Saltwater Veterans Sailing Project

About Saltwater Veterans Sailing Project

Saltwater Veterans Sailing Project (SVSP) is an Australian Sailing–affiliated club and ACNC-registered health-promotion charity that runs inclusive sailing programs for current and former ADF members and their families. SVSP operates a mobile Discover Sailing Centre and delivers short session sailing, structured coursework, regattas and community sailing days, plus instructor and powerboat courses. The organisation runs regular sailing activities across multiple waterways and regions, and offers volunteer instructor roles and funded participation options for veterans.

It appears on Australian Sailing's 2026-27 affiliation update in Band 22. Public contact information is available via phone, email, website.

Training and sailing programs

The delivery mechanism that sets SVSP apart is its Australian Sailing mobile Discover Sailing Centre — an accredited training operation that travels to the sailors rather than waiting for them to find a club. Under memoranda of understanding with partner clubs, it runs insured, compliant veterans' programs at venues up and down the east coast — Manly Sailing, Manly Yacht Club and Palm Beach Sailing Club in Sydney, Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club and Gosford Sailing Club further north, and Mooloolaba Yacht Club in Queensland — and it deploys "fly-away instructor teams" into regional and remote communities where isolation bites hardest. No sailing background is assumed: sessions run in sheltered water with experienced skippers and coaches, lifejackets are mandatory, and strong swimming is explicitly not required.

Engagement is deliberately choose-your-own. A first-timer might take a gentle social sail; another veteran might crew on an Elliott 7 in club racing; a third might work through structured coursework toward skippering or Safety Boat qualifications. Selected locations add stand-up paddleboarding and wing foiling. The adaptive pathway is serious, too — veterans have trained through Hansa camps run with Sailability partners and gone on to compete internationally, as Sharon and Paula did at the 2025 Hansa World Championships on Pittwater, Sharon travelling from Brisbane with a 210-kilogram electric wheelchair.

Beyond sailing instruction, the organisation is a DVA-registered advocacy body with Wellbeing Advocates accredited through the Advocacy Training and Development Program, so help with the claims and support system sits alongside the sailing. Programs target adults primarily, with family and youth places at selected events. The wellbeing outcomes claimed — less social isolation, better mental and physical health, growing confidence and leadership — are consistent with published university research on the benefits of water-based activity.

Club history

The founding story is compact. In 2017, after 18 years in the Navy, Scott Reynolds and three veteran mates — none of whom had sailed — got afloat on the Pittwater estuary and entered racing as "Four Men in a Boat". With Jen Reynolds, he shaped the idea into a project, and Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club gave it a home. The name Saltwater Veterans arrived in 2018.

The formal structure followed in September 2022, when SWV Ltd — which trades as Saltwater Veterans Sailing Project — was formally constituted as a health promotion charity registered with the charities regulator, carrying deductible gift recipient status and recognition as an Australian Sailing club, giving the grassroots movement a governance backbone and fundraising reach.

Momentum since has been steep. Early growth was carried by what the founders call salty volunteers, by yacht clubs and by sponsors such as Young Veterans, with local RSL sub-branches joining later. Registrations passed 1,040 in 2024 alone. The project's sailors reached international competition in 2025 at the Hansa Worlds on Pittwater, the same year it announced its Melbourne expansion intent and began actively seeking donated sail-training vessels to deepen veterans' education.

Then came the double at the 2025 Australian Sailing Awards — NSW/ACT Club of the Year in Category B, followed by the national Club of the Year title — official confirmation that a club invented to heal veterans had become, in the sport's own judgement, a model for what a sailing club can be. The navy, gold and light-blue burgee with its fouled anchor now flies at partner clubs across three states.