New Festival of Sails chair takes the helm

THE Royal Geelong Yacht Club (RGYC) has appointed a new chair to run the 2019 Festival of Sails.

Stuart Dickson, who has chaired the Wooden Boat Festival since its inauguration in 2005, takes over the role from Peter Alexander.

Mr Alexander was the chair of the Festival of Sails for the past two years – including the event’s 175th anniversary in 2018 – and will remain involved in the festival, the largest keelboat regatta in the Southern Hemisphere, as a member of the executive committee.

Mr Dickson is vice commodore of the RGYC and has been a member of the club for more than three decades.

He said he was delighted with the announcement and excited by the challenge of building on the success of the past few years.

“The Festival of Sails is a fantastic event for Geelong and Victoria and I am excited to be taking on the challenge. I’ve been chairman of the Wooden Boat Festival for 12 years now so I hope I can add some of that experience to the new role.”

Mr Dickson, who has been sailing for more than 35 years, said he was looking forward to adding a fresh perspective and continuing to invigorate the event.

A focus will be on improving the already popular on shore activities along the waterfront and increasing the profile of the event among sailors overseas and interstate.

“I think there are huge growth opportunities in Asia and New Zealand,” Mr Dickson said.

“We can’t just keep producing the same event year on year, we need to be innovative and introduce some new ideas to make it even more vibrant and appealing to the broader community.”

Victoria’s oldest sporting event injects millions of dollars into the Geelong economy each year.

In January, thousands of people flocked to the Geelong waterfront over the Australia Day long weekend to celebrate the historic Festival of Sails, with the event returned to a three-day format and entries well up on previous years.

The 2018 event attracted 300 boats of all sizes to Geelong with entries representing all Australian states and participants from New Zealand and Norway.

The 2019 Festival of Sails will be held from January 26-28.