A Blonde named Tiffany and The Pied Piper
by Jardine Media on 26 Nov 2008
Tiffany from the typing pool Sail-World.com /AUS
http://www.sail-world.com
My editor is the kind of guy who wears pinstripe suits to bed and likes Glenfiddich on his cornflakes. In his youth he was a smoking skiff sailor, but as he matured he turned his attention to fast blondes and even faster yachts. To finance it all brought an ailing regional newspaper, which, with luck and a bit of creative genius, he turned into a success. It’s a lot like any other small town publication: lots of births, deaths and shotgun weddings, but it’s got an unusually large Sports section. And most of this section is all about boats.
I wandered back to my desk clutching the Melbourne guy’s number, almost colliding with Tiffany from the typing pool as she made a fast bee-line towards the editor’s office. With her pale hair and smouldering eyes, she looks good in any colour, but particularly cherry red. I watched her sidle through his door and close it behind her- some guys have all the luck. I sighed, pondered the cost of keeping a dame like Tiffany, gave it up as a dead loss (writing doesn’t pay that well) and turned my attention to the task at hand.
I dialled the Melbourne number and listened to it ring a few times. Then the call picked up and a man snaps ‘Bond’. A dozen scenes from Bond movies immediately flooded my memory: Ursula Andress in Dr No emerging from the water sporting a diving knife strapped to her magnificent thigh (only an amateur diver would push their diving mask onto the forehead as a wave can easily dislodge it.) Sean Connery raising one immaculate eyebrow and ordering his martini ‘shaken, not stirred.’ The memorable antics of Pussy Galore and her perfectly round bed…
I am brought back to the present when the man on the phone repeats his name ‘Steven Bond’ and politely asks if I’m still there and can I hear him ok…
None of the above is true except for the stuff about Steven Bond, who is a leading figure in youth sailing in the state of Melbourne, if not Australia. The driving force behind the meteoric rise of the Optimist dinghy, and the Ozi Opti company, Bond has recently signed on as the Victorian agent of the British designed RS Feva, and is certain to bring a huge amount of energy to the promotion of the RS brand. Sail-World asked him how Melbournians were responding to the RS boats.
‘We’ve already delivered a RS fleet into Mornington Yacht Club, which was my home club; it was down to no junior sailors three years ago. We’ve installed a pathway, which is the Tacker boats (the polyethylene Optimists that I build here in Melbourne) and that’s since built up to a fleet of 25 GRP Optimists.’
‘A number of the kids wanted to sail two-up or had outgrown the Optimists, and the club was looking for a youth boat for fleet making, so we introduced the RS Feva.’
The RS Feva comes with a number of rig options and it’s this flexibility which makes it a popular choice with sailing clubs looking for a boat that ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of people. With its high boom and large cockpit Feva can be sailed by kids, families or mates; it’s been the world’s best selling two-person sailboat in recent years, an ISAF International Class, winner of Dinghy of the Year in the USA, Coup de Coeur in France and is an RYA Recognised Junior class.
Other club friendly features include a two part mast and boom that stow within the length of the boat for easy transport; a mast that can be stepped without the mainsail; and a mainsail that can be hoisted and dropped which makes it easy to handle ashore and prolongs the life of the sail.
What really give the Feva the edge in terms of club racing is the number of high level events planned for the class in 2009/2010; it’s not the sort of class where you have to compete against the same small group of people again and again. Upcoming events include the first ever Australian National RS Classes Championship at Woollahra Sailing Club in January 2009- open to Feva, RS 200, RS 400 and RS 800 sailors.
The Feva is the junior boat junior boat at the preceding Australian Olympic Youth Championships and many of these sailors are expected to stay on and compete in the Nationals.
In 2010 Woollahra Sailing Club will again host a top tier event with the RS Feva World Championships coming to town. It’s already being billed as a kind of ‘Ashes on the Water’ with a large number of British sailors expected to travel to Australia to compete in the Sydney Harbour event. While the Feva fleet battles it out for the world title, the RS 200 and 400s will be fighting equally hard for the coveted ‘Gold Cup’.
Bond is well placed to introduce the RS Feva to Melbournians already looking forward to competing in the 2010 World Titles. Ozi Opti recently relocated to ‘the Boatshed’ on the water in Albert Park and Bond is offering free trial sails in a range of RS boats, as well as his much loved fleet of Optimists.
The Boatshed, formerly the Jolly Roger Sailing School, is something of an inner city landmark having been in operation for 128 years. It has recently been reinvigorated and is now managed by Yachting Victoria. It hosts sail training courses for kids and adults, a café, Sailability, an active school sailing program and a chandlery selling Optimist and RS parts.
‘The Boatshed is the Ozi Opti headquarters and it’s also where the recently appointed Australian Optimist Sailing Team coach is based, Andrea Giovannini, he was the South African coach. He’ll be coaching the Australian Optimist team for 2009’ explained Bond.
He discussed his plans for the Boatshed which include introducing Lasers and a RS Academy to provide training and special deals for Melbourne clubs introducing RS fleets. It seems highly likely that if Bond continues his ‘Pied Piper’ ability to get kids into Optimists, then move them onto the RS Feva, the future of the class in Victoria is assured.
For more information on the RS Feva contact Performance Sailcraft:
Performance Sailcraft Pty Ltd
Lot 7 Catamaran Road, Ourimbah NSW 2258
Australia
http://www.lasersailing.com.au
http://rssailing.com.au
For more information on Optimists or the RS class in Victoria:
Phone : +61 3 9525 3788
Mobile: 0424225774
Fax : + 62 3 9525 5329
Email : stevenbond@oziopti.com.au
http://www.oziopti.com.au
http://www.theboatshed.net.au
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