Preparations for Hillarys Yacht Club’s inaugural Sail Easter coaching regatta are well advanced with sponsorship signings, recognition by the Optimist Association of the event as a ranking regatta and discussions now well under way with former Olympic and national dinghy class champions.
The club is aiming to make the event a permanent fixture on WA’s dinghy sailing calendar with the ultimate goal of it becoming one of the state’s major sailing regattas.
Club commodore, Neil Harrison, says the goal for the inaugural regatta is to attract more than 75 dinghy sailors from Perth and the regions. Many Optimist, Laser and Tasar skippers have already signed up.
“In the meantime our regatta website and Facebook pages have received hundreds of hits from local sailors. Although many skippers leave registrations to the last minute we are very pleased with the response so far.
“The generous early bird entry fee discounts for single and double handed boats had something to do with that and we expect the pace to increase now that the event has achieved ranking regatta status,” he said. “We’re delighted to announce that MonkeyFist has come on board as the regatta’s inaugural lead sponsor and will be providing trophies and shirts. The company will also have a pop-up shop at the club over the three-day event.
“Added to MonkeyFist has been sponsorship support from Hogs Breath Café which is providing discount vouchers for every entrant,” he said.
Mr Harrison said that discussions were well advanced with class coaches and the club expected to make announcements in the coming weeks.
The regatta is also open to 420s Lasers, Pacers, Hobies and Nacras which may race on both the north and south sides of the Hillarys marina.
