What a Weekend!
Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd, Sunday 23rd & Monday 24th September saw boating return to the Convention & Exhibition Centre and Elizabeth Quay for the residents of Perth. Swan River Sailing coordinated the Free Sailing activation again for the second year running, with the support and combined efforts of Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, Royal Perth Yacht Club & South of Perth Yacht Club with the endorsement of Australian Sailing and sponsorship from MonkeyFist Marine.
This year, the Perth weather turned it on for the event with cloudy mornings, sunny days and breezy afternoons – the perfect conditions to introduce a barrage of people to the exciting sport of sailing and recreational boating.
Over 75 volunteers, many assisting on all four days, helped make this amazing event possible with the final figure totaling 2,076 experiences provided over four days! This included over 1,335 people, with many participating in more than one experience.
Participants were able to try Tackers (if they were aged 4-12 years old) on the colourful optimists, assisted by many young sailors and instructors for the contributing clubs.
They could also try sailing onboard the Foundation 36 yachts, which were situated in Perth Waters, just outside Elizabeth Quay. This included transfers via our support vessels (RIBs) from the dock in Elizabeth Quay, out past the foot bridge and back.
And, participants were also very excited to discover Powerboating with the help of our friends from the Outboard Engine Distributors Association (as well as Suzuki, Yamaha, Evinrude, Tohatsu & Mercury Marine) who provided the boats, engines and sponsorship. The team from Poly’s Power & Sail and Perth Recreational Boating Academy helped with providing the instructors.
It was an amazing effort from the entire, extended team involved and would not have been possible without everyone’s fantastic support, efforts, contribution and, especially, ENERGY!
Special thanks to our friends from Taylor Road IGA for helping us out with
some fantastic lunches for a volunteers, yet again, and also to our Major Sponsor, MonkeyFist Marine – without their support this simply would not have been possible!
Now that it’s all over…. And was sensationally successful…. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
If you’d like to Discover Sailing or Boating, you can check out all the latest information from us and our partnering clubs and providers by viewing our Tackers, Discover Keelboats or Discover Powerboats brochures. Or, you could see the information and links in our informational newsletter
