NSW Youth Championship at South Lake Macquarie Amateur Sailing Club - Day 2
by Stephen Collopy 30 Sep 2018 20:57 AEST
29-30 September 2018
All smiles on day 2 of the NSW Youth Championship at Lake Macquarie © Beau Outteridge
Steady breeze brings on the action on day two of the NSW Youth Championships
The steady conditions opened the doors for some spectacular racing across all classes on day two of the NSW Youth Championships presented by Lake Macquarie City Council. With only a few minor course changes the race officials squeezed in four races across all courses to make up for the races lost from day one due to the strong winds.
The weather presented a "loveable" race course for Optimist Intermediate sailor Jorja Mahoney who had travelled to Lake Macquarie all the way from Royal Geelong Yacht Club to compete against a mixed gender fleet of young Optimist sailors.
Donning a Geelong Cats AFL team rash vest Jorja claimed four from four victories placing her firmly in first position. When asked about the racing
"I like it, it was my type of race that I love, and I got some good races in today." Said Jorja
Laser Radial sailor, Max Gluskie who travelled to Lake Macquarie from Hobart was happy to have a full day of racing.
"It was hard to be constant today but everyone was up and down but that's the name of the game, it was windier later in the day which was good since I like that kind of stuff" Said Max
Max performed well in the stronger conditions picking up a first in the windy conditions on day one and claimed mixed results on day two. According to Max, coming up to Lake Macquarie for the event is a great way to prepare for the National Youth Championships that will be held in Max's home waters.
"We have limited facilities in Hobart so it's good to train as a team and maximising what we've got in Hobart, the competition has been great here and it sets us up for the Nationals," said Max.
Staying with the Laser Radials, local sailor Paige Caldecoat enjoyed sailing on home waters after being overseas training with Olympic sailors for the past six months.
I've been overseas for the past six months so I haven't sailed at home for over six months now so it's nice to be back on home waters and have some good competition." Said Paige
The day's conditions also presented a great challenge for new 29er sailors, Fletcher Walters and Jack Hildebrand from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. Fletcher, a seasoned Optimist sailor and Jack, a laser 4.7 sailor are totally new to the racing the 29er only making the change three weeks ago.
"We're new to the whole 29er scene so racing today turned out to be a whole lot better." Said Jack.
Getting a feel for skiff racing has been a steep learning curve for the pair but after today's racing are happy to have focused more on racing and technique rather than just trying to keep the boat upright.
"It was a whole lot better today and could control the boat much better we didn't have to just focus on survival we could focus on speed and getting across the line." Said Fletcher.
The competitors, volunteers and race officials did an amazing job on day two pushing out four big races. Day three is looking much lighter with a building sea breeze in the afternoon. Be sure to check out the action on socials and the Australian Sailing Youth website.
Results are at sailingresults.net/site/event/80226/default.html