Geraldton yacht club set to grow at fast clip after new storage area allows membership to keep rising

The Geraldton Yacht Club is set to keep growing at a fast clip after the club added a storage area for the new sailors who are blowing in on a weekly basis. Lara Dalton MLA, who officially opened the storage area on Sunday, said growth in sporting clubs was an “economic driver” and important to the region. “It’s important for Geraldton when you’ve got a facility like this,” Ms Dalton said. “It has a knock-on effect really of benefiting everybody. “It doesn’t necessarily just benefit the yacht club.” She said the Hobie State championships earlier in March were a “big success” and the work the club had done had helped it in the “very competitive” funding arena. The club funded one third of the storage facility, with the City of Greater Geraldton and State Government funding the other two thirds under the Community Sport and Recreation Facility Fund (CSRFF) grant system. The total cost was $46,904. “The CSRFF is always very competitive,” Ms Dalton said. “There’s always a huge pool of people who put in across the State, and we are always very happy to see Geraldton organisations get across the line. “The yacht club has been showing growth in numbers and doing different types of work in the community. They have worked very hard.” She said also it was important to keep developing junior competition. “It’s important to spend the time with juniors,” she said. “That’s what it’s all about, and where growth comes from.” She said she had experience alongside junior players at Cardinals hockey club while playing A-grade and A-reserves, and appreciated the importance of young sportspeople. Yacht club vice-commodore Kath Millward said the club’s membership had tripled in the last three or four years and the club was hoping to continue to grow at a similar rate.