Aussie 9er Nationals Conclude

Held at Jervoise Bay in Western Australia the regatta saw all skiff teams revealing high levels of skill with fresh to frightening breezes pushing new boundaries on many days, in combination with a couple of tricky lighter days interspersed in the series

The top U21 crew at the 2014 U24 World Championship, Joel Turner and Lewis Brake put in an impressive event winning ten out of fifteen races, outsailing runner-ups David Gilmour and Rhys Mara, who finished the event in second, and securing national title bragging rights.

After racing Lewis Brake declared that the week had produced some of the best sailing conditions he had experienced, “We’ve never sailed over here in Perth before but we enjoyed the sea breezes and the conditions in general. It’s been a great place to sail. And of course it’s great to win the regatta and take home the trophy and bragging rights.”

And about the strength of the 49er squad and plans ahead Joel Turner added, “It’s great to win an event in our home country and race against our training partners, like David and Rhys. The whole Australian squad is really strong at the moment and it’s great that we have such good competition amongst the team. Pushing each other lifts the level as a whole, which should help all of us once we head overseas again.”

George Stent and Ben Robinson won the 49erFX with Australian Sailing Squad members Tess Lloyd and Caitlin Elks following in second and first female crew, securing them the 49erFX women’s title.

“We didn’t win the fleet but the female category, which is great. It means a lot to win the national title as we’ve worked really hard last year.” Caitlin Elks said at the end of the regatta. “We’ve progressed a lot and keep making gains and it’s a nice way to finish off last year’s season and to kick-off 2015. We’ll be racing at the Oceania regatta this week here in WA, before heading to Miami.”

Haylee Outteridge with new 49erFX partner Sarah Cook came overall fourth after leading the regatta at one point. The pair was happy with their overall state of preparation after having sailed together only for three months as Haylee Outteridge explained, “We were really excited to race at the nationals and have enjoyed racing the other girls. We are a new combination and put a lot of value on the time we can race the other crews. We’ve been doing a lot of training on our own so to have three to four races a day has been a really good opportunity for us to work on our racing and technical skills. We’ve come a long way since we started three months ago, which is very exciting.”

World Champion Kurt Hansen and new crew 2014 Australian Sailing Youth Team’s Jim Colley’s won the 29er class.

Results