“Yachting Australia identified one of the reasons people didn’t engage in the sport was there was a perception that it was expensive and that you need to own your own boat,” Senator Lundy said. 

“Discover Sailing will attempt to make sure all Australians understand how easy it is to be a crew for another boat or participate in one of a variety of programs that suit the desires, ability and time of the participant.

“The program has been made possible through funding from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and it is already having an impact with more than 2000 new participants in the Tackers program for children aged from seven to 12-year-olds. 

“Australia had its best ever Olympic results in sailing at the London Games, while our Paralympians equalled the gold tally achieved at the Sydney Games in 2000.”

 The ASC has allocated nearly $6 million to sailing in 2012-13 including more than $5 million to high performance programs and $546,000 for sport participation.

 More information and explanatory videos about Discover Sailing are available at yachting.org.au/participation and discoversailing.org.au