Duo starts assault on Baltic Sea

OLYMPIC aspirants, Tasmanian high-performance sailors Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher, have begun their European campaign in the 49erFX skiff Olympic class in Germany this week.

Joining them at the famous Kieler Woche (Kiel Week) regatta on the Baltic Sea is another young Tasmanian sailing an Olympic-class dinghy, Jock Calvert, who was this week ranked 29th in the world in the single-handed Finn class.

Galbraith from Hobart, and Fisher from Launceston, are the only women’s 49erFX skiff sailors in Tasmania, sailing out of Sandy Bay Sailing Club.

Overnight, they were due to start competing in Kieler Woche, sailing in the exciting women’s 49erFX Olympic skiff against a fleet of 64 mainly European women sailors.

The duo said they were “very excited to be able to put their efforts into practice in the European circuit”.

Their ultimate goal is to represent Australia at the Olympic Games, as is the aim of Calvert, an off-the-beach member of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

The focus of the trio’s European campaign will be to represent Australia at the World Sailing Championships in Denmark in July and August.

The World Sailing Championships will count towards qualification for the Olympics, and it will host all 10 Olympic sailing classes, with 1500 competitors from 100 nations and an estimated 400,000 visitors.

Galbraith and Fisher came together in 2015 when they started sailing the fast-moving 29er Skiff, where they found great success. Last year, they transitioned into the Women’s Olympic 49erFX Skiff.

In late 2017, Galbraith and Fisher were the first Tasmanian sailors in more than 30 years to take the podium in a World Youth Sailing Championship, winning the bronze medal in the 29er Skiff class in Sanya, China.