Sabots continue to serve up celebration of sailing

TASMANIAN sailing is still riding the crest of the Sydney to Hobart wave with Port Dalrymple hosting the National Sabot Championships this week.

With hosting rights alternating down the east coast every five years, over 100 sailors aged seven to 16 from the mainland competed with the locals in Nationals 1Up and 2Up racing. In the 1Up, the main regatta for experienced sailors, Liam Jones was the best performed Tasmania competitor in an event dominated by Queenslanders.

Laken Eaton, Jordy Fee and Alyssa Mathieu filled the podium places, while another Queensland entry sailed by Harry Mercer and Harry Gilroy took out the 2Up.

Sabot Week, for entry level sailors, was held in conjunction with the national regatta with Tasmania’s Heath Lohrey and Dete Wardell and Joey Adams taking out the 1Up and 2Up respectively.

Tasmanian Sabot Sailing Association president Michael Jones said tough conditions greeted competitors, but had been well received by those travelling to the state.

“It was a really good regatta, I think we impressed the mainlanders,” he said.

“It was pretty trying conditions.

“It was a mixed bag with quite variable conditions and tricky sailing for them to get their heads around.

“We had well over 100 people coming into the state so there’s a lot of organisation to make it run.

“Port Dalrymple is a really good volunteer club so that’s why we ran it there, and the kids get pretty excited about racing in a national event at home. The trophies were handmade with Tassie Timbers so they got a good taste of all things Tassie.”

The next national championships will be held at Hervey Bay in Queensland next year.

Sailing continues at Port Dalrymple throughout this week with NS14 competition, which will feature adult and junior competitors.