Continuing its active role in promoting Women in Sailing in Victoria, Sandringham Yacht Club has introduced a new 10-race twilight sailing series into its 2008/09 keelboat sailing calendar - the Women in Twilight series - on Tuesday evenings, starting October 14th. The series compliments the Women In Sailing Challenge (WISC) that Sandringham Yacht Club has run for many years.

The Women in Twilight series, supported by Horizon Sails, continues to provide opportunities for women to participate in yachting events in Victoria. The series is held fortnightly, starting at 6:15pm in a handicapped, pursuit-start around a short fixed-marks course off Sandringham. The key requirement of the series is that each eligible boat is helmed by a female for the duration of the race.

As well as the twlight series, the Women In Sailing Challenge (WISC) event returns for another year. Having been conducted by Sandringham Yacht Club for several years, Royal Brighton Yacht Club will host 2 of the 6 races this year, reflecting the growing interest in this event across Port Phillip. The first prize for the series is sponsored by Queensland Yacht Charters who have supported the event for a number of years. The series consists of 6 races (1 per month of the summer calendar) starting Sunday October 12th and starting at 10:30am. Racing is typically short-courses around laid marks in a windward-leeward configuration, with one longer race around fixed marks. Racing is conducted under Performance handicap, as well as IRC and AMS measured handicaps. Last year's event was won by Monica Tonner on Rampallion, with Kate Marchant on Bali Dancer winning IRC and Helen Cameron on Affirmative Action taking out AMS.

In the lead-up to the start of the series, and as part of Sandingham Yacht Club's commitment to ongoing training, a series of information nights for potential participants have been run, covering many aspects of yacht racing including boat preparation, sail tuning, starting techniques & strategies and racing rules.

For more details, including the Notices of Race for both events, refer to the Women's Sailing page on Sandringham Yacht Club's web site at www.syc.com.au/womenssailing

by Mark Welsh

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