In June, our Sabre National President, Russell Rooney, sent an email to all Sabre sailors and interested people who we have in our system. It discussed a range of topics including our success over the past 45 years, our culture and camaraderie, strategic directions of the class and ongoing development. For those who missed the Newsletter, a copy can be seen HERE.

We were delighted to get an unsolicited email from Rex Fettell, OAM, responding to the above Newsletter. Rex is the father and designer of the Sabre and his email can be seen HERE.

Congratulations go to all participants, organisers and officials for a very successful series. Congratulations especially to our  new champion, Alan Riley of McCrae Yacht Club, who lead the field home in all accept one race. He showed strong boat skills and speed in the ten to thirteen knot Moreton Bay sea breezes. Alan paid compliments to his fellow McCrae sailor, Murray O'Brien, who with a string of seconds, was overall runner up. Alan and Murray had a very  strong build up by finishing neck and neck in their club races.

Tony Carr represented the WA fleet well in taking  out third place overall by securing a first, two seconds and two thirds. Then came the two VIC Black Rock boats sailed by Steve Douglas in fourth and Bruce Abbott, representing the older sailors in fifth. Both sailed boats professionally built by Steve who also made his own sail.

Ryan Kelly (SA) put his foot on the pedal to come in 6th, ahead of his good friend, Tasmanian Chris Kiel, with Peter Ellis (VIC) next.

There was an interesting shoot out between the two junior (under eighteen years) sailors, Liam O'Brien (ninth) who edged out Lucas Upton (10th), particularly on the last day. Lauren Kiel (SA) showed her sailing skills to take out the Ladies Division.

Our thanks go to competitors, organisers and officials for a great series sailed in the usual hard and fair Sabre manner. Ryan Kelly gave a presentation of what will be a very enjoyable series in January 2020 in the seaside town of Wallaroo, SA and we urge all Sabre sailors to come and join in the fun.

Click here to see the results.

The summer sailing season is now over and many hardy Sabre sailors are competing in winter series races - in preparation for the 2018/19 season. A major highlight will be the National Championships to be held at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in January 2019. This was the venue for the very successful 2012 series. RQYS is a great location and venue in the suburb of Manly.

2019 Australian Sabre Championship

5 - 12 JANUARY 2019

We have 9 races scheduled for this Championship between 7 and 12 January. Registration will take place on 5 and 6 January with a Welcome BBQ on the afternoon of 6 January and then our Presentation Function on the evening of 12 January. 

Racing Documents & Entry

Notice of Race – click here
Championship Entry – click here
Entry List – click here

Please take time to view click here to see details of the programme, venue, accommodation options etc

Further Sabre Nationals

So you can continue to plan ahead, we are pleased to announce the timing and venue for Sabre Nationals over the next three years..

They are:

2019 Queensland. RQYS Manly 5-12 January. – see above

2020 South Australia. Wallaroo 4-11 January. – for more details click here.  Please note that you should aim to secure accommodation bookings before Xmas 2018 since Wallaroo is a popular holiday location in January. There is plenty to do and see in this delightful seaside town and some of these and nearby attractions are seen here

2021 ACT/NSW. Canberra YC 9-16 January.

You will see that the Sabre Association have been guided by your responses in our 2017 survey of Sabre sailors. Nationals have been moved from our traditional Xmas/New Year timing and to more family friendly locations.

Congratulations to Scott Olsen from Fremantle Sailing Club who is the Overall Champion of the 2017/18 Sabre National Championships held at Perth Dinghy Sailing Club. This is the 2nd time Scott has won the Sabre Nationals after wininng in 2013/14. Congrats also to Megan De Lange from Victoria who won the Female Champion.

Other placegetters included. 

• Grand Masters: Murray O'Brien (VIC)
• Masters: Scott Olsen (WA)
• Grand Veterans: Bruce Abbott (VIC)
• Veterans: Pete Coop (WA)
• Senior Dave Meehan (WA)
• Youth: Liam O'Brien (VIC)
• Over 90kgs: Robert Depiazzi (WA)
• Under 60kgs: William Thomas (WA)

Full Results are available here

  
          Scott Olsen, pictured with Chelsea Baker       Megan De Lange, pictured with Chelsea Baker

A big thank you to all the Sabre sailors that competed in the event. We hope you enjoyed the experience. 

Sabres WA would also like to thank all the volunteers who helped with this regatta. Regattas like these take a large number of volunteers to ensure a successful event and all our volunteers worked very hard and dedicated their time to the event. We had a number of volunteers from the Sabre WA Community, Perth Dinghy Sailing Club and also from other WA yacht clubs and we thank you all for your time, efforts and professionalism.

Some of our on-water volunteers

Thank you also to our valued sponsors. The high standard of this regatta would not have been possible without the support of these companies. Thank you to our major sponsors City of Perth, 4Branding, ISP Australia. Along with support sponsors Boating Hardware, Ronstan, Extreme Sails, Everett Smith, SQP Enterprises, Sailing Gear for Women and Girls and Shenton Park IGA.

Drone Footage
By George Coop

Day 1

Day 4

Highlights Video - Perth Sailing Photography

Highlights video - by Rick Steuart - Perth Sailing Photography
https://perthsailingphotography.weebly.com

We were supported by a great group of sponsors. They and entry details to the Perth Nationals are shown here. 

Following discussions at the Sabre AGM in January 2017, it was suggested that a survey of Sabre sailors in Australia be conducted to gain insights to help us to determine whether we should change the locations and/or the timing of our Sabre nationals to encourage greater participation. This arose bearing in mind the lower than expected attendance in the recent two Nationals in Hobart and Black Rock. Findings will not affect the next Nationals in 2017/18 in Perth.

Questionnaire emails were sent some 500 people who had shown an interest in receiving information about Sabre activities. We were pleased to receive 197 responses from Sabre owners, a good degree of interest. Responses showed that there was a core group of 34 people who participated in most Nationals, an additional 40 who did so only in their own state, 49 who rarely competed (perhaps only when the event was held at their club) and 74 (or 38%) who never competed. Many of the latter group preferred to sail Sabres in club races only or ‘just for fun’.

Although the situation can differ between event locations, it is likely that in most cases our current participation of 65 or so boats in nationals will be made up of most of the first group and some of the second. In order to get increased participation, the most popular response was to change the timing of the event to be in say mid-January, away from the Xmas New year family holiday period. In doing so, we need to be also mindful of national event times of other classes where children of Sabre parents participate. A change of location also scored well, with responses suggesting that we should seek family friendly, low cost places eg those with camping areas, cabins etc. However a high 50% would unlikely to be tempted to participate by any change to the event.

Some 40% of respondents mostly sail in their state championships.

Probably little of the above will come as startling insights to most Sabre sailors, however it does provide us with guidance and confidence in planning future Sabre nationals. We thank all those who participated and provided comments and look forward to their continuing participation and success in Sabre sailing.

As an interesting side issue of the survey, Sabre sailors were asked how they got into Sabre sailing. Their responses can be seen here.

Following the successful introduction of Sabres into the Sail Melbourne regatta last December, we have again secured a spot for six races in the weekend 2, 3 December 2017. It will be held at the recently renovated sailing area at Royal Brighton Yacht Club. Again the organisers have requested that we have entries of at least 20 boats, which we exceeded last year. Let’s get behind it again this year to enjoy the regatta and showcase our class.

Quoting from the Sail Melbourne website, “Sail Melbourne is Australia’s premier Olympic and Invited Classes Regatta, held annually in the waters of Port Phillip, Victoria. Established in 1992 it has become the largest annual ‘Off the Beach’ regatta in the southern hemisphere and is critical to the growth and success of junior and youth sailors, enabling them to race alongside their Olympic heroes.” The regatta will also be the inaugural leg of the new Asia Pacific Circuit.

Some of we less youthful characters also enjoyed the event. It will be again an excellent opportunity to hone our skills for the forthcoming Sabre Nationals, to be held in Perth and other regattas coming up in 2018. The NOR and the online entry can be found on the event website, http://www.sailingworldcupmelbourne.com/

We plan to load boats and trolleys into containers in Melbourne during 9,10 December, ie the weekend following the regatta and there may be opportunities for interstate boats to secure positions. If you are interested, please contact Barry Eastgate at barry.eastgate@bigpond.com

Sail Sydney will be held 15-17 December 2017 at Woollahra Sailing Club and further details can also be seen at http://websites.sportstg.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-9990-0-0-0