Sunshine Coast sailors appointed coach

by Ian Grant on 3 Jan 2007 Queensland Yachting Association has appointed Adrian Finglas to a specialist full time coaching role which promises to be an enormous benefit to the promising careers of young Sunshine Coast sailors Ryan Palk, Klade Hauschildt and Sean O’Rourke.

All three teenagers have won Australian championships and their careers were at the crossroads in terms of stepping up to the next level.

They have benefited from the excellent coaching and guidance from their respective club training programs which ultimately gained the results and recognition for selection in the Queensland Youth Squad.

The appointment of Adrian Finglas promotes a new era in the sport particularly in the development of our younger sailors.

Finglas personally understands the total frustration that young sailors have faced in the past and is the perfect person to allow Queensland to continue developing outstanding sailors.

He showed a rare talent from the time he stepped into a Sabot for his first sail on Brisbane’s Cabbage Tree Creek. Less than three years later the quiet kid from Cabbage Tree Creek won the Australian Sabot championship in his dinghy Hot Pursuit.

His career continued to fast track into the National record books when he and his good mate Adam Beashel out sailed a high class international fleet to win the World Tasar championship hosted by the Keppel Bay Sailing Club on Rosslyn Bay.

Finglas spread the early stages of his career over a wide range of classes from the 420 dinghy winning an Australian championship as a crew with Southport skipper Shane Smith to coaching Sunshine Coast female skipper Lisa Charlson and crewmate Sarah Roberts-Thomson to win the Womens 420 title in South Africa.

The friendly nature of Finglas led to his selection to assist the American Olympic Team in Barcelona followed with crewing in the Syd Fischer sponsored Americas Cup challenge with Advance.

More recently Finglas was ‘adopted’ by the wealthy American billionaire Phillipe Kahn to join his Pegasus Racing Team where he represented America in the World Etchells championship in San Francisco. But the boy from Cabbage Tree Creek who has gained valuable experience at the highest level in the sport has always called Queensland home.

'All of the traveling and racing at the regattas has allowed me to absorb important coaching knowledge from the best sailors including Russell Coutts. However while it gave me the opportunity to put some Weet-Bix on the breakfast table there is no place like being back home where it all began' He said.

Later this month Finglas will be back on the World championship racing circuit representing Queensland in the World 505 championship on the Brighton Seacliffe course in Adelaide. He has teamed up with his talented Brisbane mate Simon Gorman and will be racing against former Australian champion and Mooloolaba Yacht Club skipper Phil Gray.

The knowledge gained from this series will add another important phase to what already has been a brilliant career and more importantly it will become available to strengthen the development of Queensland’s talented young sailors including the Team Noosa sail twins Ryan Palk and Klade Hauschildt.