Klaus Lorenz and James Scott contest Musto Australian Championship
by Ian Grant on 7 Jan 2013
Klaus Lorenz from the Whitsunday Sailing Club Tom Quirk
Whitsunday Sailing Club's teenage 420 dinghy racing team of Klaus Lorenz and James Scott gained important big fleet racing experience when they contested the Musto Australian championship in Hobart last week.
The championship regarded as a stepping stone towards Olympic sailing in the 470 class was dominated by the tactically strong West Australian team with the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club crew of Lachlan Gilmour and Thomas Blaauw expressing their class to win the major medal with Novo Rapid.
Lachlan son of Americas Cup and World match racing champion Peter Gilmour has the sailing pedigree but he still had to apply his personal skill with crew mate Thomas Blaauw to head off a strong challenge from their West Australian team mates who filled five of the top ten places.
Strong fleet racing at the club level ultimately proved to be a decisive advantage for the talented West Australian duo in this tactically competitive one-design class.
They made all of the small things count to finish the series with the deserved honour of winning the 12 race championship in a testing tactical racing environment on the River Derwent.
This intense level of competition was another important learning curve for skipper Klaus Lorenz and James Scott besides being a relatively new team are a new team and forced to race and train alone on the warm waters of Pioneer Bay finished eighth overall in their dinghy Rockstar which was an impressive result.
However near enough is never good enough with both sailors set to gain more valuable experience when they battle for honours in the important OAMPS Insurance Brokers Australian Youth championships over the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania courses this week.
As expected skipper Lachlan Gilmour and crew mate Thomas Blaauw remain as the nominated favourites to win the series and selection to represent Australia at the World Youth championships later in the year while the Rockstar racing team will continue with their development program which promises to achieve recognition as a future star performer in the highly competitive class of 420 dinghy racing.
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