Australian team train at Sandy Bay Sailing Club for Cadet Worlds in Germany
by Peter Campbell 11 Jun 2018 04:52 AEST
9-11 June 2018
The Australian team for the Cadet Worlds in Germany at Sandy Bay Sailing Club today © Peter Campbell
It's 8am and down on Nutgrove Beach, in front of the Sandy Bay Sailing Club, the temperature is four degrees, with the brisk wind chill factor bringing it down to near zero.
However, today's frosty morning did not deter near 90 young sailors from Tasmania and Victoria from preparing their dinghies, Lasers, International Cadets, 29ers and Optimists for a day of intensive onshore and on-the-water coaching.
The young sailors, from seven-year-old Cadet crews to their teenage skippers, are sailing on the River Derwent as part of Sandy Bay Sailing Club's June long weekend coaching camp.
In addition to the Cadets squad, 24 Lasers, nine 29ers and 19 Optimists, a total of 65 boats and 87 sailors, are taking part in the Sandy Bay Sailing Club coaching camp, plus about 30 club volunteers (mostly parents) and local and interstate coaches.
For the Cadet sailors, it's a significant weekend of coaching under Geelong-based coach Tony Bull as this is the final camp for the Australian team of eight boats and 16 sailors heading for the 52nd Cadet Worlds at Bodstedt, Germany, from 29 July to 3 August.
Bull has brought eight team members (four crews) from Royal Geelong Yacht Club and the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria across to Hobart to join the eight team members from Sandy Bay Sailing Club.
Bull, a sailmaker, has coached the Australian Cadet team for the past six years and can count two world championship victories.
By midday, the young sailors were in keen competition afloat under the watching eye of their coaches, the temperature had soared to 11 degrees (still felt like 7 degrees), but it was sunny and the nor'wester was still blowing on a sparkling River Derwent.
The Australian team comprises four crews from Hobart's Sandy Bay Sailing Club: Jacob McConaghy and Sam Hooper, Archie Ibbott and James Gough, Jack Allison and Luca Groves, and Hugo Allison and Grace Hooper; and four crews from Victorian clubs: Peter Allen and Ashton Rawstron (Royal Yacht Club of Victoria): Elliot Hughes and Cate McCoy (Royal Geelong Yacht Club), Emma Kelly and Ollie Grieve (Royal Geelong Yacht Club) and Jarrah Harris Moore and Evie McDonald (Royal Geelong Yacht Club).
The Sandy Bay Sailing Club June long weekend coaching camp continues on Monday.