2013 ATC Report

Australian Tasar Council

Report to World Tasar Council - Cascade Locks, USA

On behalf of the Australian Tasar Council Inc and Australian Tasar sailors, it is my pleasure to present this report to the World Tasar Council meeting at Cascade Locks, USA. 

 

Since my last report given by teleconference in July 2011 at the UK Worlds, the ATC has conducted two national championships - in July 2012 at Darwin, NT with 62 tasars competing and in Dec/Jan 2012/2013 at Victor Harbor in SA, with 56 tasars competing. In the latter event, we had 2 international entrants being Mike Karas and Molly Jackson from the USA and Fergus and Megan Thomson from New Zealand. All Australian districts were well represented at both events, including from Western Australia.

 

Western Australia is very enthusiastically preparing to host the 2015 Tasar World Championships in January 2015 at Busselton, WA which is some 2 hours drive south of Perth and near the acclaimed Margaret River wine region. The world tasar community can look forward to a very well organised regatta in a beautiful holiday destination.

 

Club sailing in tasars is however, showing some signs of slowing and interclub racing possibly more so. The reasons for this probably relate to a perceived reduction in the popularity of the sport of sailing in a competitive sporting world. It may also coincide with what might be described as a maturity of the class in Australia, certainly of the tasar sailors themselves.

 

"Re-thinking the Tasar" was a paper I wrote to spur a debate on whether it is time for a new tasar or whether we can be sustainable with another revamp of rig and sails. In Australia at least, the unanimous response of the districts was not to support a new boat, but rather to cautiously welcome a cost effective, modern rig and sail combination as envisaged by Frank Bethwaite before his passing and to be implemented by the current copyright holder Julian Bethwaite. We await the other regions' comment on this paper.

 

Finally, the ATC proposes to host an open invitation Asia Pacific Tasar Regatta, most likely to be held in New Zealand with the objective of launching the class in that country. The format of this regatta will be a 'round robin' series of races with a limited number of yachts including a Medal race day on the final day to determine the Open Champion.

 

                    

Michael Paynter President, Australian Tasar Council                                      13 August 2013