Bold move drives forming of Sunshine Coast Sailing Team

by Tracey Johnstone on 1 Jun 2015 To assist youth Sunshine Coast sailors towards competing at the top level of match racing in Australia and in the Pacific region Mooloolaba Yacht Club and Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club have joined their youth keel boat programs to form the Sunshine Coast Sailing Team.

At last month’s Australian Youth Match Racing Championship held at Mooloolaba, two combined club Sunshine Coast teams were fielded. It was a bold move that proved fruitful with the team skippered by James Hodgson placing third and the other team skippered by Hunter Vercoe keen to keep the combination going and to learn more about match racing.

NYRC’s Sailing Manager Paul Blundell was at the event and watching carefully how the combined team concept was working. “What seemed a somewhat confusing situation to start became an outstanding success as far as I could see. It certainly needed further discussion.

“I then met with MYC’s Ian Rogers and we agreed on the value of bringing the keel boat youth together, giving them better and more regular access to the Elliott 6s that the MYC owns and developing a competition pathway. Initially a core group of 12 youth have been selected from the two clubs and offered a position on the team which will have a focus on further skills development, team work and even fundraising, making this core group a tight knit unit and setting an example for the younger kids on the coast to aspire towards,” Blundell said.

The targeted events for the combined team are the Club Marine NSW Youth Match Racing Championships in August, the Open New Caledonia Match Racing in October, the Harken International Youth Match Racing Championship and the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship regattas in November.

Rogers is keen to also see the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s match racing program continue to build. “Having the choice of training and racing with the RQYS junior and senior match racers will strengthen Queensland’s place in Australian match racing and give our sailors a great base on which to build towards both travelling to inter-state for competition as well as hosting at least one major match racing event here at Mooloolaba each year.

“The MYC has four Elliott 6s which are the perfect equipment for our youth training and for racing on the river at Mooloolaba,” Rogers said.

Those NYRC and MYC youth program members currently in each club’s respective youth development programs will continue to receive a high-level of coaching support and be encouraged to pursue selection to the senior Team in future years.

Under the guidance of the match racing coach, NYRC’s Klade Hauschildt, the Sunshine Coast Sailing Team will meet every second Sunday afternoon during winter and then move into every second Saturday afternoon during the summer months.