Youth Sailing Academy: the 2009 season so far … the CYCA's Youth Sailing Academy has had a busy year training up the next generation of Australian sailing talent, and there's still plenty more to come in the second half of 2009

Offshore Yachting, August-Sept, 2009 by Pam Scrivenor

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The Youth Sailing Academy (YSA) started its season with the annual welcome breakfast in early May, gathering almost 80 sailors from various dinghy clubs around Sydney, the Central Coast and the Illawarra on loan' for winter. Sailors and their parents came together to be introduced to coaches and to hear what the YSA has planned for the squads.

Andrew Palfrey, Rob Bell, Evan Walker and Seve Jarvin explained the coaching syllabus for each squad and following the breakfast, the Advanced Squad was out on the water for their first on-water session. Training for the Advanced Squad consists of 10 Saturdays with a fitness session in the park from 0730 run by Rob Bell and then daily briefing and sailing from 0830 to 1600.

During the season, the squad competes in three regattas, the first being the Kellett Shield. This is a fleet racing regatta where the new teams rotate through each position on the boat and from this regatta many sailors find their niche. Brad Kellett, presented the Kellett Shield to the winning boat, Club Marine and her crew of Evan Walker, Karen Muller, Ashlen Rooklyn and Tim Forbes-Smith. Brad shared the history of the Shield, which was first donated to the YSA by his father, David in 1994 when Brad was a member of the Academy.

Over the next two weekends, the Talented Sailor Squad (TSS) and the Development Match Racing Squad (DMR) launched into their season with great enthusiasm with Evan Walker, Rob Bell and Seve Jarvin taking on the coaching of these squads. This season the YSA approached various junior sailing associations to select talented and enthusiastic sailors to join the squads. Through the sponsorship from CYCA member Ervin Vidor and Toga Hospitality Group, the YSA was able to offer scholarships to the associations. Both the Sabot and Flying Eleven Associations selected sailors and awarded scholarships bringing many new sailors into the squads. Both of these squads have a syllabus of five training days and an End of Squad Regatta to make up their season. The TSS will finish with a fleet racing regatta and the DMR, a match racing regatta to test their new match racing skills.

An important part of the DMR squad syllabus is the Interclub Challenge between the three match racing clubs in Sydney: Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS), Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC) and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA). Each club hosts one leg of the Challenge, conducting a series of six fleet races and at the end of the series the scores determine the winner of the Interclub Challenge Cup. This series brings together many young sailors who will continue to do battle against each other as they progress through the various youth squads in Sydney, meeting in club, state, national and often international events.

The next two regattas for the Advanced Squad were match racing regattas sponsored by CYCA club members. Vice Commodore and Chairman of the Training and Development Committee, Garry Linacre sponsor the Navionics Regatta, a one-day Grade 5 event and Dean Harrigan sponsored the Captain John Piper Regatta, a two-day Grade 4 event. This year the YSA invited teams from RSYS and RPAYC to join these events, again allowing the youth squads to get together and measure their skills.

The Governor's Cup, hosted by Balboa Yacht Club in California is the first event on the representative calendar and is held mid July. The CYCA will be represented by Jay Griffin, Keiran Searle and Will Parker. This is an under-20 event and gives our young teams a taste of the international regatta circuit. The next representative match racing regatta is the Club Marine NSW Youth Match Racing Championship, hosted by CYCA in early August followed by compasscard Australian Women's and Australian Open Match Racing Championships, back-to-back events, hosted by CYCA and RPAYC respectively commencing 31 August. The teams then move on to Australian Youth Match Racing Championship which will be hosted by Sandringham Yacht Club in mid September in their fleet of Beneteau 7.5s on Port Phillip Bay in Victoria.

During the winter season, several sailors departed for Europe to sail in various Australian teams. The Australian Sailing Development Squad supports several of the YSA sailors and coaches in Women's Match Racing, 470, 49er and Star classes, all working hard to secure a place in the Australian Sailing Team and on to the Olympics in 2012. These sailors return to the YSA each year, bringing back experience and knowledge to share with other sailors and encourage everyone to pursue the sport of sailing and the wonderful opportunities that it offers.