Emergency Preparedness Workshops: Meet Annette Hesslemans our Geelong Facilitator
My name is Annette Hesselmans and I have a wanderlust, free spirit!
I have been on the water all of my life. I grew up in Melbourne and spent every weekend aboard my fathers 10 metre timber cruiser. I remember as a 7 year old, admiring the beauty and peace of sailing yachts. This was the beginning of my passion for sailing. I spent the next few years sail training, racing aboard keel yachts, reading every sailing book known and striving to sail the oceans. I will never forget my first ocean passage at age 17: the beauty of the rolling ocean swell, the wildlife, the wild coast of Tasmania. I was hooked.
In my 20’s, my partner Gerry and I sailed the east coast of Australia and the Western Pacific aboard our 10 metre yacht. With a bag of lentils and tins of tomatoes, we learnt so much about life, trust, taking responsibility, short handed sailing and developed a very healthy respect for the ocean.
With small children, we sailed aboard our 13 metre yacht taking a year to explore the east coast of Australia and Tasmania. Our children are now adults. Sophie has inherited the wanderlust spirit and is living and cruising aboard her own yacht. Oliver has a love for the mountains and outdoors.
In 2018, I fulfilled a lifelong dream and with my 12 metre yacht skippered the Melbourne to Osaka double handed, non stop yacht race. This race and the return voyage redefined my future. The seed was sprouted for Paper Sailors Rock.
I invite you aboard to share in my love of sailing and the sea.
RYA Yachtmaster Offshore and Yachtmaster Instructor
You can book to attend Annette’s Workshop by clicking here, for 26th March in Geelong, and on the same link, you can register your interest in further Workshops (at the bottom).
If you’d like to go back to the overall presenters’ map/location, click here.
See what else we get up to here.
Read more about who the Emergency Preparedness Workshops are for here.
Who’s this course for?
This course is for anyone that wants to feel safe and confident on the water; Catamaran owners, monohull owners, motorboat owners. It’s about YOUR boat, and YOUR systems and equipment – it’s about YOU and YOUR crew. Read more here.
