Hello and welcome everyone! How lovely to see you all here for what is, undoubtedly, the most exciting and best fun (and competitive!) regatta on the Swan River!!! Did you all have a great time?
Firstly, a few Thank You’s, if you don’t mind.
Firstly, I want to thank my fellow directors of the Ron Tough Yachting Foundation. Thank you for all your hard work during the year – and your amazing barbequeuing skills today!
I want to thank RFBYC for letting us to all come here today; to enjoy the fantastic Dinghy Club and to use your fleet of evenly matched Pacer dinghies, which we have had to combine with boats from Nedlands Yacht Club, Royal Perth Yacht Club, Scotch College and Christchurch Grammar School to get the numbers. A big Thank You to them all for lending us their boats.
The fleet today looked superb – 35 boats is spectacular sight! Over the last 3 weeks, there has been a major effort to bring all those boats up to regatta standard, and I particularly want to thank those involved – specifically Alexander Bootsma, Tom Devine and Samuel Rose. Please come up for a little Thank You!
An enormous Thank You to Chelsea Hall of RFBYC for her amazing organisational skills and all the hard work she has done preparing this regatta and these boats for you to sail. I don’t think most people realise how much actually goes into coordinating this regatta: preparing the boats, cutting and sticking numbers on sails, organising start boat, race officials, helper volunteers, BBQ’s and water space etc.etc. It has been a mammoth effort – and without Chelsea’s help, we would not be able to enjoy this fantastic regatta today. Please thank her personally when you get a chance! And Chelsea, please come up now.
I would also like to thank Tristan Brown and Matt Jerwood and our wonderful WA Institute of Sport’s sailing programme team. Not only do they ‘round up’ all our WAIS sailors who have been overseas sailing in serious international regattas, but also have the very tricky job of ‘pairing’ all the various crews in each boat as evenly as possible to make this regatta as equitable for you as possible. I am so glad I don’t have to do that job!
Also, Matt, thank you so much for being our PRO for today – you did a fantastic job!
And RTYF Board Member, Paul Green was our on-water umpire for the day. Thank you so much.
Matt, Tristan and Paul, please come up.
I also have another little prize that I think is very commendable and well deserved. Out RTYF Board member Vikki Baldwin had the unenviable task of peeling and cutting up 5 kilos of onions (27 of them!) yesterday for you to enjoy today!!! And she didn’t even cry – too much! I’m glad to see that she is smiling again today! Please come up Vik!
This year, sailors from many different local yacht clubs were invited to take part in this regatta – namely Fremantle Sailing Club, Perth Dinghy Sailing Club, Royal Perth Yacht Club, Mounts Bay Sailing Club, South of Perth Yacht Club, Shelley Sailing Club, Nedlands Sailing Club, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, East Fremantle Yacht Club – and even Esperance Bay Yacht Club! – which I think is fantastic and much more in keeping with the objectives of RTYF. We like to share the fun and also share the incredible opportunity to sail with the very bestin WA. A particular thanks to our returning Olympians – the incredible Matt Wearn, Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas. Thank you for giving up your time today to make it an extra-special day for the younger sailors here. (I believe Matt has his Gold Medal with him here today, as well? That is so good!) Zoe Thomson is currently in Barcelona where she is sailing with the Ladies and Youth America’s Cup team, which is really wonderful too.
I think I can say for all here today, that we are so happy and proud of you and your triumphs!
And for you younger sailors here today – just think! One day – that could be you – proudly returning from representing your country at an Olympic Games (possibly with a medal around your neck – or two, like Matt!) and forever an OLYMPIAN, demonstrating that you have flown so high and can compete at the same level as the very best in the world!!!! That is an extra-ordinary thing really.
The example set by all our Olympians (and future Olympians still in training at WAIS!) by coming here today and sailing against each other – but more importantly with you youngsters, is an enormously inspirational and motivating thing for our sailing community. You too can meet them, talk to them, realise they are human and see that it is possible to do what they have done. That they dreamed, worked hard, aimed high – and that they have achieved their dream!
Before we get into the prizegiving, I would also like to mention quickly that I am trying to get ‘Teams Racing’ off the ground here in WA, with a particular desire to see more schools entering a team for the Inter-Schools Teams Racing regatta next April. But I am also opening it up to teams or individual sailors from a Club. It is so much more fun with more boats out there. So, for your diaries – Tuesday afternoons at 4.00pm here at RFBYC.
Teams Racing is a natural progression for capable sailors – Very Competitive, Fast, Aggressive, Thrilling, Stimulating, Strategic and just Fun! I know, I have done it. And if you don’t know what it is all about, or would like to give it a go, please come and see me afterwards? (Poster) I am also hoping that, once I have got the schools comp. underway, I would like to suggest to older ‘kids’ who have ‘aged out’ of competitive youth sailing, that you might like to get involved and put together a team as well? Any takers? See me later?
Anyway, on to the more important business of the day – The RTYF Pacer Racer Challenge for 2024 and I am delighted that Belinda Stowell-Brett has flown all the way back from Exmouth especially to be here today to present the trophy. This regatta, her brainchild, is becoming such a popular event on the river. It is awesome. We are so proud of what it has grown into.
It’s THE REGATTA THAT COUNTS FOR NOTHING – BUT MEANS EVERYTHING!!! As always, the competition for Supremacy and ‘Bragging Rights’ has been fierce this year, as previous years!!! Can you believe that in the 7 years we have run this regatta, we have had 7 different skippers and crews named on the trophy…… Has that changed this year……????
The Ron Tough Yachting Foundation is so happy to support the youth sailors of WA with this regatta and its cash prizes, and then to enjoy our sausage sizzle afterwards.
Belinda, please come up and present ‘your’ trophy!
Thank you
PRESENTATION of the RTYF Pacer Racer Challenge
6th Elise Ainsworth/Lia Raffart 28 pts
5th Michael Compton/ Harry Cooper 27 pts
4th Nia Jerwood/ Pia Hooper 26.33 pts
3rd Conor Nicholas/ Hudson Armstrong 25 pts
2nd Stefan Elliott-Shircore/ Murray Duthie 23 pts
And the clear WINNER is: AXEL FLEET / KLARA TRAVLOS with just 11 pts!
Many Congratulations!
And a special mention has to be made of Matt Wearn, who was BFD for the Medal Race (Ouch!) and who would otherwise have also been on the podium – although maybe not actually winning….
Thank you so much everyone!!!