13/08/2025
For now, this is just a teaser of a story that could not have been planned this way, and it is not entirely clear yet where it will take us. What started a few years back with the simple idea of “let’s buy a small boat so we can go sailing as a family” is turning into an adventure in itself, one that seems to become a cool part of my quasi “Private Sabbatical”. From starting to join and now increasingly also running adventurous sailing expeditions with the 1st Victorian Sea Scouts, we also ended up running youth sailing at Port Melbourne Yacht Club.
At one stage, we came across an article about Leman Hope’s Sailing Programme that takes Youth Cancer Survivors on rehabilitation journeys, and this ticked all the boxes - Health, Sailing, and Outdoor Youth Programmes - and we ended up spending a year exploring if this could be brought over to Australia (read more on this here).
We’ve met some impressive people, learned about remarkable organisations, like Making Waves, we had amazing community experiences and support from Yacht Clubs, Lifesaving Clubs, Volunteer Marine Rescue and Coast Guards, and even fist-bumped the Swiss SailGP Team, both on water (in Sydney) and on land (in Lugano).
We also faced a few challenges along the way, some wild adventures, had a lot of fun, and…
…started a first Sailing-related Health Research Project(s) with students from Swinburne University (more on this another time).
I was also invited to become an industry member of a Course Advisory Committee at Swinburne, and by the end of the year, we will have worked with over one hundred students across four universities on around six projects (of which Aurora is only the partner for one). I also joined Sailing Australia’s workgroup on the Participation Plan for Sailing in Australia, working alongside far more professional sailors than ourselves (but bringing in a unique perspective).
Oh, and I’m also taking part in a clinical trial (as a healthy control) at Swinburne University: Can virtual sailing exercise ameliorate disability in people with multiple sclerosis? - Free simulator sailing on the floor of Swinburne’s Factory of the Future over winter, warm and dry, and for a good cause.
None of this was planned. None of this we could have predicted on New Year’s Eve.
And on Friday, I will give a presentation at a conference.
A conference in a field we did not even know existed in January, but which I find interesting and, in fact, really important (for many reasons): Outdoor Education (more on this another time, too).
And for the first time, I will deliver a conference presentation on the topic of sailing, which will cover health science, provide an overview of the local sailing community, and discuss some of the challenges we've faced over the years.
Title: Youth Sailing in Victoria – Impact, Access and Challenges