The Royal Queensland Yacht Club, Yachting Queensland and the Australian Techno Association have prepared a plan and coaches to guide the formation of a program for newcomers to windsurfing.

The following is an extract from the RQYS weekly newsletter regarding this proposal.

The Royal Queensland Yacht Club is expanding by providing new, interesting and innovative programs for sailing. Since Tackers has become a successful way to promote sailing to children, the club, Yachting Queensland and the Australian Techno Association have decided to also give them the opportunity to discover windsurfing!
We have prepared a plan and coaches to guide the formation of a program for newcomers to windsurfing. One critical thing we need is windsurfing equipment to get it started. Our aim is to develop a program for kids. Therefore, the equipment needs to be suited to their abilities. Just as Tackers require small boats, we need boards with centerboards and small rigs (up to 6m2).

If you have any windsurf equipment that has a centimeter thick layer of dust on it and probably won't be used again, please consider donating it to us. We will make sure it is put to good use to train the new generation of children, maybe even your kids, and provide a program that allows them to experience the most demanding class of sailing. In return we will keep you updated on the program's progress and give preference in training and lessons to families who have donated equipment.

If you are interested in hearing more about the program or have equipment which you would like to donate please contact us:
Email: djstgs@bigpond.com
Phone: 0428 331 103
Max Wojcik

This is a great initiative. I will see what I can dig up.

Sorry no old gear. Threw it all out. However I can donate 2 kids!

I have a 1.5mtr kids rig I can donate, a mistral one design rig (7.5m might be a bit big) a mistral one design board in need of some repair plus a NP boom and some bits and pieces.

You mean with all of its funds, RQYS can't afford to buy beginners rigs? Where do they put those $900 a year membership fees?

I'll take a look, I know I have some fins and a harness at the very least.

They should have lots of spare cash... If they didn't wipeout the carsailors!

Dam71 My $900 goes towards use of the facilities every day of the year if I want, off and on water support in the form of very well organised racing, start boat, rescue boats, a scored season points tally, nice rigging lawns with water to wash down gear and a secure location in which to leave my gear whilst I go sailing or even over a couple of days if I want. There's also heaps of social functions but I don't generally take advantage of them.

Considering I do approx 70 races a year it works out about $15-16 dollars per race, I am quite happy to pay that to have the use of the club and the support that comes with it.

For my son it works out less than $7.00 per race, for me thats not bad value considering the peace of mind I have when he goes offshore. Just this weekend someone asked me where he was and I replied "out there somewhere", no need to stress cause there lots of eye's looking out for him.

My fees get charged monthly to my credit card, to be honest I don't really notice them, there no more than getting a feed and going to the movies once a month except for I am at the club probably 40 weekends a year.

On school holidays I drop my son there where he meets the other sailors his own age and they windsurf all day. To me that's far better than him hanging around shopping centres or skate parks.

So yes if you want to have good facilities and services and support you have to pay, but how is that different to anything else in this life.

PS: The club is investing in junior windsurfing, they are very supportive as is YQ, so I don't understand how you could get anything negative from that.

Yes as they say "you get what you pay for" in life. I agree the $900pa sounds high, but as cammd explained the services and facilities are probably worth it.

Cammd. Just looking at rq on google maps. Is that a private/club beach at the south eastern end of rq? Is that where u launch when windsurfing? Sand or mud? That looks very nice when compared to walking up and down the slippery rock wall steps at manly

What vintage is good enough to use.
I have an old crit longboard ,seaworthy,and some older chinook booms, if usable,
Cheers

Cammd,

I and a number of others think it is a bit rich when one of (if not ) the biggest yacht club in Qld, and it's governing body with their vast resources at hand, cannot afford to buy specific kids rigs to get beginners into windsurfing, and have left it up to begging for primarily non-members to donate equipment suitable for this purpose. If they were serious, then they would invest in the sport properly. Now considering that your club generates over $8 million in income P.A, with a healthy operating profit. EG: 11/12 FYR was over $220K, and Cash at bank looks to be a touch over $1 million. So why don't you lobby your club to spend maybe $10K on a few starboard GO's and some synergy kids rigs? If they are seriously interested, this investment would be nothing for them.

Considering they are asking for donated equipment, when they can clearly afford to buy some new gear, I can only presume from an outsider looking in, that they have no serious interest in getting children involved into windsurfing.

The request is purely voluntary. Stuff that is otherwise unused. It is coming as an initiative from the sailors. Max, Cam and others who want to grow the sport. Not from the RQYS organisation. I'm sure they will try their best to get club support as well. That support is more likely to come if they can prove the demand.

Steve713 the beach at the Eastern end of RQ is public, it is where we launch from, the club installed gates so we can park and rig up inside and just walk the gear through. At low tide you have to walk out to the end of the rock wall but its mostly hard sand/mud. Watch those 70cm fins as well if your trying to waterstart they are real easy to kick when treading water.

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tonymatta said..

The request is purely voluntary. Stuff that is otherwise unused. It is coming as an initiative from the sailors. Max, Cam and others who want to grow the sport. Not from the RQYS organisation. I'm sure they will try their best to get club support as well. That support is more likely to come if they can prove the demand.

Hey Tony,

The original post clearly states that RQYS, was behind the program, with an excerpt quoted from the RQYS newsletter - hence my criticisms regarding the donation of equipment, when they can clearly afford to purchase new and ideal equipment.

It reads like its coming from the RQ office but Max would have written and submitted the newsletter text for publication to RQ members and Pat copied it for the forum.
It is the techno and RSX families who are making it happen.

got a few np x3 and unknown brand booms and other stuff. been saving the stuff to donate to a cause not asking an arm and a leg in membership fees, or would love to give it to a youngster/s keen to get into it

Hi Haircut, its crossed my mind a few times to see if I could get you to come up to Brisbane at sometime in the future to give the youth sailors a few tips on freestyle moves as something fun and different for them.

Hi Haircut, it is a very good cause. It is the families of the kids sailing down at RQ asking for the gear and they are doing a fantastic job promoting youth sailing down there.

You will now see windsurfers on the water training and being trained all the time, all because of the tremendous efforts of the parents and also the infrastructure, volunteers and support boats supplied by RQ. It is a very positive environment for the kids and a magnificent conduit to allow the dinghy sailors to cross over into our sport so we can get the much needed injection of younger sailors coming through. We have had one cross over already and he is cleaning up in the slalom events already so the results are already showing.

RQ does have great facilities and I have approached them about reducing fees for windsurfers given they take less of the resources but their perspective is that whether you have a dinghy or an 80 footer your are generally using the same infrastructure so the same applies for the windsurfers. Of course the guy with the 80 footer has other costs not included in the membership fees as he also pays for moorings etc. RQ aren't in the business of owning yachts or windsurfers and they only actually own a very small fleet of Optimist dinghies that are basically hired to users for a fee, other than that people are bringing their own boats to the club to sail and RQ simply provides the facilities and resources to allow them to use them socially or competitively. They have already put new racks in and opened the rear fence up with a gate for the windsurfers and have three bic technos for students to borrow so they are quite committed to the discipline and want to see it grow.

We should all get behind the efforts of these guys so that the momentum they are creating continues and opens the doors for more young sailors to cross into windsurfing. If you have juniors who want to learn to sail the fees are very reasonable with fees of $195.00 for all year access, that is a fraction of what I pay for swimming lessons for my kids for a one hour session a week.

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Scotf said..

and they only actually own a very small fleet of Optimist dinghies that are basically hired to users for a fee,

My point exactly Scot. RQ own a fleet of Opti's ( which are about $4000 per boat) that they use to get kids into the sport, so why wont they do that for the windsurf class. And I think you will find that the Bic's they have were given to them by Yachting Qld via YA when they made the push to introduce the program some 6 yrs or so ago. I was at that meeting when YQ approached WQ as it was then, trying to develop a pathway for the olympic class with the windsurfing community (jeez the screwed the pooch with that one) and I know the boards and rigs came from YA. So do I think RQ are invested exposing kids to windsurfing - nah not really, they have not demonstrated anything like that in the last 6 years or so. But then I don't see WQ doing anything either, there's no public image of Windsurfing in Brisbane. That's obvious by the number of people remarking on how cool it is to see Bailey sailing down at Manly. (these are from non windsurfers and many kids sitting on the rocks just watching - imagine if that could be harnessed??) I think YQ and WQ for that matter could learn a lot from the Kids club that Windsurfing victoria is driving http://www.wv.org.au/index.php/kids-club.

Food for thought.

The small pocket of people who actually do things for windsurfing is growing day by day and this is the key to re-invigorating a lagging sport. It is these people who organise events and get people on the water that inspire newcomers to the sport and I am finally after all these years starting to see a groundswell of people getting into the sport for the first time or getting back into it after a long time off the water.

What I do know is that these people do not deserve to have their hard work diminished by someone like yourself who is happy to simply pour cold water over all of their initiatives. They need all the support they can get so they keep doing the fantastic job they are already doing.

As WQ Rep, I looked into what WV is doing.

It's a different approach. Kids can either hire there gear from shops $25 or buy packages a from some shops at discounted rates.

Cost wise though it probably works out about the same.

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Scotf said..

The small pocket of people who actually do things for windsurfing is growing day by day and this is the key to re-invigorating a lagging sport. It is these people who organise events and get people on the water that inspire newcomers to the sport and I am finally after all these years starting to see a groundswell of people getting into the sport for the first time or getting back into it after a long time off the water.

What I do know is that these people do not deserve to have their hard work diminished by someone like yourself who is happy to simply pour cold water over all of their initiatives. They need all the support they can get so they keep doing the fantastic job they are already doing.

Scot,
You and I have differing opinions, but at least my responses are in response to the actual conversation (post) and not on some assumption that I am making. So I ask you;
Where in my post's have I said this program or idea is bad?
Where am I discouraging of the idea or the goal?
Where have I mentioned anything apart from questioning of the idea of donating equipment to RQ?

Looks to me that you are making assumptions about my comments.

And before you get all high and mighty about people doing hard work, You know exactly how much work I've done in the past so you can pull your head in there thanks. Why don't you respond publicly to why WQ refused to assist bayside in getting a kids program up and running? You remember about 3 years ago at WQ AGM when I was still on the Bayside committee we approached WQ for help financially to put towards a kids holiday program, and you shot it down within 15 seconds. As I recall you mentioned that the funds that WQ has were for "people wanting to put on an event or run something like that...." something to that tune. We wanted to use the funds to rent the Board crazy learner gear at a discounted rate to try and run a program. What was wrong with this? Why did you not want to support it then? Or did you feel that Simon should just give his gear up without any remuneration, along with everything else he contributes? This was for me the last thing I was interested in doing, and, the lack of support was the last straw. Now I am happy teaching my son and sailing with him.

If people want help running such a program I am happy to join in, but I will not support the donation of equipment to RQYS. Which is all I have said from the outset.

Darryl, I have looked back over the minutes and the conversation you had with me about a kids program was in your head or in a meeting I wasn't at. I will always support any program to get kids and adults on the water. It may not through financial support because WQ doesn't generate a profit anymore but if a sustainable business plan is put forward then I will back it.

As you know WQ is now an administrative body and makes no money other than the affiliation fees that cover operating costs. The way we now work is to allow the affiliated clubs to generate an income from events and membership fees so the small amount of money WQ has is not going to be replenished in any way if it is spent. You have always been an advocate of closing all of these other clubs down but from my perspective it is working very well. As you rightly pointed out it is seeing people on the water that promotes the sport and the clubs are doing a great job of doing this.

If you wanted to start a kids program then the fees that Bayside has should have been used to get it off the ground, you were the president of Bayside for a year and if you wanted to start the program you were in complete control and didn't do it.

My only issue with your posts is that they are always designed to pour cold water on the efforts of the people who are doing all of this hard work and it takes the focus away from their efforts. Perhaps in the future you could give me a call to find out the details before taking the negative tack.

The energy that the group of dads , mums and volunteers at RQYS put in is awesome. It allows an avenue for youth to give windsurfing a go . Some might go down the race/Olympic path which is great and some will want to be wave/freestylers and that's cool to . The more people we can introduce to the best sport in the world the better.

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Scotf said..
You have always been an advocate of closing all of these other clubs down but from my perspective it is working very well. As you rightly pointed out it is seeing people on the water that promotes the sport and the clubs are doing a great job of doing this.

To claim I have always been an advocate of closing the clubs is false, and you know that. You and I both know what work I have done in the past in establishing the current system that is running. And it was done for one purpose only, nothing of which had anything to do with setting up a more efficient system. Did it serve it's purpose - yes. Do I think it works well now - not really, because their are not enough people interested in running anything, and unlike yourself who is fortunate enough to do very little work apart from some emails, running races and events takes a lot of work. Bayside for instance was at the precipice of dissolution at the start of this season, so much so it did not charge for memberships this year; And prior to this year the Wind wanderers were pretty much defunct and the Freewave club was only just resurrected for last years nationals. How do you see turbulence like this as a good thing for any sport? WQ should be the foundation that actually does something and gives direction to the clubs, but instead it sits on its hands and does nothing. What other sport has a state body sit back and do nothing? None that have survived.

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Scotf said..
My only issue with your posts is that they are always designed to pour cold water on the efforts of the people who are doing all of this hard work and it takes the focus away from their efforts. Perhaps in the future you could give me a call to find out the details before taking the negative tack.

Scot, Again
Where in my post's have I said this program or idea is bad?
Where am I discouraging of the idea or the goal of introducing people to windsurfing?
Where have I mentioned anything apart from my objection and questioning of the idea of donating equipment to RQ, when they can clearly afford to throw a bit of coin at it?

This thread got a little off track, but then again I did not accuse anyone with misleading claims, and I feel I must defend myself against such a false accusation. Remember to read only what is written, do not assume to read anything further, no inference exists and if you feel there is might I suggest you are experiencing an auditory hallucination.

I think you are both putting to much politics into the sport and taking the FUN out of it by turning it into a Panda P*ssing Comp. Get over the past and think about the future. Any way we can get young ones into the sport is a good thing, who cares if it is old or new equipment.

It is a sport that families can enjoy. cr*p like what you two are going on about is only a way to discourage people from participating. As you have both said It is becoming a dying sport (something you can both agree on). How about putting the past behind you both and focus on bringing the sport back to life.

As I said Darryl, you know my number and people that matter all know who has done what and who hasn't. Give me a call if you have any interest in the sport and not just spinning cr#p and bringing down the efforts of others.

Saturday is looking windy

Good on you Evil - seems lIke we all need a cold shower. I believe Scott and Camm have both demonstrated their commItment to introducing .young people to the sport -they just have different ideas on how to do it. The commitment is what matters and I'm sure that a sensible conversation will harness the energy of both to create a great result. Don,t fight, cooperate - I may have a couple of sails to contribute if it ends up as a worthwhile cause

Sorry - read Damm for Camm