As the financial year closes, we look back at the participation that has occurred over the last 12 months. It’s been a very big year, with a pleasing 8% increase across our Discover Sailing accredited training programs, which include Keelboat & Dinghy Experiences, Tackers Introductions, Little Tackers and Learn to Sail and Powerboat courses. When we add Discover Sailing Day participants into the total, an impressive 23,020 people have participated in our structured programs in 2018-19. Across the country we have seen participation increase in NSW, NT, QLD, TAS and VIC and more Clubs around the country are becoming accredited Discover Sailing Centres. Click here to view full report.

Congratulations to Sandringham Yacht Club who have engaged the largest amount of participants amongst accredited Discover Sailing Centres (excluding Australian Sailing’s The Boatshed), followed closely by Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.

Congratulations also to the following Centres, who have the most participants for each of the programs, again excluding The Boatshed:

• #1 Tackers Centre – Canberra Yacht Club, ACT
• #1 Dinghy Centre – Keppel Bay Sailing Club, QLD
• #1 Keelboat Centre – Sandringham Yacht Club, VIC
• #1 Powerboat Centre – Flying Fish Australia, NSW
• #1 Windsurfing Centre – Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, QLD

Safety & Sea Survival Centres have also had a busy year, with an overall increase of 16% compared to last year’s figures. With a few more accredited Centres coming onboard, we’ll be looking to grow this number next year.

The membership number is as large as its ever been and to be honest, it is somewhat inflated due to the numbers being captured across a 15-month period rather than a 12-month period. The reason for this is because we rolled out the new revSPORT system and as a result had an additional 3 months of data included in the total membership number. Moving forward, this number will capture just a 12-month period, from July 1 to June 30. Another aspect of this large number is the fact that there is more than 40,000 people in the revSPORT system who have not been linked to a national payment type: e.g. Active Club Member or Social Non-Sailing. Australian Sailing will be working with Clubs to assign payment classes to these 40,000 people so we can better track active club members vs. social non-sailing members.

Thank you to all the affiliated Clubs, accredited Discover Sailing Centres, Safety & Sea Survival Centres, dedicated Instructors and diligent Administrators in helping deliver sailing programs to more than 23,000 people this year. We look forward to working with you again in 2019-20 and growing this number even further.