Sailing generally in South Australia has certainly had its moments in season 20/21 and given what has happened in the last few days regarding COVID lockdowns Season 21/22 may also have its moments similar to last season. In particular the required Covid lockdown in November did make for an unsettling start to the season however given that November in South Australia sailing is often referred to as “Blow-vember” with usually cancelled race days through this period of the each sailing season, it seemed minimal impact. It could have been a lot worse.
So once the season did get started in earnest early December ’20 onwards club racing across in all our main five clubs has been very successful. In particular, Port River SC, Somerton YC, Brighton & Seacliff YC continued to put on the water competitive, sizable fleets each week. The close results and good fleet sizes reflects the efforts put in across all our clubs last season. The health of the Sabre Class in SA is also reflected where there are plus or minus 40 Sabres on the water across the clubs in S.A. every weekend during the season and that currently entry level and medium priced boats are very keenly picked up when offered for sale to add to our club fleets. Further, it was also noteworthy all clubs showed interest in participating in the Sail Evaluation Program and provided quality survey feedback to Kelvin Jeannes (thanks Kelvin for coordinating the this program on behalf of the Association) based on use of the trial sail at their club; many thanks to all members for their interest and participation. Now this matter has been resolved at a national level with an all States Delegates vote based on returned survey results (outcome – no change). Now we all can get on and start to order new sails plus work on our boats ready for the new season starting in late September this year.
In late May the Sabre Sailing Association of S.A. held its AGM at Adelaide Sailing Club with all office bearers being re-elected for another season again lead by Chris Pritchard as President(No change to contacts etc on Sabre.org.au!). Importantly this has enabled strong continuity under the leadership of Chris and allowed for a very prompt start to planning and promoting of Sabre sailing activities for next season, such as following up with confirmation of State Heat club venues/dates, Training and Measuring days etc. Once these dates and venues are confirmed they will be promptly posted on our Facebook page and in promoted in our regular e-newsletters.
All the best with your off-season maintenance and hope to catch up soon on the water.
Brenton Evans
SSASA Publicity Officer