Fiji Yachting Association, World Sailing, and the Savusavu Sailing Club just proved that world-class officiating development doesn't require marble conference halls: Just crystal waters, committed sailors, and one exceptional instructor.

The World Sailing Race Officials Clinic held October 10-12, 2025 in Savusavu wasn't your typical box-ticking exercise. While some development programs feel like watching paint dry in slow motion, this three-day intensive managed something rare: It actually delivered.

The setting couldn't have been more fitting. Savusavu, Fiji's hidden gem on Vanua Levu, provided the backdrop for what participants are calling the best regatta the region has seen in years. The Grand Epic Conference Room hosted Friday's theory session — nine hours of rules, procedures, and judging standards that somehow managed to be "very informative" rather than mind-numbing. Perhaps that's what happens when you've got Damien Boldyrew, World Sailing International Umpire and Instructor, at the helm.

But here's where theory met reality: Saturday and Sunday threw participants straight into the deep end during the 2025 Fiji Sailing Nationals Championships. On-water assessment isn't for the faint of heart, but this is where officials learn what rulebooks can't teach: How to make split-second calls when boats converge, how to maintain authority without ego, and how to keep your cool when everyone else is losing theirs.

For Raema von Reiche, President of Sāmoa Sailing Association, the clinic hit different. "These clinics are very important in raising our regional judging and race official standards within Oceania", she noted, cutting through the usual platitudes with refreshing directness. Because let's be honest: Oceania's vastness is both blessing and curse. Building officiating capacity across thousands of nautical miles of ocean requires exactly this kind of focused, face-to-face development.

The Fijian hospitality was, predictably, "warm", though one suspects that's underselling it. Anyone who's experienced Pacific generosity knows it operates on a different frequency entirely. The welcome dinner and bonfire at Wina Estate on Friday evening set the tone: This wasn't about credentials and hierarchy, but about building connections that would outlast the weekend.

Boldyrew's approach deserves scrutiny, if only because it worked. His "professionalism, calm leadership and generosity in sharing knowledge" lifted everyone: Sailors, officials, and volunteers alike, according to feedback from Fiji Yachting Association. That's the kind of praise that's easy to dismiss as hyperbole, except multiple sources echoed the sentiment. When both the instructor and participants describe the same event as exceptional, something genuine transpired.

The three days covered substantial ground: classroom theory that didn't feel like a slog, practical sessions that married real racing with real learning and, perhaps most crucially, the space for officials to actually develop confidence. Not the fake-it-till-you-make-it variety, but the earned kind that comes from making calls, discussing them, and understanding the why behind the what.

Officiating development in sailing all boils down to thankless work that's absolutely essential. Good officials are invisible until you don't have them. Bad officiating can poison a regatta faster than you can say Protest! And in Oceania, where resources stretch thin and distances stretch thinner, every qualified official counts double.

The clinic model, embedding training within actual competition, sidesteps the perennial problem of abstract learning. You can memorize the Racing Rules of Sailing cover to cover, but until you're calling a port-starboard incident with real stakes and real sailors, you're just shuffling mental furniture.

The clinic drew support from beyond sailing circles. Cathy Wong, President of FASANOC (Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee), offered her congratulations to Fiji Yachting Association ahead of the event, noting that "it is indeed great to see these continuing training and education been offered in Fiji". Her acknowledgment that Savusavu would "come alive to celebrate Fiji Day in a special way with Fiji Yachting" underscored the event's significance to the broader sporting community.

Fiji Yachting Association, in partnership with World Sailing, understood the assignment. They created conditions for meaningful learning: Experienced instruction, real racing context, and a cohort of engaged participants from across the region. Sometimes development programs feel designed by committee for compliance officers. This one felt designed by sailors for sailors.

What Happens Next

The true measure won't be the glowing testimonials, though those help, but whether participants return to their home waters with enhanced capability and confidence. Whether protest hearings run more smoothly. Whether sailors trust the officials. Whether the next generation of race officers looks at this as a career path worth pursuing.

Boldyrew mentioned he'll be submitting a report to World Sailing and requested feedback from participants. 

For Oceania sailing, that matters. The region as whole tries to shine internationally, but sustainable success requires infrastructure as well as funds to run and attend the training venues. For clinics like Savusavu's build networks, establish standards, and create a shared language around fair competition.

With her other hat as OSAF Vice-President, Raema von Reiche put it with characteristic economy: the clinic was "very important in raising our regional judging and race official standards within Oceania". No fluff, just facts. And in a region where distances conspire against collective development, that achievement deserves recognition.

Here's hoping Savusavu 2025 becomes a template rather than an outlier. Because Oceania sailing needs more of whatever this was, less talk, more walk, and officials who can call a race with confidence and competence.