Windward – Sunshine Coast’s sailors leave best to last at Laser Worlds

by Tracey Johnstone on 10 Jul 2015 2015 Laser World Championship - Sunshine Coast sailors Ryan Palk and Mitch Kennedy successfully battled frustrating light winds at the Laser World Championships in Kingston, Canada, to both improve on last year's results to finish in the top end of the Gold Fleet.

Palk’s final result was exceptional after he finished the Qualifying series in 53rd which only just allowed him to slip into the restricted entry Gold Fleet by just one point.

“The whole Gold Fleet finals for me was some of my best sailing yet. After a frustrating qualifying series and slipping into gold fleet by the narrowest of margins, I knew I had much better sailing in me. I attacked the finals with a renewed vigour and energy.

“I knew I had done the work to go well here and I was simply putting it into action. I ended up skyrocketing up the leader board to 11th. My goal was top 10. I was so close in the end, but I sailed my best and even though I came so close, I’m still a happy sailor. I never gave up and put everything into it right to the end and I can’t ask much more than that.

“My boats name this week was Crescendo; it certainly lived up to its name,” Palk said.

Palk finished in 18th place at last year's World Championship.

Kennedy halved his 50th place result at last year's World Championship. He started the regatta strongly with a 17th place at the end of Qualifying series. He then kept a handle on the top end of the Gold Fleet to finish in 25th overall.

Six Australians competed in the championship, all of whom finished in the Gold Fleet with the best placed, Tom Burton, placed third place.

Mooloolaba’s Stacey Jackson has packed away her Volvo Ocean Race offshore gear, for the time being, and jumped on board with skipper Katie Spithill to contest the Women’s Match Racing World Championship being held in Middelfart, Denmark. Jackson is back on the bow for this event at which the team placed third when they last contested the World Championship in 2013.

The first two days have been wild with the second day of competition requiring two reefs in the main and a small jib as the women battled themselves and well over 30 knot gusts. Spinnakers were allowed and Spithill’s Team Leagues Racing took advantage of the other team’s hesitancy to hoist a kite, to put one up and gain the advantage they needed to control the second flight of the day and push them up over the line in first place for the second time that day. They are now sitting in sixth place in the 16-team fleet.

In the local news, the Coast’s youth were in Brisbane this week for the Queensland Youth Week. Frazer Brew placed fifth and Hailey Lea in seventh in the Sabot class. In the Laser 4.7 Taylor Rogers finished 13th and Sarah Johnson in 39th. In the Bic Open Nicole McKenzie finished 16th and Noosa’s Indiabeau finished 20th in the Laser Radial class. Many of these young sailors have backed up for Sail Brisbane which started yesterday and goes through to Sunday afternoon.

The Queensland IRC Championship was completed last weekend with Mark Bradford’s Black Jack Too taking out this year’s honours in the 12-boat fleet. In the four-day Sunshine Coast Ocean Regatta conducted by the Sunshine Coast Yacht Club, which finished on Wednesday, the monohull handicap honours went to Trevor and Deb Gourlay’s Liquidator while the multihull honours went to Novak Thompson’s Rum Raider and the IRC trophy went to Ian Coward’s Quest.

Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club members have voted in a new Commodore Tony Natta. He comes from a race boards, a discipline not previously represented at the top end of the club. “I think the previous Commodores have mostly been dinghy, catamaran or monohull sailors.

“I don’t have any great plans to change anything, just to continue on its steady path. But like most volunteer clubs, it’s not growing at any great rate, but it’s certainly not declining,” Natta said.

The club starts its new program in August with the Boreen Point Real Estate Allboats Regatta.