RACING REPORT

RACING ROUND UP

At the time of writing this article South Australia is just emerging from the COVID lock-down. The CYCSA Boating Manager and REX volunteer Adrian Wotton have been working with state and national authorities to find a pathway to get boats competing on the crystal clear waters of the St Vincent Gulf over this winter period. I hope everyone has been able to take advantage of these conditions. As we headed into lock-down in late March we had to rapidly curtail the 2019/20 summer racing season (by abandoning the last Inshore and Coaster races) and then postpone the Presentation Night from early May. Unfortunately this also meant the last Twilight wasn’t raced and season presentation held which is usually a big Wednesday night for the Club. We have decided to hold back on announcing series winners and other trophy recipients in the hope we may be able to hold some form of celebratory event for skippers and crews before the opening of the 2020/21 Season. The REX has continued to meet using videoconferencing to keep up momentum during the restrictions. While at the time of writing the CYCSA/RSAYS combined program is not yet 100% finalised, we do have agreement on the framework and focus for this coming season which I would like to share with you. 1. Youth Racing - We will have two major pre-Christmas regattas that are programmed to allow the participation of our young, off-the-beach sailors from other clubs up and down the coast. In addition we plan to hold a ‘Youth Sunday’ to get as many dinghy sailors (and family members) racing out on keel boats as possible in the run up to the end of the year. Expect this to be heavily promoted by the Club. 2. Women’s Series - We will now jointly promote and operate the

SA Women’s Series with the RSAYS. Many CYCSA members have been sailing in this series on RSAYS boats, in addition to CYCSA’s School’s Out, over many years. We are working to have CYCSA boats compete (on Sundays) using courses that will mostly start outside of the breakwater (ie not in the river).

Again, expect this to be promoted to members. 3. Offshore Racing - Sadly this aspect of the sport has been in decline in recent years and in an effort to reinvigorate interest we will have a ‘short offshore series’ of three races consisting of courses around 60 miles plus the Adelaide-Port Lincoln as the last race. The idea here is to get most boats home before midnight to give them a taste of off-shore racing before the highlight of the year, Lincoln. This will in turn hopefully lead to better practised (and hence safer) crews for the long race. 4. Twilight Racing - The Club relies on having strong gatherings of boats and crews on summer Wednesday nights to help keep the Club financial. We also need to ensure the safety of those on the water by having robust processes and trained people. In recognition of these factors the Club will be launching new on-line registration capturing crew details and Australian Sailing membership to ensure everyone on the water is covered. There will be a notional charge for this per participant (for non-racing members) per Twilight while still incorporating a

‘come-and-try’ element for newbies. Please contact me or any REX member if you want to know more. See you on the pontoons. Thanks for reading.

Mike Holmes FIEAust GAICD Chair, CYCSA Racing Association

Game On - photo by Esho N Shell