Breaking AsianYachting News

At the action packed Monsoon Cup 2006 (Nov 29 - Dec 3) Press Conference, Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said, announced that her department has approved plans to establish sailing and watersports academies on Palau Duyong - Terengannu and the east coast states of Pahang and Johore plus Sarawak and Sabah as they face out into the increasing popular South China Sea. With the inclusion of a keelboat class into the Doha Asian Games and after last years successful Monsoon Cup promoting sporting activities including keelboat racing and addressing recreational boating issues is featuring prominently in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's development plans.

One person who is seriously committed to putting Malaysian sailing at the top of his agenda is Troy Yaw from Sarawak Land Sdn Bhd, the developers of Miri Marina and the adjacent 650 plus acres of reclaimed land should be inline as an ideal site to establish a sailing center in Sarawak, East Malaysia. AsianYachting has acted as advisor, coach and media partner for the Ulumulu Racing Team since they bought the custom built Sydney 46 from Ray Roberts three years ago and now partnering them in the production of a 8m sportsboat to be used for training sailors and eventually organising a local match racing circuit between state teams and regional sailing clubs.

Yachting in Asia is considered in its infancy and if Malaysia is to enter the 2011 America's Cup race "We need to find ways to train up as many sailors as possible between now and then. Not like China Team in the 2007 AC campaign, who are struggling to find and train fifteen big boat sailors from a population of over one billion people". AsianYachting has always proposed starting off small, in exciting safe keelboats then as teamwork comes together start taking on bigger challenges. After all, it's experience that really counts!

Remote Borneo is just starting to become known as a world class cruising destination and as local sailing pursuits are generally limited to the dinghy classes, promoters of the Borneo International Yachting Challenge 2006 (April 27 - 1st May) are finding it difficult to attract big boats to their event. Despite not having entry fees and offering a US$500 incentive to the first fifteen entries the organisors are left scratching their heads on how to solve this problem. Once again AsianYachting has come up with a long term solution for them. The decision was made to purchase Bill Gasson's Buzz 8 meter sportsboat and all the boat building moulds from Thailand and transport them to Miri where a factory will be established to produce this regatta winning Malcolm Runnalls design for future events.

The Learn to SAIL with Asian Yachtmasters syllabus (Available free online) will be used to train sailors and certificates issued to sailors that qualify for the four levels of competency. Some of the great advantages of this sportsboat design is a lifting keel which makes the boat easily trailered behind a 4 wheel drive, boat ramp launching and retrieval plus stored in the boatpark or dry sailed when not in use. As she also possesses a high ballast ratio (righting moment) and guard rails that comply with strict overnight racing rules and safety categories, is classified as a extremely safe boat to train our future champions with. More on this exciting craft at: http://asianyachting.com/AYmasters/Promotion/Runnels8.htm and to follow this project as it evolves, regular updates will be included in the popular monthly AY News and Views.

AsianYachting Ventures Sdn. Bhd. (Co. No. 627106-T)
A 308 PD Perdana Condo Resort, Jln Pantai, 71050, Pt Dickson, Malaysia
Tel: 6 06 6477701 Email: info@asianyachting.com
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