A message from the new President.
Hello to all sabot sailors and parents. In my first missive as the new President of the VSSA, I would first of all like to thank Mark Taylor and the outgoing members of the committee for the fantastic effort they put into the VSSA during Marks' term as president. This includes Ian Gillies (Coaching Supervisor), Mal Parsons, Paul Jenkins, David Voyer, Morna Finney, and Kirsten Irwin. This team was responsible for the development of our sabot coaching program over the past 4 years. This program was able to dramatically raise the standard of sabot sailing in Victoria to the extent that at the recent Nationals at Sandringham, Victoria won the teams event, a Victorian sailor (Tim Hannah) became the first Victorian national champion in many years, and 8 Victorian sailors placed in the top 20. A truly remarkable achievement! The success of the program has been noted by Yachting Victoria, and other classes are now emulating our coaching format. Thanks to Mark and his team as well as Mark Jackson (head coach).
Now, what about 2007? Well, we now have a new committee comprised of:
Mario Kalpokas (President)
Andy O'Connell (Coaching Supervisor and Regatta Rep)
Peta Kent (Secretary and Elwood Rep)
Mark Gray (Web master and Sorrento Rep)
Malcolm Mitchell (Treasurer)
Ross Fisher (Registrar (Membership Secretary) and Brighton Rep)
Sue Dale (trophies)
Gary McLennan (Regattas and BRYC Rep)
Wendy Wintersgill (Regattas and Mordialloc Rep)
Mark Dale (Measurer)
Contact numbers and email addresses for all committee members are on the Sabot website.
The first task of this committee has been to appoint a new Head Coach and organise the coaching program for 2007. We were very fortunate in securing the services of Glenn Collings as Head Coach. Glenn has a wealth of experience in sailing with successes in many dinghy classes at the National and International level, as well as expertise as an educator. Andy O and Glenn have been working hard on the 2007 coaching program, trying to deal with issues /suggestions / criticisms from the 2006 program.
In 2007, we have increased the ratio of coaches to students so that individual strengths and weaknesses of sailors can be better addressed. The program will have a strong focus on ensuring that all sailors attain appropriate skill targets within each coaching group.
We have structured the year into 2 semesters for the Gold and Silver groups where the majority of coaching in Semester 1 takes place on Saturdays, while Sunday coaching predominates in Semester 2.
The number of Silver group coaching sessions has been increased to match Gold group.
The number of Bronze sessions has also been increased and we are trying to organise a more protected and less intimidating environment for the Bronze sailors to develop their skills. (A bit tricky with a slight shortage of water at Albert Park Lake .)
A copy of the provisional program is available at this link http://www.vicsabot.yachting.org.au/default.asp?Page=17840
As usual, we are budgeting the program on a break-even cost basis. More details on the program are available at [link to documents “2007 VSSA Coaching Program” and “2007 Program Structure”]
All VSSA members should by now have received an email outlining the program along with enrolment form and medical form.
The program is due to commence on Saturday 19 th May so please fill out these forms and get them off to Andy before 13 th May so that we can organise the coaches, ducks, etc. If you have not received these forms, please email Andy O'Connell with an expression of interest.
All members of the committee are working hard to make this a great year, and we are all happy to discuss any issues or problems as they arise.
Yours in sailing,
Mario Kalpokas
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