MARINE ACADEMY UPDATE

At the start of a new season it is worthy to reflect upon the Marine Academy’s activities for the past year. The CYCSA Marine Academy continues to be an important part of the Club. 2020-21 was the Academy’s fourteenth year of operation and continues to grow year on year as it assists in enhancing our sport through meeting the purpose of increasing competency, enjoyment, safety and boating knowledge for both our CYCSA members and the general community. Importantly the Academy continues to be a successful entity in terms of providing a pathway and attracting membership to the Club. A major milestone in the year was the commissioning of our new training vessel, Southern Investigator and the sale of Academy 1. I take this opportunity to thank the CYCSA Board for its investment in our new yacht, a Beneteau 43.3. Southern Investigator is a significant step forward in offering a contemporary training platform. With a number of upgrades during the commissioning process she will serve the Academy and the Club well for many years to come and will be a vehicle for attracting new members. The last 12 months have seen some disruption to Marine Academy participation due largely to the COVID19 restrictions, but also to a windy summer. Those courses temporarily halted were all made up later in the year. The Academy has continued its new offerings and includes the Australian Sailing ‘Out There Sailing’ programs which again attracted teenagers to a three day course during the summer school holidays. As well, ‘Setting a New Course’, run in partnership with the Invictus Pathway Program at UniSA, ran again in October 2020 with ongoing sponsorship from Northrop Grumman. Club member, David Fawcett ably assisted with this sponsorship and deserves recognition. We continue to work with our partners to plan for similar courses in 2021-22. Student numbers increased significantly during the last season with 227 students spread over our 11 course offerings.

Safety Courses for All Members The 2021-22 Course Program was published on the Club’s website in mid-July with some courses already heavily booked. Importantly, the Academy remains committed to providing Safety Courses for all our members be they power boaters or sailors. Safety Sunday will be on Sunday 17 October 2021 with the higher level Sea Safety and Survival Course on the weekend of 6 November. We will continue to provide Marine Radio Courses throughout the year when there are sufficient numbers to run the course. So be prepared and don’t get caught out on the water. Make sure your safety training is up-to-date.

David Royle Marine Academy Principal

Sailing made its Olympic debut in 1900 in Paris and has appeared at every Olympic Games since 1908. The first Olympic Yachting Regatta had been planned for the first Modern Olympics in Greece in 1896 but was cancelled due to rough weather. In the early Olympic Games sailing was dominated by bigger boats, sometimes with as many as 10-12 sailors and time handicaps were used to adjudicate the races. Starting from 1924 and increasingly from the 1950s onwards, the trend has been towards smaller onedesign boats with fewer crew members. In the past 20 years equipment trials have resulted in several new boats reflecting the latest developments in the sport. The recent line up of boats is a mixture of classes with long and distinguished histories, such as the 470, and those reflecting the design and technology advances in the sport, such as the 49er and Nacra 17. Closer to home, the CYCSA hosted the Olympic trials in 1984 and again in 1988 to select the Australian Sailing Team. This remains a huge honour for our Club. Current CYCSA member Chris Tillett along with his crew Richard Lumb competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in the 470 Class. The Australian Sailing Team has seen fantastic results in the Tokyo Olympics this year bringing home gold in the Men’s 470 with Mat Belcher and Will Ryan and in the Men’s Laser with Matt Wearn. Do we wonder if a future Olympian could be in our midst? Is there a youngster here willing to grow the skills and persevere over years of competition and practice to make the team? Let’s hope so!

Photo credit: Images by Sailing Energy / World Sailing

David Royle