WAIS Sailing Update

It has been a very busy year so far, with National Championships finishing in some classes and starting in others.

The Laser Nationals were sailedout of Fremantle Sailing Club and racing was held in a mixture of winds, with the sea breeze being the dominant condition. Ryan Hannan (WAIS) sailed consistently, and avoided the bigger scores, to finish fourth overall and second Australian. This is a great step for him, and his racing and time spent in Europe is something that has really contributed to his step up in racing performance. Ash Brunning (NSW) won the title and his superior fitness over his competitors was evident. His consistency in the top three saw him win his first National title.

Mark Whittington (WAIS) in the Laser Radial struggled in the mid point in the regatta and dropped a few places to be out of reach of the top three, but pulled his skills together on the last few days, and pulled himself back into contention, finishing fourth youth, and third Australian youth behind Curtis Skinner from QLD.

The Australian Youth National Championships started on the 8th of Jan and finished on Sunday. The 420 boys had a very close regatta, pushing each other to extremes in their fight for the spot for the Youth World Championships. Patrick Vos (WAIS) and Mat Jerwood (WAIS) had to beat David Gilmour (WAIS) and James Omay to win the place, after finishing just behind them in the 420 Nationals. The two were in battles all over the race course, and ended up in the protest room twice, with the jury to decide the outcomes. Mat and Pat have been improving all year, and have risen to a highly competitive level with boat handling in any wind condition being their strength. Their performance on the second last day of racing was amazing, with great speed and vision of the situations ahead. They had three races, with scores of two, one and one which could easily have been three firsts.

David and James sailed well, but saw the points close on them, and went into the final day with the job of trying to force Mat and Pat to have a score worse than eighth, to be able to win the regatta. This played out in a tough match race between the two, and Mat and Pat not being able to get through which saw the Singaporean get in front of them overall.

It was a fantastic display of sheer competitiveness, and I was lucky (or unlucky!) to have the top two teams competing against each other for one spot at the Youth Worlds! It is sad for one, and great for the other, but sport is where this is always tested. I see these WAIS sailors as leaders in their sport in the future. Well done to all of them.

Mark Whittington managed to improve on his Nationals performance and finish second male Youth. The young sailor does not have a day off as he goes straight into competition today in the Asia Pacific Championships out of Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club this week.

Many thanks to all,

Belinda Stowell

WAIS Head Coach – Sailing