National titles and the opportunity to represent Australia at the upcoming Youth World Championships in Poland will be on the line from tomorrow, as the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania gets set to play host to the 2019 Australian Youth Championships presented by the Australian Maritime College.

The event will feature the best youth sailors from across Australia as well as a number of international competitors, most of whom have spent the first few weeks of the new year competing at separate Class Championships across the apple isle. The Nacra15s, 29ers and 420s will all be ready to go, having held their championships at the same venue as the upcoming Youth Championships at the foothills of Mount Wellington. The Australia Youth Championships are coming to Tassie for the first time, with the backing of the Tasmanian government through Events Tasmania as a major supporter.

Over the next 4 days, 162 boats across 7 classes will be battling for the youth titles and the opportunity to represent Australia at the 2019 Youth World Sailing Championships, to be held in Gdynia, Poland in July 2019.  The 2019 Australian Youth Championships is the final selection qualifier event for Australian youth sailors to be selected for the Youth Worlds, and as previous Worlds winner and current coach of 420 youths Carrie Smith said today “this is the real deal and the best of the best will be selected”.

Athletes are feeling excited and are expecting tough competition, as the conditions have been tricky on the River Derwent with the weather fronts coming over Mount Wellington and dropping with almost no wind and then picking up with strong gusts.

Having just finished in third place at the Oceania and Laser National Championships in Devonport, Australian Sailing Squad athlete Luke “Swifto” Elliot has crossed the state to be at the Championships in his role as an acting coach for NSW Laser youth sailors.

“The whole laser crew is a big family and we have migrated down from Devonport to Hobart. All the other youth classes have been already down here racing doing their Nationals, so it is a bit of a change for us in a Laser but all the other classes should be feeling pretty at home.” Elliott was quoted as saying on the eve of the event. “The weather is looking pretty interesting, with a couple of fronts coming over and we are also expecting a couple of hot pressure systems to come over as well, so from my experience racing here is always a bit of fun and you never know what to expect.”

Sandy Bay Sailing Club’s 29er sailors Alice Buchanan and Dervla Duggan used their local knowledge to finish as the 1^st and 14^th girls respectively at the recent 29er National Championships, and agreed that they are “Looking forward to the youth National Championships which are being held on the same waters. We are hoping for some lovely conditions having been pretty challenging and pretty shifty out there for the nationals”.

Will Cooley and Bec Hancock are fresh off being crowned the new Nacra 15 National Champions, and were quoted as saying they are “Feeling ready to go. The conditions have been really tricky here, we’ve had some winds that have been dropping down of the top of Mount Wellington and just splaying completely over the course”.

Racing at the 2019 Australian Youth Championships presented by the Australian Maritime College will take place over four days, with the first racing day on Friday 11 January.

Follow all the Youth Championship action online at www.sailingyouth.org.au and the Australian Sailing Youth social media channels for the latest interviews, images, videos and racing updates.

Follow results from #AusYouthChamps 2019 | CLICK HERE

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