Tasmania to host the Flying 11 Nationals 10-16 Jan

by David Price on 6 Jan 2010
The Flying Elevens are on the march once again for their national's regatta odyssey starting January 10th – 16th hosted by Tamar Yacht Club at Beauty Point, Tasmania.

The class ventured away from its regular strongholds earlier in 2009 with their nationals at Eden in NSW and are now on their way even further south to the Tamar River. It will be a premier event for the Tasmanian sailing community and a huge boost for Tasmanian tourism with 140 young sailors and their families injecting over half a million dollars into the local Tamar Valley community over the regatta week.

The entire northern Tasmanian Government and community have seemingly backed this event, with vast support and input provided by the local Tamar Valley commerce sector. The Welcome Night and Presentation Dinners are expected to be a remarkable production - the theme being the 'Taste of the Tamar' with contributions from many local businesses offering their produce to the 600 visitors of the regatta.

The Tamar Yacht Club facilities and resources are second to none, possessing a generous array of experience and talent amongst the volunteer support personnel conducting the event. The Flying Eleven national fleet will entertain a 3m tide added to the regular river current – something not many would normally come across at their home waters and it will be certainly be another very valuable encounter for these young sailors to savour, and a great opportunity to advance their sailing skills.

This impressive class has been bursting out of its seams over the past few seasons with over ninety crews competing at their state association events. This event is the Flying Eleven Sailing Association of Tasmania's opportunity to once again showcase this dynamic aussie-made skiff to the Tasmanian sailing community at large, and especially Yachting Tasmania and Yachting Australia who to date only support international classes. Once again, with such participation levels and year round programme support, the class will demonstrate their obvious pathways link from our junior classes through to the senior youth classes here in Australia. Where else can our Australian junior and youth sailors experience such healthy fleet participation levels at every regatta?

For the past few years, the class has been very active in the establishment of a successful, developing training and racing programme, fully structured and run all-year-round for all junior and youth classes in Australia, not just the current and graduated Flying Eleven fleet. The programme caters for skill development at all levels of sailing and racing. The class also conducts sail instruction and coaching courses in association with YNSW's Development manager Andrew 'Cribby' Cribb providing a valuable resource to all clubs, other associations and classes. Through the dedication of a handful of determined volunteers, an enormous amount of time and effort and a focus on the participation of the sport – not just performance, this class has surpassed the 'supported classes' participation levels at home whilst continuing to feed Australian sailing with future champions like no other.

Follow all the action of the 2010 Flying Eleven Nationals updated daily on their website www.flying11.yachting.org.au and on twitter.com/flyingelevens