Australian Tasar Council
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 Busselton, Western Australia.
Since my last report at the North American Worlds in 2013, the ATC has conducted a national championship at Blairgowrie in Victoria, attracting 67 entrants. Former World Champions Paul and Bronwyn Ridgway are the current Australian champions.
The Western Australia District is of course in the midst of running the current World Tasar Championship at Busselton and with over 120 entries from 6 tasar regions, it promises to be a very exciting and hard fought regatta.
Club sailing of tasars in Australia has plateaud with neighbouring fleets congregating for better numbers and club racing. Extra effort has been put into training and assisting new members to get the best out of these sophisticated sailboats.
The "Re-thinking the Tasar" project to examine a more cost effective and modern rig/sail combination (including carbon spars) has effectively stalled without the overwhelming support of the majority of regions or for that matter, districts within Australia.
The ATC sponsored and delivered a new website which now hosts all the WTC regions as well as the Australian districts. Special credit should be given to the ATC Secretary Adrian Nicholson for his role in introducing this new and improved communication tool for the class.
Finally, the ATC is well advanced in hosting an open invitation Asia Pacific Tasar Regatta, most likely to be held in Singapore in mid 2016. 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.
Since the Cascade Locks AGM, I have had the honour to be the Tasar World President and in that capacity, now pay tribute to our retiring World Executive Sectretary Chris Parkinson. Chris will stand down at the forthcoming AGM and the Tasar community will forever be grateful for his wise and wonderful stewardship of our class.
Michael Paynter
President, Australian Tasar Council 2 December 2014