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Shelley White embodies the true essence of ‘She Sails’. Shelley learned to sail at Keppel Bay Sailing Club in Yeppoon and has continued to sail competitively in various classes. She brings experience to the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (RFBYC) from racing both interstate and internationally in both dinghies and keelboats. Shelley is currently the Optimist lead coach at RFBYC.
In the 2021/22 Summer Sailing Season, the Club experienced a 50% female participation in the Optimist racing and Club training fleets, largely due to Shelley’s influence and positivity for girls competing in the sport.
Shelley is an accredited Australian Sailing Dinghy Racing Instructor, Dinghy Senior Instructor, Keelboat Instructor
and Sailing Coach.
Shelley enjoys coaching girls and endeavours to inspire and motivate more women and girls to discover sailing. Her
passion for the sport has influenced many of our junior sailors to fall in love with sailing and to make sailing a sport
for life, as she has.
Strengths
- Teaching skills through games-based learning
- Infectious passion for delivery of programs
- Supporting and nurturing girls with anxiety; endeavouring to remove their fear of challenging conditions
- Empowering females to be competitive, resilient, to speak out and solve problems
- Mentoring our next generation of female coaches.
There has been a noticeable rise in girls and women participation at the Club largely due to the inclusive and positive
environment created by Shelley for girls and women of all ages. As a result, the annual ICR Regatta held in December
2021 saw female participation rise to an overall 30% with many classes recording 40-50% female participation. This
was a significant milestone for our Club which is a product of Shelley’s coaching over a number of years.
As an Australian Sailing Senior Dinghy Instructor, Shelley was onsite mentoring and teaching our next generation of
Dinghy and Training Centre (DTC) staff during the December and January 2021/22 period. She demonstrated
patience, support and was always approachable for the 32 female instructors/coaches working at the centre. As a
direct result of Shelley’s continued involvement at the DTC, the number of female instructors is currently greater
than the number of male instructors.
Shelley is the current Australian Girls Optimist Squad Coach. Later this year, she will take the squad to represent
Australia at an Asian Championship and at an event in India.
Shelley is completing her final year of Education to become a teacher. She is looking forward to graduating and
working as a Primary School teacher. To compliment this, Shelley will continue to work at the Club over the next few
years. She has found her current studies in Education to be invaluable when dealing with sailors and instructors at
the Club.
In February 2022, Shelley worked closely with three junior female Club members who sailed their Optimist dinghies
from Fremantle Sailing Club to Rottnest Island and return to raise money for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
Shelley provided coaching, trip planning, guidance and support on the day. A tremendous effort by the three girls
and Shelley to sail for 5 hours in open water and raise $4,654.
Other contributions during the nomination period:
- Western Australian International Optimist Sailing Association – teams racing coach
- RFBYC Optimist Coach – WA State Championships
- Lead Instructor – Cottesloe Primary School – Sailing excursions
- RFBYC Mini-Series – Optimist Coach
- St Hildas/MLC Teams Racing Coach
- Supported RFBYC with Wing Foil proposal
- 2021 and 2022 Youth Development Clinic – Lead coach
- Mentor to our State Squad Athletes
In 2022, Shelley was approached by the Flag Officers at RFBYC to join the Long-Term Planning and Strategic
Committee. As a Club member and volunteer, she accepted this honour gratefully. One of the key objectives of this
Committee is to increase female participation in dinghy and keelboat sailing, and to encourage greater female
participation in Club committees and Working Groups. We look forward to her contribution on this important
Committee.
During the recent 2022 Australian Sailing Instructor Conference, Shelley facilitated a presentation on “Debriefing
Participants” to the state coaches and instructors.
In Shelley’s words, “A good debrief, albeit delivering areas for improvement, can be the difference in a person/child
returning to participate in the next course/session or walking away from the sport having had a negative
experience.” The audience were extremely receptive to her ideas.
Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club is proud to have Shelley as an integral part of our Dinghy & Training Centre team.
Shelley is knowledgeable, confident, calm, approachable and nurturing – a valuable asset to the team.
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