Matthew Speakman and Mathew Belcher special guest speakers at SYC's Charity Sailing Day
by Bronwen Hemmings 30 Sep 2018 11:41 AEST
2 November 2018
Corporate clients enjoying the Club's 2017 Charity Sailing Day, sailing on the Gold Coast Broadwater © Southport Yacht Club
On Friday, November 2, Southport Yacht Club will celebrate the Club's annual Charity Sailing Day, with special guest speaker's Olympic Gold and Silver Medallist Mathew Belcher OAM and professional race car driver Matthew Speakman.
Over 100 local business leaders along with numerous Club sailing members will take part in a fun day of sailing on the Gold Coast Broadwater. The events purpose is to provide an opportunity for business leaders to entertain their clients or use for a great team building exercise, all while raising money for Youth Sailing!
This is an annual Club event where all local businesses are invited, no sailing experience is necessary, and the Club supply the yachts.
The event commences with a networking luncheon and special guest appearances from Mathew Belcher OAM and Matthew Speakman, followed by a sailing experience and post event presentation.
The two-time Olympic Medallist and seven-time 470 World Champion Mathew Belcher OAM has recently commenced mentoring the Junior Sailors at SYC, re-launching the academy's High-Performance Sailing Squad and will provide on-water training together with a focus on fitness, nutrition, theory and personal development.
Professional racing car driver, Matt Speakman, has achieved enormous goals in his career. A sport fanatic, Matt's life took a very different turn in 1993 when at 26 years old he was hit by a drunk driver occurring in serious spinal injury resulting in paraplegia. Not allowing his injury to stop him, years later Matt achieved his sporting goals becoming a professional racing car driver competing at International events in Europe and Dubai. More recently Matt raced in the Porsche GT3 Cup challenge, becoming the first person in the world to race in a Porsche series with a major disability.
Matthew's most recent dream took him on an Olympic journey training for the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, after partaking in a 24-hour race in Dubai in the lead up to Rio, unfortunately Matt ended up in hospital, resulting in an 18-month recovery program, the dreams of Rio 2016 came to an end. This didn't stop the sports fanatic, getting back on his sailing boat soon after.
Melanoma Patients Australia will be proud supporters of the event with their main focus to reduce the of melanoma on all Australians through awareness.
For further information or to book your business a vessel, please contact Southport Yacht Club Marketing Manager, Bronwen Hemmings via: or 07 5591 3500.