2017 Tasmanian Youth Championships at Midway Point

by Peter Campbell on 7 Mar 2017 The 2017 Tasmanian Youth Championships were sailed over the weekend at the Midway Point Yacht Club with 45 competitors enjoying close competition in a late summer sea breeze on both days.

Six races in the welcoming Tasmanian conditions were completed to decide the new champions in the State Youth classes and the Tasmanian Schools Regatta.

Australian Sailing’s Regional Manager for Tasmania, Richard McMinn, said the event was a great success and gave congratulations to all the sailors.

“There’s been a great effort by all to run this event. The new level of regatta management gained through this transition to Australian Sailing has really boosted the quality and exposure of this regatta. Well done to all sailors and thank you to all the volunteers at this event,” McMinn commented.

Laser Radial

Following a successful campaign at the 2017 Australian Youth Championships, Sam King continued his high-performance sailing and defended his 2016 win in the Laser Radial class.

Sam said: “This has been my first real regatta since the youth nationals; the conditions here are definitely a change from Adelaide’s windy and wavy environment. I wanted to use the regatta to see if I needed to fix anything in preparation for the Laser Radial Worlds later this year. It was tough competition but I’m happy with my win. I want to give a big thank you to Musto for their sponsorship over the past year.”

29er

Skippers, Hugo Hamilton and William Wallis, fought out a close regatta n the 29er class but after a couple bullets and consistent racing Hugo and crew, William Sargent, were victorious.

Hugo commented:

“Although we don’t plan on sailing together as a team again we were very happy with our win. We teamed up for this event as we’re both from the same school and thought we could aim to take out the Youth Champion and the Tasmanian Schools Regatta titles (with our other team mates). The regatta was a lot of fun and the Club members made us feel very welcome. Midway Point Yacht Club is a great place to sail with good wind and flat waters making it great for skiffs!”

Laser 4.7

Although Abbey Calvert was the only Laser 4.7 on the course she sailed very competitively in against the Laser Radial and Sabre sailors placing mid-fleet overall on yardstick.

International Cadet

Another outstanding performance was seen by International Cadet crew, Hugo Allison and Grace Hooper. Hugo, 2015 World Champion and current Australian and Tasmanian champion crew in the International Cadet. Hugo has just made the transition to skippering.

An elated young sailor, Hugo said: “This is my first regatta ever skippering and third week Grace and I have been sailing together so we’re very happy with our result! I like skippering the boat and being able to control where we go and am enjoying sailing with Grace; we plan to sail together for the rest of the season. We also wanted to thank our parents for supporting us.”

A total of six races were sailed over the two day event with a sea breeze welcomed both afternoons. Four races were held on the first day with the morning session conducted in typically light and shifty conditions and the two afternoon races run in a moderate 12 to 15 knots. Cloud cover postponed racing for an hour on the second day while Race Management waited for the clouds to burn off and the breeze to fill in.

Racing on day two kicked off at 1130 with a light five to eight knots and both races were completed before a strong sea breeze kicked in that afternoon.

Yardstick Fleet

Flying 11 dynamic duo, Oliver/ Oscar Pritchard and Finn Buchanan, sailed exceptionally well over the regatta winning the boy’s yardstick fleet. Following suit was 49erFX team, Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher, who recently transitioned from the 29er.

The 49erFX pair also won the Seamanship Award and received a dry bag from Australian Sailing sponsor, Zhik. All sailors across the 13 classes were congratulated on attending and participating in the event.

Tasmanian Schools Regatta

In addition to the Youth Championships, the Tasmanian Schools Regatta was decided at Midway Point over the weekend. Three schools participated: The Friends School (four teams), The Hutchins School and Launceston Church Grammar School. Defending their win from last year was The Friends School with sailors Hugo Hamilton and Will Sargent, Will Wallis and Brendan Crisp and Max Gluskie. Will

Sargent said: “Our team (with a couple new sailors this year) won last year also. We train a lot and not just in our respective class, we also do a lot of Teams Racing and Match Racing which all adds to our skill set. It feels good to win again.”

Winners:

29er
1st Place	Hugo Hamilton & William Sargent
1st Girl	Alice Buchanan & Dervia Duggan
Laser 4.7
1st Place	Abbey Calvert
Laser Radial
1st Place	Sam King
Sabot
1st Place	Daniel Maree
Flying 11
1st Place	Oliver Pritchard & Finn Buchanan
International Cadet
1st Place	Hugo Allison & Grace Hooper
Optimist
1st Place	Bayley Fisher
Pacer
1st Place	Eleanor McLean & Alec Pitt
TAS Schools Yardstick
1st Place	The Friends School: Will Wallis & Brendan Crisp Hugo Hamilton & Will Sargent Max Gluskie
Girl Yardstick
1st Place	49er FX: Jasmin Galbraith & Chloe Fisher
Boy Yardstick
1st Place	Flying 11: Oliver Pritchard/ Oscar Pritchard & Finn Buchanan