Yachting Queensland Youth Sailing team on fire at Aust Championships

1:29 AM Wed 14 Jan 2009 GMT

'Ashley Stoddart (QLD) 2009 OAMPS Australian Youth Championship 2009 - OAMPS Insurance Brokers Australian Youth Championship 2009' Yachting Australia Click Here to view large photo

The Yachting Queensland Youth Sailing team broke a nine year drought when the squad power sailed in fresh winds to claim five individual Gold Medals at the 2009 OAMPS Insurance Brokers Australian Youth Championship.

They were the star performers taming West Australia's notoriously strong South West wind known locally as the 'Fremantle Doctor' which provided the 122 crews with test of personal endurance and hiking technique over the eleven races staged off Mandurah last weekend.

Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron's Curtis Skinner expressed the benefit of racing in various classes including the Audi Sunshine Coast Queensland SB3 Match Racing championship to win the Laser Radial Boys title while the exceptionally fit and determined 15 year old Ashley Stoddart claimed a deserved Gold Medal in the Girls series.

The tactical racing dominance continued with Bic Techno sail board athletes Luke Baillie and Joanna Sterling mastering the physical test of maintaining balance and speed in an unfamiliar environment to win their classes and Australian Team selection with Curtis Skinner and Ashley Stoddart to contest the Volvo ISAF Youth World championship at Buzios Brazil in July.

Talented Townsville skipper Andrew Torpelund completed the 'Gold Rush' when he skilfully helmed his modified 4.7 rig Olympic Laser to an impressive class win.

The success is the result of a work in progress program introduced by Yachting Queensland high performance coach Adrian Finglas who has encouraged the athletes to believe in themselves.

He personally understands what it takes to be successful having raced with and coached a number of the World's best including Olympians and Americas Cup sailors.

The former World Tasar dinghy champion and Beijing Olympic Yngling coach was exceptionally proud of his young squad.

'They have put in a huge effort over the past 12 months with perfecting their approach to changing the skills from being good teams racing sailors to become successful individuals in fleet racing' Adrian Finglas said.

Curtis Skinner broke his normal modest approach to his racing after achieving his career best result.

'This is awesome, I'm going to Brazil, It's windy there too so I'm really looking forward to it ' he said.

Meanwhile Adrian Finglas will step into the role of tactician when Buderim skipper Rod Jones contests the first leg of the 2009 Audi Australian IRC championship on Victoria's Corio Bay over the Australia Day weekend.

As expected the championship raced injunction with the Skandia Geelong Race Week has attracted a high standard fleet including the recent Rolex Sydney Hobart champion the Bob Steel owned and Jamie MacPhail helmed TP52 Quest and the 2008 Audi National champion Peter Sorensen's Philosophers Club.

The Rod Jones skippered Alegria ended the New South Wales and Victoria dominance in Australian IRC class offshore races when he and his Sunshine Coast crew completed a clean sweep of the 2007 championship winning the new Audi sedan with a regatta to spare.

They are far too respectful to make any pre-title predictions but the tactical experience of Adrian Finglas will make sure that the Alegria crew will have the best chance to outpace her handicap rating against her higher profile rivals.

by Ian Grant

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