Hi, Berowne, here is the President's report as recorded in the minutes. More details later today.
Welcome, thanks for volunteering your time to support and promote the sport of windsurfing.
This is my second year in the position of President. Thanks to the Committee of Keith, Greg and Richie for their support across the year.
My strong sense is that the sport of windsurfing is having a "second wind". Apart from a surge in sailors from the early days rediscovering the sport as they find more time through retirement or kids growing up, there has been a growth in the number of young people and women enjoying the sport.
We had the fantastic success of the Windsurfer Nationals at Toronto with 107 entries. Across a number of fleets, notably One Design, Bic Techno and Raceboards, we are seeing more competitors, and Foiling is also growing gradually.
There's also been a growth this year in the number of NSW clubs affiliated with the Australian Windsurfing Association bringing the number to 12.
DAC
Hunters Hill
Illawarra
Koonawarra Bay
Marmong
Merimbula
St George
Stormriders
Toronto
Wave
Wallies
Woollahra
This is by far the largest number of affiliated clubs in any state. Qld is the next biggest with 6.
Apart from affiliation with the AWA and via them to Australian Sailing, joining gives members sail numbers, plus third party public liability insurance for any windsurfing activity 24 hours a day in Australia or OS (except the US and Canada), except when participating in an organised event, for example club racing, that is not sanctioned by AWA. Basically if a Club is not affiliated, or the event is not on the AWA calendar, members are not covered by the AWA public liability insurance when competing in events. The more clubs affiliated, the easier it is to compete with peace of mind at a greater number of locations.
The committee has been working on making the Jervis Bay Sand N Sea festival in October an attractive event for the greatest possible number of sailboard classes. The feature of the event will be a 30km downwind race.
Quite a bit of learn to windsurf going on - DAC, Gosford, Kurnell amongst others.
WNSW has made a submission to RMS about the implementation of the SENS - Sailing Events Notification System, which altered the way Aquatic Licences were granted. In a nutshell : We submit that sailboards should not be excluded from the definition of a Sailing Event, which would allow this class of sailing craft to be covered by the Sailing Event Notification System.
We are continuing to work on insurance issues, seeking to work more closely with the AWA to allow members to be covered for 3rd party public liability when racing at Australian Sailing approved clubs - to my mind one of more controlled and safe environments in which to sail.
We have improved the website, and we are looking to update the constitution to make it more relevant. As an example it currently seeks To control the plans, specifications and restrictions governing the various classes and or divisions in particular, the open class (Division 2) of the IYRU in NSW.
This season Windsurfing was included in Youth Sailing Team, which hadn't been done previously. A squad of 10 windsurfing participants receiving 10 days coaching during season 18/19 from Australian Sailing coach - Craig Ferris.
In July, 2 NSW windsurfers competed in the Youth Worlds in Corpus Christi in the US - Alex
Halank was 20th out of 27 boys, and Amelia Quinlan 16th of 17 girls.
Alex then went on to the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in October, and was 15th out of 24. Qld's Hailey Lea from Qld was 21st out of 23.
RSX Youth Europeans just completed in Mallorca, Spain, Grae Morris coming 9th out of 24 in the U17s, with two wins and a second towards the end of the regatta.
Boat Show: Windsurfing NSW, along with the B14 class Association, mounted a 200 square metre display at the Sydney International Boat Show in August. We had close to 30 volunteers who staffed the stand, and Sam Parker from WindsurfnSnow, Bevan McKavanagh from Bic, Justin Lord from Windsurfing Religion and Greg Johns from Wingenuity supplied material for display. We pulled the display together with a week's notice, together with some great videos on the big screen, and the organisers were so impressed with our display they suggested it was Best on Ground, and have asked us back next year, again at no cost. However, with the fire that razed Windsurf N Snow in January, the sail stands the Boat Show made for us were lost, as Sam was storing them on site. Karen Murden will be the WNSW coordinator of the Boat Show exhibit this year. Finally, thanks to everyone for their involvement this season. Every little bit helps.
That will save a lot of paperwork.
