Sailors excel on national stage
SANDY BAY Sailing Club Commodore Felicity Allison is glowing with pride at the success of her club’s young sailors in recent regattas.
The SBSC has produced several national and world champions and this year has added the Australian International 29er and International Cadet National Championship to the list. Talented sailors Ethan Galbraith and Charlie Zeeman were the first Australians home in the 29er Nationals in Victoria to take their first national title, while skipper Hugo Allison, 14, with crew Sam Hooper, defended his 2019 Cadet title.
The new decade has started perfectly for Galbraith, a Tasmanian Institute of Sport athlete, and Zeeman.
They were selected in the provisional Australian Sailing Youth Worlds Team after following up their national title with a bronze in the 2020 Australian Youth Championships.
The team, which is still to be ratified by Australian Sailing, will head to Brazil in December to contest the Hempel Youth Sailing World Championships.
The SBSC took a strong contingent interstate for the summer sailing program, with sailors as young as eight in the Green Fleet (for first-time competitors) in the National Optimist Championship.
“We had 22 sailors in each of the Cadet and Optimist Nationals, and we had sailors in the 29ers, the Laser Radials and 4.7s, and the Techno Board in the Australian Youth Championships,” Allison said.
“While winning national and world championships is always thrilling, what I would like to do is celebrate the number of young sailors who have a real go at sailing.
“We have a strong commitment to equality both on and off the water, and we have the same expectations of boys and girls on the racetrack. We have 39 per cent female sailors, and we have women in leadership positions across the club, which is unusual in a consistently male-dominated sport — and it’s always really encouraging to see so many of our sailors return to mentor and coach the new crews.”
Allison leads by example, serving as SBSC Commodore and winning the SB20 Australian Championship Women’s Division in 2018 in her boat Cook Your Own Dinner.