Please click this link to find a copy of all past WA General Managers Updates. 

Only two weeks left to nominate for the 2023 Australian Sailing Awards!  

The Australian Sailing Awards have been the premier off-water celebration for sailing in Australia for many decades. The State Awards recognise the outstanding performances of sailors, volunteers, officials and clubs in our states and territories, with winners of the awards eligible to be put forward as nominees for the annual Australian Sailing Awards in November. 

For more information and to nominate, click HERE

Get your Dates into the WA Coast Calendar! 

The Coastal Calendar has two main functions.  These are to co-ordinate events between Exmouth and Esperance, and to provide the information needed for the Department of Transport (Marine Safety) to give permission for the conduct of what the Navigable Waters Regulations class as Regattas and which in fact covers all races and organised cruises, both sail and power. It also covers all dinghy training.  

Having events approved has a twofold benefit, firstly other water users may not interfere with these events and secondly, in the case of off-the-beach boats, it permits them to sail under Part 2 of the YA Special Regulations rather than the Navigable Water Regulations. This is why it is important to include dinghy training times in your list of events. 

Please click HERE to access the Australian Sailing WA Coastal Calendar. 

Save the Date for the 72nd YWA Annual General Meeting

17:00 18th September 2023 @ YWA Boardroom, Royal Perth Yacht Club. 

Lessons learned and bar raised at Olympic Test Event 

A Sou’wester of 10-12 knots made sure there was still more variation to come into play on the final day at the Paris 2024 Olympic Test Event in Marseille.

At the conclusion of the regatta, Australian Sailing Team (AST) High Performance Director, Iain Brambell said, “The Test Event has been a highly successful venture, as it saw the return of Matt Wearn to the top of the podium and five of nine Australian entries competing in their Medal Series/Races. 

“We came into the Olympic Test Event to first and foremost compete against the best in the world, and secondly to fully test our processes both on and off the water. We have successfully achieved these two objectives and depart the Olympic venue this afternoon with many learnings and numerous strategic opportunities to explore in the coming year.” 

This won’t be the last time the Aussies see the venue before the Games next year, as Brambell explained. 

“Although we are unable to continue to directly utilise the Olympic venue as it houses the newly built French National Sailing Centre, our athletes will relocate two kilometres South to our mobile base at the Yachting Club Pointe Rouge. Here the team will continue to maintain their intricate exploration and connection to the waters and weather patterns of Marseille in the lead-up to the Paris Games.” 

“This regatta has been an excellent practice run for next year’s Games, as well as a great litmus test for the entire team preparing for the 2023 Sailing World Championships. The Worlds will see nearly fifty Australians competing across all ten Olympic Classes, all of whom have high hopes of confirming nation qualification spots for the 2024 Paris Olympics”, concluded Brambell. 

The Olympic Test Event will be remembered for a lot of things, notably the West Australian Superstar that is Matt Wearn, but there were many ‘new’ or younger crews that really stood up and impressed many. 

West Australian results at the Olympic Test Event:  

ILCA 7 – 42 Entries 

1st - Matt Wearn OAM – 1, 7, 5, (10), 5, 2, 3, 1, 6, (43 RET), 2 (42 points) 

Mixed 470 – 17 Entries 

6th - Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas – 7, (16), 16, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 3, 11, 12 (65 points) 

ILCA 6 – 38 Entries 

20th - Zoe Thomson – 11, 8, 13, (39 DSQ), 39 BFD, 10, 24, 9, 28, 23 (165 points) 

2023 Australian Youth Match Racing Championships 

The 2023 Australian Youth Match Racing Championships was hosted by the Royal Perth Yacht Club 3rd – 7th July 2023. Congratulations to CYCA’s Cole Tapper who finished in first place, CYCA’s Will Sargent who finished 2nd and Royal Freshwater Bay’s Marcello Torre who finished 3rd.

Special thanks to Sponsors BMS insurance Brokers, Healthway and SunSmart for supporting this event. 

Full Results are HERE.  

Save the Date!  

2023 Instructor and Coach Course Update  

The Australian Sailing WA Instructor course schedule kicked off this past weekend with an Assistant Instructor course held at the Royal Perth Yacht Club. All three of the course participants are now qualified Assistant Instructors for each of their respective clubs.  

The instructor and coach courses are filling up with participants so be sure to register for one of the courses that best suits your schedule! The schedule of courses can be found HERE. 

If none of those courses suit you, we have made a survey for people to register their interest. We can offer instructor courses for Yacht Clubs if they have a pool of sailors ready to undertake the course. We ask that there are at least four participants for the course. The survey can be found by clicking HERE. 

Registrations are now open for the highly anticipated 2023 SheSails Leadership Conference 

Registrations are now open for the highly anticipated 2023 SheSails Leadership Conference, which is set to feature an incredible lineup of keynote speakers from the Australian Sailing Team (AST), America’s Cup 2024 Team Australia Challenge (TAC) and Emirates Team New Zealand – America’s Cup (ETNZ). 

Scheduled to coincide with World Sailing’s global women’s sailing festival, Steering the Course 2023, the third edition of the SheSails Leadership Conference will be delivered via webinar at 6pm (AEDT) on Tuesday 3rd October 2023. 

Four-time world champion turned AST ILCA 6 coach, Carolijn Brouwer is confirmed as one of the incredible keynote speakers who will headline the 2023 event. 

Brouwer is set to be joined by Olympic silver medallist and co-skipper of the TAC for the inaugural Women's America's Cup in 2024, Olivia Price, who is the second of the esteemed keynote presenters confirmed for the event. 

Read more or register HERE

Business Workshop Series – Introduction to Grant Writing 

The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC) is pleased to announce delivery of the Business Workshop Series – Introduction to Grant Writing (online) targeting organisations that support and/or deliver sport and recreation from associations to community level.  

Delivered by DLGSC through Whitney Consulting, the objective of this workshop is to provide participants with foundational information to guide them through the grant lifecycle and support them to find grants, address application criteria, prepare budgets and acquit grants. Participants will be given a grant writing checklist and templates to take back to their organisations and implement for future grant applications. 

Date: Tuesday 12 September 

Time: 6.00 pm - 8.00 pm   

Where: Online 

Please complete registration for the workshop here by 4.00 pm Tuesday 5 September 2023. 

Please click here for full course details

For all enquiries, please email industry.development@dlgsc.wa.gov.au.   

Any questions on the above topics please contact the General Manager - WA, Lawson Dixon at lawson.dixon@sailing.org.au 

You can find a fill list of Australian Sailing Contacts – here.