Recognizing decreasing membership numbers among their youth, Sandringham Yacht Club (SYC) instigated a J/70 program to attract and retain younger members—and it has been a big hit. SYC is very grateful to all the members who have supported it and enabled it to happen.

The Club realized it was crucial to develop a group of high-quality sailors to compete nationally in keelboats and to train more youth and intermediate sailors to eventually serve as crew for boat owners. Among other things, participants are taught the finer art of racing rules, tactics, sail trim, boat maintenance, team building and communication.

The first edition of SYC’s J/70 program in 2023 was a success and was built on for the second, launched in October 2024. Changes this season include the addition of a Youth Squad for members between 14-18 years, replicating a similar model to that of last season’s Advanced Squad.

The overall J/70 program is available to young members at SYC in the form of social, development, youth squad and advanced squad programs. J/70s are sailed around the world and are becoming increasingly popular in Australia. Some of the joys of this user friendly, fast, fun keelboat is that it can be sailed by any combination of females and males and any age group, and it is simple to trailer to events.

There are six SYC-owned boats and 27 sailors in the various J/70 programs, all of whom had the opportunity to compete at the Nationals in January.

Gemma Burns, SYC’s J/70 coordinator, is an enthusiastic supporter of the program. “I love the community the J/70 programs are creating” she says. “Seeing young members connecting, making lifelong friends while being active and improving their sailing, has been really rewarding. Especially in the Youth Program where the kids are becoming young adults by learning keelboat skills and the highs and lows of sailing with four other people. The program is about more than improving skills in sailing, it’s creating pathways to continue in our sport by building connections and upskilling our younger sailors to jump onto larger keelboats.”

The Youth Squad for ages 14-18 helps them progress to the advanced program while gaining keelboat experience.

Another offering for members ages 14-18 is the Development Program. Sailed on weekends and school holidays in training blocks of five to seven weeks, it acts as a taster for J/70 sailing. This is to introduce young members to the basics of keelboat racing and developing the various skills required to undertake all crewing roles, and is a great stepping stone into the Youth Squad Program and for those transitioning out of OTB youth classes, School Programs and more.

Over and above the social on-water programs, young member nights were also created to connect our young members socially. These are organized by SYC youth member Mischa Suda . The aim is to give young members the opportunity to get to know each other better in a social environment and form connections whilst hopefully falling in love with the Club.

Another important aspect of the program is that the squad members are required to volunteer a certain number of hours to give back to SYC. This can be in the form of race management duties and or maintenance of club boats. During the recent Cadet and 29er State championships, it was great to see this in action with J/70 squad members on the mark laying and rescue boats.

For further information on the SYC J/70 program, contact SYC CEO Richard Hewett at ceo@syc.com.au

All photos courtesy of Downunder Sail.