420 sailors Elloise Brake and Jaime Ryan racing in Sydney. Image copyright Andrew Gough.
by Craig Heydon
Day one of racing at the 2011 OAMPS Insurance Brokers Australian Youth Championships finished with all classes completing two races on Sydney’s Botany Bay.
More than 160 crews hit the water for the first of four days of racing at Georges River 16ft Sailing Club with close racing throughout all of the fleets.
Racing got underway in moderate conditions up to 12 knots with a number of rain squalls coming across the race course, constantly shifting the breeze and making life difficult for competitors and race committees alike.
Queenslanders Elloise Brake and Jaime Ryan are joint leaders in the 420 class with West Australians Carrie Smith and Ella Clark with the crews swapping seconds and thirds in the opening two races.
Angus Galloway and Alex Gough are the leading male crew and are third overall, just two points off the lead following an opening race win and a sixth.
International sailors are leading the way in the Laser Radial class with Great Britain, New Zealand, Japan and Russia filling the top four places.
Great Britain’s Lorenzo Chiavarini is currently first overall following his second and sixth and is one point ahead of New Zealand’s Jack Collinson and Japan’s Manami Doi with Russian Maxim Nikolaev fourth.
Chris Anderson is the leading Australian male in fifth overall while Ella Evans is the leading female in ninth.
In the Laser 4.7 class there is a three way tie for the lead with Victorian sailor Thomas Trotman, Japan’s Hitomi Murayama and Queenslander Madison Kennedy all on seven points.
The three sailors showed that consistency was the key in the shifty conditions as they are in the lead despite not one of them winning a race on day one.
Japan’s Yuichiro Kitamura was victorious in race one while Benjamin Walkemeyer took out race two after being black flagged in the first race of the regatta.
In the Hobie 16 class 2010 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship Gold medalist Paul Darmanin is adjusting well to life as a skipper, winning the opening two races of the regatta with crew Aleks Vucic.
“I’m really happy to get the ball rolling and get the regatta off to a good start,” said Darmanin. “It was pretty light and shifty and there was a lot of waiting around while the wind sorted itself out but it was good to get two races in.”
“It’s good to start steering the boat, there’s certainly a lot more to do and I’m enjoying being able to move my skills from other classes into the Hobies,” he said.
The pair has a two point lead over fellow Palm Beach Sailing Club members Lucas Price and Ryan Wilmot with Ella Sagnol and Heidi Vandermeer third.
New Caledonian sailor Antoine Aubert is leading the Techno 293 class following a first and a second, ending the day one point ahead of New South Welshman Sam Trehane and West Australian Alex Stephens.
Josh Franklin and Lewis Brake are first in the 29er class, three points clear of James Sly and Thomas Dwyer with the mixed crew of Tess Lloyd and Andrew Gillies third. Philippa and Eliza Solly are the leading female crew in eighth overall.
All fleets will complete three races on Saturday, with the Laser Radial fleet to feature the live tracking. Visit www.youthchamps.org.au for the live tracking and live event blog.
