The Head of Safety Rules and Representation is Glen Stanaway and he’s been with Australian Sailing for fourteen years after a varied career and equally varied sport interests.

The role Glen plays is to head up the team looking after Safety, Rules and Representation. Starting with then Yachting Australia in March 2006 he began his tutelage under the leadership of great behind the scenes contributors to sailing like Graeme Owens, John Kirkjian, David Lyons, and Tony Mooney. With this firm foundation Glen now assists Australian Sailing across the nation and at an international level.

Well before starting with Australian Sailing Glen’s childhood was in Rockhampton, QLD which included sailing at the Keppel Bay Sailing Club and Capricornia Cruising Yacht Club. Glen developed a broad experience in most styles of sailing including off the beach catamarans, sailboards, dinghies, and keelboats. What Glen is regretful of is that he didn’t have access to team sailing and match racing, formats of racing he has more recently officiated but hasn’t had the excitement of competing. Other sports that Glen has enjoyed competing in at the same community level, were squash, swimming, rugby union and amateur boxing.

Officiating in sailing captured Glen’s interest. Whilst having helped with on water aspects of race committees before his appointment here, his interest now lays in protest committees and umpiring. Having been an international judge and currently accredited at the national level. Glen enjoys the immediacy of decision making and this may see him shift his efforts to do more in the umpiring space. 

Before working in sport Glen was employed in software development, cadastral surveying and photogrammetric mapping. These early technical interests are reflected in the willingness to head up the complexities around the rules and regulations he leads and looks after today.

Glen’s length of tenure at Australian Sailing has covered many areas within the organisation. Past roles included looking after the youth team representing at the World Youth Sailing Championships, the Australian Youth Championship, databases and website systems, training and accreditation of Race Officials, and the rating office delivering IRC and ORC related services to owners and clubs. These functions of Australian Sailing have since been moved on to other management as part of various restructures over time.

Technical functions including the Special Regulations and other safety policies, and the Racing Rules of Sailing including appeals remain a major focus of his role. These are important core business aspects of the role Australian Sailing plays. Each technical framework, the SR and RRS are used by every club and every boat in every race.

As the restructures of staff and functions of Australian Sailing have taken place over time, a role given to Glen is to support how sailing in Australia is represented at World Sailing and in the Oceania region. This is a necessary part of being a properly structured sport with international and regional federations; no national sport organisation is an island. Glen also serves on World Sailing’s Classification Commission and Offshore Special Regulations Sub-Committee.

Staff contacts can be found at https://www.sailing.org.au/about/ourstaff/