Young sailors to the fore

THE widely popular SB20 sports boat was introduced into Hobart several seasons ago as a highperformance racing yacht for adults (then mostly three-up male crews) and was quickly accepted by experienced local sailors.

The fleet is now one of the largest racing regularly in the world and last January hosted the world championships on the Derwent.

The attraction of fast and spectacular big-fleet racing has, however, has gone well beyond the original concept and last weekend ‘s Australian SB20 championship fleet of 25 boats on the River Derwent included five youth crews and three women crews.

The young sailors gave the class stalwarts somewhat of a shock in the opening race, outsailing on the first windward leg adult crews that included SB20 sailors with international credentials and past world and national champions in other classes.

It was only towards the end of that first race that class veteran Scott Brain, helming Brainwave, overtook the youth crews of Murray JonesTHSSA, helmed by Will Cooper, and Taz Racing Team, skippered by Will Sargent, and they finished in that order.

While the much more experienced adult crews came to the fore over the three-day regatta, conducted by Derwent Sailing Squadron, Taz Racing Team went on to finish ninth overall and be champion youth team, while The Hutchins School Sailing Academy’s Murray Jones finished 11th overall.

This was the first time that Will Sargent had helmed an SB20, but he had a smart young crew to support him — Issie DeClerk, Ethan Gailbraith and Ben Read — in a series that included another third place in the highly competitive fleet.

It’s been a stella year for the 17-year-old Friends School student, including heading the crew that represented Australia at the Interdominion secondary schools championship in New Zealand and finishing a close second.

Then it was up to Sydney to helm the Friends crew and win the National schools matching championships. Next, also on Sydney Harbour, was the Under 23 national match racing championships in which Sargent and his young crew just missed on a spot in the final four.

This past week Sargent has been back on Sydney Harbour sailing his Laser Radial in the Sail Sydney international regatta and last night he was due to fly back to Tasmania to contest the Laser Radial Tasmanian championships off Devonport’s Mersey Bluff.

The Laser State