Mentors sharpen skills as Hamilton Island race week battle draws close

by Steve Hall on 23 Mar 2010 'There is a huge thrill in assisting young people to achieve something they normally would not have the opportunity to do and these kids are sensational' said Peter Teakle founder of the Mentor program and former ‘Australian Entrepreneur of the Year (2004)', at a thank you presentation for the Squadron Mentor program based at the Royal SA Yacht Squadron (Squadron).

With the all of the Mentors competing at Hamilton Island race week, the Mentor fleet within a fleet is already providing much excitement.

'Fair bit of preparation to compete with Australia's finest yachtsmen' said Teakle, 'to me the great thrill is to seeing these kids develop.'

The Mentor program is a youth training program and is unique in being run across different states and in providing a clear pathway of progression from sail training dinghies to contemporary racing yachts - Sydney 32's.

There are three Mentors, one each at Hamilton Island, Southport Yacht Club, and the Squadron. Teakle said how he was 'surprised at (how) the clubs, Commodores, and flag officers have jumped at the opportunity. I kind of put it together but I needed a club to take it on.' A fourth Mentor program is planned for Sydney.

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Caillin Howard Commodore of the Squadron 'A couple of years ago we realised the future of the sport and the yacht club was tied into our youth program.' 'We have had some dinghies in the youth program for a while but Peter and this asset have given the youth program a focus.'

Continuing he said '(this) has seen a tripling of the youth program and created a goal for them to develop and improve, not only to develop other dinghy skills but to focus on going offshore and into division one racing. It's mentoring them and has also managed to mentor many of the local sailors racing keelboats,' said Commodore Howard.

The pressure will be on the Squadron Mentor to perform at Hamilton Island with South Australian high performing yachts, Andrew Saies's ‘Two True' winning the world's greatest ocean race the Sydney-Hobart and the high achieving IRC yacht Geoff Beottchers ‘Secret Mens Business 3.5' a leading contender for the Australian IRC championship.

Ian Leeson coordinator of the Squadron Mentor program said, 'We are all excited to be going to Hamilton Island and have been practicing hard. Personally I'm really looking forward to competing against Peter's other Mentor boats from around the country, its going to be great to race against them as well as being able to share ideas and knowledge, each location has its own differences from a sailing and competing point of view. To this end we have established a match race practice format with another Sydney 32, Scotty Mutton's ‘Two Top Cats' to sharpen us up.'

He went on to say 'Our youngest Mentor sailor is 14 years old and the oldest 25 years, they have various degrees of existing skills from almost complete novices to a few who have competed at international level in dinghies. Roughly one third of Mentor sailors are female,' said Leeson.

When asked to compare dinghies to keelboats Alex Bath Squadron Mentor's Jib trimmer said 'Quite a bit different, a lot of fun, dinghies more about boat handling these you get to concentrate'. Alex said he 'planned to continue on Mentor as learning heaps and move onto bigger keelboats'.

Vicki Sanderson said, 'Mentor's great being a younger person it's often difficult to get onto keelboats, Mentor has given me that opportunity. I have definitely picked up a lot during my time and really enjoyed it.' Continuing Vicki said, 'I would like to move around to different spots on the boat and I think it would be time for me to move out from the nurturing position on Mentor and try a few different boats as well.'

Junior Sailing at the Squadron is open to all young people from the age of seven and is unique in SA in training young people in all aspects of sailing, from dinghies, high performance racers, and keelboats.

Young people who are interesting in learning to sail are encouraged to contact Ian Leeson at the Squadron for details of enrolment and Sail training dates. The professionally run program is accredited to deliver sail training by Yachting Australia.