Our young sailors in top form at titles

FOUR of Australia’s team of seven youth crews have finished in the top 20 of the 63-boat fleet at the 2018 International World Championship which finished yesterday at Bodstedt, Germany.

And three of the crews are from Hobart’s Sandy Bay Sailing Club.

Peter Allen and Ashton Rowstron from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria finished fifth overall, while Sandy Bay’s Archer Ibbott and James Gough were sixth.

Team captain Jacob McConaghy and Sam Hooper, also from Sandy Bay, placed 13th after a third in the final race, while the youngest skipper, Hugo Allison and his crew Grace Hooper, were 20th overall.

“It was a good note to finish on and I reflected on how much we had improved our light-air sailing as a team,” team coach Tony Bull said yesterday. “Raised on a diet of fresh winds and afternoon sea breezes, the Australians have always been good in a blow.”

Light winds prevailed through the regatta.

The 2018 International Cadet world champions are Argentinian sailors Teo and Ana Zecchin. They won three races and had two seconds in the nine-race regatta. IN AARHUS, Denmark, Tasmanian women Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher are 39th overall in the 49erFX women’s Olympic skiff class at the World Sailing championships. They finished 10th in race four.

In the Olympic Finn men’s single-handed class, Jock Calvert is 53rd in the fleet of 90, his best place so far a 17th in race three.