurs with as little disruption as possible. As with any major reform, there can be teething problems and if any member has any difficulties with the way services are being administered, please do not hesitate to contact us, as we work to make our sport better! At this year s Australian Sailing Awards in October, Tasmania was well represented. Matthew Bugg was a finalist in the Sailor of the Year with a Disability in his own right and also as a Member of the Australian Paralympic Sailing Team. Nick Hutton was a finalist in the Sport Professional Award, Stuart Hamilton Volunteer Award; Oliver Burnell Instructor of the Year Award and the Sandy Bay Sailing Club in the Club of the Year Award. It was fantastic to see Tasmanian nominated in five of the categories and congratulations to Matthew on winning the Sailor of the Year with a Disability as a Member of the Australian Paralympic Sailing Team and to all of the finalists. Congratulations also to Matthew on being named the 2016 Southern Cross Television Tasmanian Athlete of the Year. Matt had an outstanding year, the highlight winning silver at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He also won a silver medal at the ISAF World Cup and bronze medals at the 2.4 multi World Championships and IFDS World Championships. Matt was selected from a high quality field of finalists

7 including Amy Cure (cycling), Deon Kenzie (athletics), Matthew Phillips (enduro motocross) and Richie Porte (cycling). Matt has continued with his success recently winning a silver medal at the Para World Sailing Championships at Kiel, Germany, missing out on Gold on a count-back. Yachting Tasmania Board Member Chris Symonds also competed at the Championship and took silver in the Hansa 303 dinghy class to add to his national title. A fantastic result for Chris and we really appreciate his contribution as Yachting Tasmania North-West Delegate. During the year, the coaching position for the Tasmanian Sailing Performance Program was advertised and I would to congratulate Richard Scarr on being reappointed as the Tasmanian Sailing Performance Program Coach. The Panel comprising Australian Sailing Performance Director Peter Conde, Tasmanian Institute of Sport (TIS) Program Manager Alisa Deene, and Australian Sailing Regional Manager Richard McMinn, interviewed the candidates and Richard was the successful candidate. To ensure that the coaching position can fulfil program objectives, Australian Sailing increased its financial support to the program and sought a similar investment increase from the TIS. This will allow for more class specific specialists to be brought in which was a key concern of program stakeholders. The Recipients of this year s Tasmanian Institute of Sport (TIS) High Performance Program Scholarships were Jock Calvert, Amelia Catt, Chloe Fisher, Jasmin Galbraith, Hugo Hamilton, Silas Hamilton and Sam King. We wish them the very best in their efforts and every success. Sandy Bay Sailing Club hosted the 2017 Tasmanian Schools Teams Racing Championships which saw over 100 senior school students compete for the State Championship including 5 all girls teams. The regatta also served as a selection event for the Australian Schools Teams Racing Championships that were held in Western Australia in July. Friends, Hutchins and Fahan all headed to Perth representing Tasmania in the national championship. In Perth, the Friends (boys) team finished third overall and the Friends (girls) team won a hard-fought duel, 2-1, against Sydney s Asham School, to take victory in the girls division and finished ninth overall. Both Friends teams will now go on to represent Australia at the Interdominion Schools Teams Racing Championship against New Zealand in Melbourne in September. In addition to representing The Friends School, all the crews are members of either the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania or Sandy Bay Sailing Club. I would like to welcome the George Town Yacht Club and the St Helens Sailing Squadron to becoming members of Yachting Tasmania this year. The George Town Yacht Club was founded back in 1953, and had a strong sailing activity in its early years with off-the-beach classes including the Tamar class, Sharpies and Rainbows. Located on the shores of the Tamar at Esplanade North, George Town, the club currently has about 35 members, racing keelboats ranging from 24-footers to 50-footers, along with trailer-sailers, and a handful of dinghies, and catamarans. A number of motor boats are also on the register. The sailing program provides keelboat racing the first Saturday in the month, year round and this summer will see the revival of dinghy training. The St Helens Sailing Squadron has been founded by a dedicated group of parents who wish to see sailing on Georges Bay in St Helens. They intend to initially to focus on the Stonehaven Cup as a junior/youth pathway and encourage other classes and sailing to develop organically.

8 One of their founding committee members has been heavily involved in King Island Boat Club s Stonehaven Cup program in the past and is eager to see a similar program succeed in St Helens. To assist with this, the squadron has managed to procure five 12 Cadet Dinghies, two of which have achieved strong results in recent years. The short-term plans for the squadron include becoming accredited as a Discover Sailing Centre to deliver learn to sail programs to school-aged children, and to their parents, before the children progress into their Stonehaven Cup program. The first year of their Stonehaven Cup program is already well subscribed, with 15 children registered (this is the full capacity of the program with the current number of Cadets). With these children and their families planning to register as members, they believe that the squadron will have between members in their first year. I would like to thank the Midway Point Yacht Club for hosting the Tasmanian Schools Regatta and Youth Championship in March and congratulate all the winners and competitors for having a great regatta. I would like to acknowledge that Yachting Tasmanian Hall of Fame member, the Late Roger Hickman was recognised in this year s Queen s Birthday Honours with a posthumous Medal (OAM) in the General Division. Roger was a fantastic promoter of the sport of sailing and a great friend to the Tasmanian Sailing Community and a very worthy recipient. 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 I would like to encourage all of our keelboat owners to start preparing for this great event and ensure that the Tasmanian sailing community not only gets out and supports this event but win it! I would like to thank Vice President Greg Rowlings who continues to promote our sport on ABC Local Radio with Chris Wisbey of a Saturday morning and Peter Campbell for his tireless efforts promoting the sport of sailing through his words. Thank you to Richard McMinn for his assistance this year as the Reginal Manager for Tasmania and Oliver Burnell our Events Coordinator. Thank you to the Board of Yachting Tasmania for their efforts over the past year and to Nick Connor and Gavin Adamson who will not be seeking re-election. Nick was our honourary treasurer and he was instrumental in the One Sailing transition ensuring that it was successfully completed. Gavin is a staunch supporter and promoter of keelboat racing in our state and we appreciate his support and contribution during his time on the Board. Richard Batt President Yachting Tasmania

9 ITEM 4 TREASURERS REPORT The past year has seen the transition and centralisation of core accounting functions to Australian Sailing as part of the agreed One Sailing implementation agreement. This transition has seen income pass through the Yachting Tasmania balance sheet to Australian Sailing where accounts payable items have been managed in line with the agreed budget. Accordingly, financial reporting to Yachting Tasmania is provided by Australian Sailing on a monthly and annual basis. Yachting Tasmania has retained ownership of on water assets, including coach boats and a fleet of Pacer dinghy s, as part of the One Sailing transition, and these are provided to Australian Sailing for the conduct of events in Tasmania. Consideration will be ongoing to determine if ownership of these assets should remain with Yachting Tasmania or be transferred to Australian Sailing. With the Treasurers role now substantially redundant, I will be stepping down from Yachting Tasmania. I would like to thank my fellow committee members and wish them all the best as they continue to steer the development of our sport in Tasmania. Nick Connor Treasurer ITEM 5 - REGIONAL MANAGER - TASMANIA REPORT Once again, Tasmania had a very busy year for sailing. While we at Australian Sailing have been working on ensuring the goals of the One Sailing changes have been met, clubs and sailors have been doing incredible things within the state. One year into One Sailing, with the administration of the sport of sailing coming under the banner of Australian Sailing nationwide, I can say that it seems to have been a fairly successful transitions. Needless to say, as with all major administrative changes, there have been some teething problems, but due to the hard work and perseverance of the entire team of Australian Sailing staff, now located around the country these problems have all been relatively minor and quickly resolved. The change in administrative structure has afforded us the opportunity to review the way that national and statewide messages are communicated to clubs and to sailors. One initiative has been the redevelopment of the national website. This is an ongoing process, but one of the major changes already seen is the development of state-specific news pages. If any club wants to share news of an upcoming regatta or event, if they want to advertise for instructors, coaches, administrators, or even if they want to put any messages up for all Tasmanian clubs to see this is the best place to do this. I encourage clubs to send any news they want on the Tasmanian page to me or to news@sailing.org.au. This news page is then shared as a part of our monthly newsletters. These newsletters are our response to previous feedback that we have previously sent too many inconsistent messages to clubs. Our primary newsletters are the Nautical News, which goes out to all sailors with an address listed in myclub and the Club News which is distributed to commodores, secretaries and other administrators listed in myclub. Both of these newsletters are sent monthly. We also have specific interest-group newsletters including one for officials and one for youth sailors which are distributed quarterly.

10 Other initiatives we have been able to implement under the new national structure include the Participation Census and the Satisfaction survey. I understand that clubs found it frustrating to have two lengthy surveys to complete in such quick succession and we will be addressing this in future years. These two surveys though have given us a critical insight into the state of sailing around the country. The participation census has allowed us to determine the number of people, in particular non-members that are sailing at our clubs which will help us to prioritise the areas that we need to help clubs to engage with the community to grow their membership. Coupling the census with the satisfaction survey completes this picture as the satisfaction survey provides invaluable insight into how well we are working with our clubs. I would like to thanks all of the Tasmanian clubs that went to the effort of completing these surveys. One promising insight that was revealed during the participation census process, was the number of members at Tasmanian sailing clubs which has increased slightly across the state. This is a very promising sign for the sport of sailing in Tasmania as we continue to be the state with by far the highest per-capita level of participation. This increase in membership can only be attributed to the continuous hard work and countless hours of dedication of the volunteers at each of our clubs. Volunteers are, and always will be the lifeblood of our sport and without their tireless and selfless devotion to their clubs and to the sport as a whole, sailing would not be in the strong position it currently is. It is probably a sign of the strength of sailing and the determination of volunteers involved in the sport that 2016/17 saw two new clubs join Yachting Tasmania. George Town Yacht Club at the mouth of the Tamar River is in the process of rebuilding their sailing program and held a successful Open Day and Sail Past in October. More recently, St Helens Sailing Squadron was formally founded on February 14 and have joined Yachting Tasmania. They have some grand plans involving junior sailing and the Stonehaven Cup, as well as intending to become an accredited Discover Sailing Centre. They are still in the process of securing a permanent clubhouse and are working with their council to ensure that they end up at a site that will be able to accommodate their future plans. They, along with many sailing clubs are lucky enough to have a supportive local council. It isn t only local councils that are supporting sailing clubs. To emphasise the strength of our sport, it is worth noting that in 2017 the Tasmanian government increased its direct investment into the sport of sailing by 10%. This recognition from the people in charge of our state that the sport of sailing and sailing clubs in general provide an enormous benefit not only to their members, but also their immediate surrounds and the broader Tasmanian community. To further emphasise this, the Tasmanian Community Fund approved over $230,000 of funding towards projects within Tasmanian clubs and class associations which will no doubt be of great assistance to those clubs. I would like to take this opportunity to note that if your club does have any projects coming up that need funding, there are a number of grants available to assist. These are regularly posted to the Australian Sailing Tasmanian news page and in our monthly Club News newsletter. In November Australian Sailing coordinated and facilitated a meeting between the Tasmanian Salmon forming companies and sailing clubs in response to news about proposed aquaculture projects in Storm Bay. The meeting was well received and raised not only the proposed new developments in Storm Bay, but also ongoing activities in the Huon and Channel region. While it was disappointing that one of the three major companies decided not to attend, those companies that were present provided the clubs an opportunity to discuss the impact that salmon farming has had on their club activities and on their

11 members. We hope to continue to engage with other water users, including the salmon farming companies, to ensure that our sailors have a voice in the way that Tasmanian waterways are used. While most clubs have seen relatively steady membership levels, or even some minor increases, there are still a small number of clubs around Tasmania that are having trouble encouraging people from their local region to visit the club and take part in some sailing activities. The number of clubs that have experienced a reduction in membership of 10% or more has reduced this year from 7 in 2015/16 to only 3 clubs in 2016/17. I have contacted most of these clubs recently, but would encourage them, and any other club that is having trouble attracting new members to continue to engage with myself and my colleagues at Australian Sailing, and the Yachting Tasmania board. Across the state and indeed the entire country we have a huge network of club personnel, volunteers and professionals, with an enormous range of skills, knowledge and expertise who are more than willing to help share their advice. A common theme I have come across when talking to clubs is that active promotion of the club within the community, and advertising specific Discover Sailing Days have been very successful at providing the public an opportunity to visit the club and get a taste of what our sport is all about. Throughout the 2016/17 season a number of clubs held Discover Sailing Days. These have been widely promoted to the community via social media, radio and newspapers, as well as the distribution of flyers and strategic placement of signs and banners. Australian Sailing is able to assist with these. While the days themselves have generally been very successful at raising the profile of the club and introducing new people to sailing, clubs have seen mixed results regarding the conversion of Discover Sailing Day participants into club members. A successful way to do this is to provide people visiting the club with an opportunity to learn to sail. Australian Sailing can assist clubs with this through our Discover Sailing programs. In Tasmania we have 13 Discover Sailing Centres offering dinghy, keelboat and powerboat training. There are ongoing discussions with a number of other clubs that are looking into becoming Discover Sailing Centres. To ensure that instructors at Discover Sailing Centres are able to provide high quality training, we offer training courses. In the past year we have held Assistant Instructor, Dinghy Instructor and Keelboat Instructor training courses with new instructors from all regions of the state. To help support clubs and their volunteers, this year has seen an attempt to increase the number of powerboat and official training courses held around the state. We have had two Safety Boat Operator courses and a number of officials courses, including Race Officer courses held at Huon Yacht Club and the Derwent Sailing Squadron and an umpire course held at Sandy Bay Sailing Club with more courses planned for the second half of These will be advertised in the club newsletters and on social media. If any club has a particular desire for a course to be run in their region, don t hesitate to contact us and we will look into arranging a course. Official and volunteer training is a crucial element for clubs to consider. Tasmania is increasingly attracting high profile events and it is important for clubs to ensure they undergo due diligence to ensure that the volunteers helping at their events are appropriately trained and qualified. This is especially true over the next few years. Planning has already commenced for the summer of 2018/19. In that summer Tasmania will be the host of a number of major events, including the 75 th Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the Australian Yachting Championship, the Australian Youth Championship, a plethora of dinghy class national titles as well as the normal sailing calendars. We have every intent to make all of these events as successful as possible and will be contacting clubs in the coming months to discuss the

12 best way that we can use the resources we have throughout the state so we can best assist the clubs that will be running these events. At those very events this year, our sailors have had a very successful time on the water. The standout performance of any of our sailors was Matt Bugg, who had a very successful campaign at the Rio Paralympics and came away with the silver medal. He and his coach Richard Scarr put in an enormous effort to get him to that level and in the lead up Matt and Richard could regularly be seen training on the Derwent. He has since also won a silver medal at the World Para Sailing Championship in June After a thorough recruitment process Richard Scarr has also been reappointed as the Tasmanian State Coach, supporting the high performance sailors in the Tasmanian Institute of Sport s sailing program. Matt s result was far from the only noteworthy result achieved by a Tasmanian sailor in the past 12months. Chris Symonds won the Hansa 303 national title and also sailed to a silver medal at the world Parasailing Championship in June. Away from the world stage, Tasmanian sailors also achieved some incredible results in national titles. Brendan Crisp and Daniel Maree were the first Tasmanians to ever win the Flying 11 national title, William Cooper and Hugo Allison won the International Cadet Australian Championship and Bruce Rose was crowned Paper Tiger Australian Champion for the fifth time. Our youth pathway sailors also achieved some outstanding results at the Australian Youth Championship with Sam King winning silver in the Laser Radial and Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher also winning silver in the 29er. Meanwhile our ocean racers were also producing great results with Richard Grant and his crew on Magellan winning the Corinthian Division of the Sydney to Hobart and Phil Turner and Duncan Hine s Alive winning the ORCi division in the Australian Yachting Championship. Our clubs also excelled at putting on major races and regattas this year despite some very challenging weather over the Christmas/New Year period. The Derwent Sailing Squadron once again ran a highly successful Launceston to Hobart. In its 10 th year, this race saw a record number of entrants racing down the east coast in some very miserable conditions. Meanwhile, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania was busy hosting the Flying 11, Sabot and International Moth national championships and Midway Point Yacht Club hosted the NS14 Australian Championship. Congratulations to all of the Tasmanian competitors in these regattas and a heartfelt thankyou to the clubs and individuals that put in the hours of work and sacrificed their own sailing to make these events happen. Finally, as we come to the end of the 2016/17 year I would like to thank the Yachting Tasmania board. Under the leadership of Richard Batt they have been a pleasure to work alongside and I look forward to continuing to work with those that are re-elected for 2017/18 and any new board members that are elected. I would also like to make a special thanks to Nick Connor. Nick has been on the YT board for several years, acting as treasurer for the past two. As treasurer his guidance was instrumental in ensuring that the One Sailing restructure has been implemented as successfully as possible in Tasmania. His insightful contributions to Yachting Tasmania board discussions will be missed and I wish him all the best in his future role with the Derwent Sailing Squadron. Richard McMinn

13 ITEM 6 NORTHERN-VICE PRESIDENT REPORT We have seen some positive growth in sailing in the North of the state this year with two clubs joining Yachting Tasmania. George Town Yacht Club has re-formed after a number of years and plans to revive the interest in the club through both keelboats and off the beach dinghy sailing. St Helens Sailing Squadron has been formed and commenced with some off the beach dinghy sailing. St Helens Sailing Squadron are looking at training opportunities for the youth in their area and building interest in dinghy sailing. Although none of the Australian Sailing events for Tasmania were held in the North this year, many of our Northern sailors travelled to compete in the events held in the South of the State and performed well at these events. Similarly, there were no Yachting Tasmania youth, ETS, and TIS sail training held in the North, but a number of sailors travelled for many hours and kilometers to attend training held in the South. This has been the case for quite a few years and Northern sailors, and their families, are to be congratulated for their determination to keep sailing and training without the same opportunities that are available for those sailing in the Hobart area. Northern clubs have again faced challenges of small numbers of sailors for many of their club weekends. However, Tamar Yacht Club have seen some good numbers for their Top of the Tamar midweek series which was run in the Tamar River basin when tides allowed. This also provided a great opportunity for some of the more junior sailors to join in and sail on a larger boat with an experienced crew member/skipper and for spectators on the Tamar boardwalk. Port Dalrymple Yacht Club again had a good numbers at their Blockbuster Regatta and Deviot Sailing Club hosted the 2017 Mirror State Championships. There was also the revival of the George Town to Deviot Safari this year with a good contingent of sailing and a few motor boats making the trip organised jointly by the George Town and Deviot clubs. Tamar Yacht club ran two very successful Try Sailing sessions on the upper Tamar River from the Seaport area. In a couple of hours for each session there were a total of around 180 people introduced to a sail on the river by the club volunteers. The Outdoor Boat and Caravan show again provided a great publicity opportunity for the Northern clubs and funds from this event were shared to provide facilities for sailing in the North. With a few recently qualified instructors and assistant instructors from the clubs in the North, it is hoped that the training programs will continue to develop new sailing interest in the 2017/18 season. ITEM 7 NORTH-WEST DELEGATE REPORT As the North West delegate for Yachting Tasmania I would like to present the following report. Due to major flood damage occurring last June to Wynyard, Leven and Mersey Yacht Clubs much of the damaged infrastructure had to be repaired or replaced. For Leven and Mersey replacement is not yet resolved. The damage had and still has a significant impact on sailing programs at these clubs. Wynyard s damaged launch ramp was repaired late December thanks to the local Council.

14 Another combined meeting between all four clubs saw dates set for interclub regattas and NW junior Championships. These mixed fleet racing regattas were all held with good attendance. Clubs hosted Laser Class Travelers regatta, Hansa 303 invitation, and Top of the Island keelboat races. Training programs delivered to the community were Tackers, Start Sailing and Sporting Schools. Sailability programs operate from Wynyard drawing participants from across Northern Tasmania. Sailors from the North West participated in State, National, Asia Pacific and World Championships. Our Regional newspaper The Advocate are becoming engaged in Sailing activities promoting our sport to the community. All clubs were visited by our Australian Sailing Regional Manger Richard McNinn and we look forward to continued support from Australian Sailing. Chris Symonds ITEM 8 EVENTS COORDINATOR REPORT 2017 Royal Hobart Regatta Exhibition Teams Racing Event The 2017 Royal Hobart Regatta Exhibition Teams Racing Event was set to be raced on the 13 th February with 8 teams entered, but due to strong winds was abandoned. This event was a success in its inaugural year in 2016, so it was a disappointment that the weather conditions forced the decision to cancel this year s racing. The event will be held on 12 th February Tasmanian Youth Championships and Schools Regatta The 2017 Tasmania Youth Championships and Schools Regatta was held on the 4 th and 5 th of March at Midway Point Yacht Club in the states south. 29 boats, featuring over 40 youth sailors, battled it out for the Tasmanian Youth Championships, with many crews also entering the Schools Regatta part of the event, where teams of three (boats) compete for their school. The overall scores of the individual boats within a team are added together, with the winner being the team with the lowest points. The waters of Pittwater featured excellent sailing conditions, with afternoon sea breezes, and superb viewing for spectators on the shore. The morning/early afternoon session of Saturday saw two races completed in a light but steady 5-10knot SSE breeze. The boats then returned to shore for lunch. The afternoon session got underway just after 2pm, in what was now a 15-20knot sea breeze, with flat waters, perfect conditions for skiff sailing which Midway Point Yacht Club prides its waters on. This session also saw 2 races completed, making for a long but good first day of racing at the 2017 Tasmanian Youth Championships and Schools Regatta.

15 The Sunday started slowly due to a lack of wind, before the fleet finally hit the water just after 11.30am for a start just after midday in a light 5-10knot breeze, but current played havoc among the fleet, particularly the 49er, 29ers and B14 as they struggled to make the top mark on a few occasions. The race committee managed to complete the final two races of the regatta just before 2pm, giving the regatta a range of conditions with light winds, freeze breezes and tricky conditions on the final day. Overall Yardstick 1 st River Rats Flying 11 Oliver Prichard/Finn Buchanan 2 nd Helter Skelter Flying 11 Ethan Galbraith/Oscar O Donoghue 3 rd Red Laser Radial Samuel King Overall Schools Yardstick Champions Friends School HH 29er Hugo Hamilton/William Sargent Westwind 29er William Wallis/Brendan Crisp Big G Laser Radial Max Gluskie Class Champions 29er HH Hugo Hamilton/William Sargent Int. Cadet Shmoken Hugo Allison/Grace Hooper Laser Radial Red Samuel King Int. Optimist The Fubster Bayley Fisher Flying 11 River Rat Oliver Prichard/Finn Buchanan The RO's prize for boat handling went to Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher for guiding the FX downwind with the kite up through a group of International Cadets, Optimists and Sabot who had just started and were in a tight formation, delayed the drop to clear a boat metres from the bottom mark and still had smooth rounding.

16 2017 Tasmanian Schools Teams Racing Championship 15 teams competed in the 2017 Boat Sales Tasmania Tasmanian Schools Teams Racing Championships held at Sandy Bay Sailing Club 8/9 th April. 88 Swiss league races were competed over the first one and a half days, meaning every team was able to sail at least 11 races over the weekend. The light morning breeze on the second day filled in for finals and it was the battle of the two powerhouse schools in the finals, with both semis and both final and petite final being Friends School verse Hutchins School teams. Friends White managed to defeat Hutchins Purple in the Petite final to take 3rd place, and back it up and take out the Girls Final from Fahan School. Friends purple were favourite going into the best of 5 final, having not lost a single race up to the final, while Hutchins Gold had only lost 3 races, all to Friends Purple. The final went right down to the last race, with some very impressive sailing skills and techniques being shown from both teams. Friends Purple went onto defend their 2016 title by holding off Hutchins sailors in the 5 th race and take out the Championship. Full results:

17 ITEM 10 - SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS ITEM 11 ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS ITEM 12 APPOINTMENT OF HON. TREASURER ITEM 13 APPOINTMENT OF AUDITOR Ernest & Young is proposed as the auditor for the 2017/2018 financial year. ITEM 14 GENERAL BUSINESS