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September 2009
President’s Report – AGM 2009
3 September 2009
The 2008/9 S80 season’s highlight was the Victorian Championships at Sandringham Yacht Club. We had 16 entries, which is down a bit from previous years. Even with that number, the S80 is still the most popular keelboat class on Port Phillip. Sydney 38s, J24s and Adams 10s only get 9 or 10 entries at their Victorian Championships.
One of the reasons for the lower numbers is due to a number of regular entrants not being there. Some of these boats have since sold, so we hope to see numbers increase again with this renewed interest in the class. Around 3-4 boats are currently on the market, which we hope will go to active competitors, so we may welcome them at the 2010 Championships to be held at the Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron.
The 2009 championship winner was Intrusion, skippered by Luke Reinehr who reclaimed the title from Up ‘n Go. Escape was second and Up ‘n Go was third. The most improved trophy was won by Escape, skippered by Anthony Beck. Second was Take One and Bon Vivant came in third place.
The other two major events on the racing calendar were the Range Series and Geelong Week. The Range series had 13 entries and was won by Assailant. Good Question came first on handicap. At Geelong Week, we had 9 entries, with the crown going to
Another remarkable performance is in the IRC measurement category, where S80s took 4 of the first 5 places in the Range Series Division III, with Assailant topping the list with a very strong performance, which is evident from the fact they also won AMS in which S80s have a relatively poor rating. In IRC It would have easily been 6 out of 7 if Intrusion and Serious Yahoo had sailed the entire series. Even on YV performance handicap, we pick up 4 places in the top 9 of 48 entries, whilst not an accurate measure, this is an indicator that the entire fleet is continuously improving it’s performance.
Other significant changes this year have been some recent improvements to our website technology. It is now easier to maintain and we can therefore provide more up-to-date information. We are also setting up a ‘members only’ section, where members can login and maintain their contact details as well as accessing other owner’s contact details. This area will also contain a ‘fleet history’, trying to piece together as much as we know of each boat’s life on Port Phillip. We encourage owners to have a look at this part of the website and contribute where they have information.
One concerning development that needs our close attention is the increase in costs from some clubs for organising a championship. In the last few years, we have seen cost increases of more than 50% and in some cases quotes that reflect an increase of more than 100%. This is a development that the Association is unable to support as we believe it is no reflection of the true cost of running our events. It also goes against our class rule objectives of providing high-performance racing at a reasonable cost. This situation has a flow-on effect onto our selection of host clubs. Whilst in the past, we have had somewhat of a rotation approach to host club’s for our championships. We will now move to a model whereby we select the club that is able to provide good value for money. We encourage our members to influence their club’s committees and executives to consider our point of view. An S80 championship, whilst just as competitive, is not as large and complex to manage as an Etchell Worlds for instance.
Looking ahead to the 2009/10 season, we see renewal in the fleet, hopefully resulting in good entry numbers in the major events and our website improvements should enable us to provide some better marketing for the class and it’s activities.
I finish by wishing all owners and their crew an enjoyable 2009/10 season in any of the S80 racing they may be involved with. Good luck and see you on the water.
Assaliant - Aggregate Line Honors Winner 2008/2009
Bas Huibers
Association President
August 2009
The AGM of the S80 Association of Victoria will be held on Thursday 3 September 2009 at Sandringham Yacht Club.
AGM 2009.doc
AGM 2008 Minutes.doc
June 2009
The 2010 Victorian Championships will be held at the Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron from Saturday 9 to Monday 11 January 2010.
January 2009
The Victorian 2009 State Championships held at Sandringham Yacht Club in January 2009 were a great success with the right weather suiting all crews.
The seven race series experienced winds from 5 knots to 20 knots and clear skies over the 3 day regatta.
The convincing winner of the series was Intrusion skippered by Luke Reinehr and his crew
Michael Keusgen, Cameron Way, Mike Reinehr and James Livingstone.
Second: Escape - Anthony & Ken Beck
Third: Up 'n Go - Gary MacKinven
Fourth: Buccaneer - Jon Phillips
Fifth: Imaginer - Philip Martyn
Thank you to Sandringham Yacht Club for conducting a successful series both on and off the water.
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