RS at Gosford this weekend!

by Jardine Media on 19 Sep 2008
Grab your sailing gloves and brush off the winter blues! It’s your chance to sail the RS range of boats at Gosford Sailing Club this weekend, with a free BBQ thrown in for good measure. Performance Sailcraft, the Australian importers and manufacturers of the British RS boats, will have the RS Feva, RS Tera and RS 200 available for everyone and anyone to have a go on. Free food and a glorious day tearing around in RS speed machines on beautiful Brisbane Waters? If you can think of a better way to spend a Saturday, we’d like to hear about it.

The RS Feva will undoubtedly be the star of the show, so get there early if you or the kids have your heart set on trying her out. Performance Sailcraft will have boats ready to take out on the water on Saturday 20th September from 10.30am, so Mum and Dad can enjoy the BBQ, take a RS out or watch the action from Gosford Sailing Club’s restaurant.

The Feva was the world’s best selling two person sail boat in 2005, 2006, 2007 and again in 2008. Popular with adults and children alike, the Feva ticks all the boxes when it comes to versatility and performance. Sporting a high boom and large cockpit, with a number of rig options that make it perfect for solo sailors, family crews or a couple of kids, the boat weighs in at just 63kg when fully click here for some great clips of the Feva in action
It’s the combination of price, convenience and easy handling, plus the fact that they’re an ISAF international class, that makes the Feva an excellent choice for a club boat. Performance Sailcraft’s Kevin Winchester said that he’s been getting calls from a number of clubs looking at either increasing their Feva fleets or introducing the boat as their junior fleet boat. Woollahra and Mornington already have active RS fleets, with other prominent clubs looking to follow suit.

‘I think the Feva’s a top little boat – it’s a step up, so if they’re coming out of Sabot’s or anything like that they can step up into that. It’s a two handed boat, it’s got a spinnaker on it, so it’s really easy to use, and being plastic it makes life that little bit easier and it makes a lot more economic sense.’

It’s the step from one class to another that causes heartache for many clubs looking to retain their youth fleets and to encourage their young female sailors. The Feva looks like it might be one way of stopping girls from dropping out of the sport at the critical stage when they change from two-up to solo sailors. Winchester reckons it all comes down to facilitating that much derided female institution: the chin wag.

‘The girls really love the social aspects of the sailing so when they get a bit bigger and they’re just on the boat themselves they tend to drop out because they can’t keep chatting as they’re going around the course.’

Performance Sailcraft is ‘sweetening the deal’ for clubs that want to build up RS fleets. They’re offering some RS 200s and 400s at some ‘pretty nice prices’ and are available to help clubs with coaching and sailing days. Clubs with RS fleets will be known as RS Academies with all sorts of goodies on offer, including a scheme where you can buy parts and boats through the club, earning both you and the club points. It’s similar to the well known FlyBuys scheme.

But unlike most supermarket points schemes, you don’t need an ‘Imelda Marcos in a shoe store’ level of expenditure to get your reward.

‘We give them some plaques and we give them some flags and put them on our website. We help them with training days and sailing days…If they have club boats we will give them discounts’ said Chris Caldecoat from Performance Sailcraft.

‘Privately owned boats that sail in the fleet can order their parts through the clubs…and they will just get reward points ticked off or added to their account. They can either cash that in on club boats or prizes for the end of season event….’

After Gosford Sailing Club’s event this weekend, the next RS Demo day will be at Woollahra Sailing Club on the 18th and 19th of October. Expect to see the full range of RS boats on the water, and some friendly competition with Woollahra’s existing Feva fleet. If your club would like to host a RS Demo day, with a free BBQ thrown in, contact Jason at Jason@lasersailing.com.au for more information and to book your spot.

If you’re not already sailing a RS, now is the perfect time to start, with Woollahra Sailing Club due to host the first ever RS classes National Championships in January 2009. The timing of the event, which is open to all RS classes, is particularly good: it’s just after the Australian Olympic Youth Championships, during the Australia Day long weekend.
And with the Feva the junior boat at the Youth Championships, many of the young hotshots are likely to stick around for the National titles, so expect competition to be fierce. If you’re just starting in an RS, you’re going to need every weekend between now and January on the water, to avoid the humiliation of being thrashed by your kid’s friends.

Another big RS event coming up at Woollahra is the RS Feva Worlds in 2010. This is shaping up to be an epic battle, with RS 200 and 400 classes racing alongside the Feva’s for the coveted Gold Cup. Performance Sailcraft are expecting some of the top British RS sailors to come to town for the event, and with the ubiquitous Aussie/Pom rivalry there is likely to be an ‘Ashes on the Water’ atmosphere.

For more information about either Lasers or RS Feva see the following sites:
http://www.lasersailing.com.au
http://rssailing.com.au

Email Jason at Jason@lasersailing.com.au for more information about the RS Demo Weekends and to book your spot.
Performance Sailcraft contact details:
Performance Sailcraft Pty Ltd
Lot 7 Catamaran Road, Ourimbah NSW 2258
Australia