Fleet Finals for WAIS Sailors in Palma, Spain
WAIS sailors competing at a European Sailing event in Palma, Spain have qualified for finals off the back of some strong fleet form this week.
The Trofeo Princesa Sofia has attracted a world cup level of talent, on account of many Olympic quality crews capitalising on the opportunity to get race practise under their belts ahead of qualification regattas and the Games themselves.
WAIS sailors and Rio hopefuls Carrie Smith, competing in the women’s 470 and Caitlin Elks in the 49erFX have both progressed to weekend fleet finals.
Smith and her crew Jaime Ryan, sailing in their newly launched boat “Boing’ recorded a consistent week of racing to qualify 10th heading into finals. A third place effort in the third race highlighted their campaign to date, whilst crews from Brazil, the Netherlands and USA hold the top three rankings.
Elks, who crews for skipper Tess Lloyd in the 49erFX class, has enjoyed a strong week, to sit in sixth place out of 34 competing boats with finals to follow. Crews from the Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain hold down the top three spots.
In the men’s 49er class, WAIS sailor David Gilmour and his crew Lewis Brake were 13th overall, whilst WAIS athletes Luke Elliott and Mark Spearman where 24th and 50th respectively in the men’s laser.
Carrie Smith and Caitlin Elks require strong regatta results across the up-coming world cup series events, to earn nomination through Yachting Australia onto the Australia Olympic Team.
2015 Youth World Champion and WAIS sailing scholarship holder Conor Nicholas has won the men’s laser competition at the ISAF Youth Worlds Qualifying regatta in Wakayama, Japan.