New junior series at Sail Port Stephens
Last chance! Entries close Thursday for fun family Port Stephens regatta now with under-18s racingIt’s not just the adults who are well catered for at Sail Port Stephens thanks to a bevy of on-water options, from faux relaxed cruising to hardcore round the cans racing in the NSW championship for IRC boats and the Sydney 38 one design class.
This year a new Junior Off-the-Beach One-Sail series designed for competitors under the age of 18 will give the younger ones a chance to leave mum and dad ashore. The two day series planned for Wednesday April 15 to Thursday April 16 will be sponsored by local developer David Ferguson of Port Stephens Strata.
Port Stephens is a popular family holiday destination and the regatta dates deliberately coincide with the school term break, so owners and crew can sail with or meet up after racing with partners and families and enjoy the area’s many downtime offerings. Now the kids are getting in on the action!
One of the founders of the popular autumn series and current Sail Port Stephens regatta director, Geoff Campbell, is the father of the first two junior series entrants, Nicholas and Jessica Campbell.
"Nick and Jess have been on boats all their lives and raced with us on family yachts. As soon as they were old enough they got their own boats, starting in BICs and whatever they could get their hands on out the front of our house," Campbell senior said.
Normally the siblings race out of Belmont 16ft skiff club in Lasers and Pelicans. For the April junior series Nick, a grade eight Mereweather High student, will race his Laser, and Jessica, a grade six Soldiers Point Public School student, a Sabot.
"The region is based on a holiday feel, that’s why the regatta is in the holidays, so it suits families. The thinking behind introducing a junior series to the program is to get everyone involved in Sail Port Stephens and try and grow junior sailing in the bay," Campbell added.
Series sponsor David Ferguson says: "Being part of the local community means we all want kids to have great outdoor things to do. Nelson Bay is a beautiful spot and Port Stephens Strata is happy to support the event with the aim of getting as many young sailors on the water as possible.
"Both my son and daughter are doing really well in Optimists. Jack is in the Australia Optimist development squad and just won the Victorian title and Mina finished the top NSW sailor. They will both compete in the junior series and we’ll drag as many other Opti sailors there as we can. We know the numbers won’t be huge this year – it takes a while for new ideas to build momentum."
There will be a bunch of Optis available for charter for the junior series via Steven Bond at Sailing Scene.
Entries to the regatta close on Thursday April 2, so get in quick.
The Notice of Race and other regatta documents are available here
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