Tasqua Teenagers win title at Airlie Beach

by Ian Grant on 21 Aug 2008 Sunshine Coast teenage SB3 Dart Sailing crew mastered a mixed range of winds from light to fresh to dominate the inaugural Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach one-design championship over the Whitsunday Sailing Club courses on Pioneer Bay.

The four sailors all members of the Oceanburo Performance Sailing squad arrived in Airlie Beach a week ago and were welcomed to the championship series as the school Boys from the Sunshine Coast.

However they progressively won the respect of their older rivals on the race course when Tasqua Youth became the giant killers of the series in fact they dominated the series from the outset.

Skipper Matthew Jones (17) plus the senior members of the crew Kris Blanch and Sean Lindsell (17) combined cleverly with Levi Curtis (14) to hand their senior rivals a real lesson in One-Design racing.

Tasqua Youth was in command winning ten of the twelve races leaving their rivals to sort out who was going to win the minor medals.

'They may have called us the Schoolboys but there is a great fellowship within the class and really we had a great time apart from not allowed to go an collect our trophies in the licensed bar area'. Skipper Matthew Jones said.

Naturally the well mannered teenager modestly said 'We solved that problem when Levi’s mother collected our prizes' he added.

The Tasqua Youth squad who only had one practice session together before the series raced in a class of their own fighting from behind in most races to eventually record an impressive 16 point win over the Bowen brothers John McLean in Marine Tech Electrics 28 points and Michael McLean in Wagop on 33 points.

Full results at www.airliebeachraceweek.com.au