It has been another very busy month for the Western Australian Sailing Squad with overseas regattas, camps back home, sailors winning accolades, fun team activities, all on top of our regular squad training. 

We have a new logo!!

Michael Compton wins Junior Sailor of the Year

Firstly, Congratulations to WASS Sailor Michael Compton for winning the Ron Tough Junior Sailor of the Year at the Australian Sailing WA awards last week. Michael is an incredibly hard worker, with his dedication to his sailing has been showing through over the last 12 months where back in July last year he won the U16 Laser 4.7 World Title in Poland. Since then Michael has transitioned to the Radial Class where he has been training hard with Zac from WAIS and the rest of the FSC, SoPYC and WASS squad. In July, Michael, Stefan Elliott-Shircore and Caitlin Shaw will travel to the Laser Radial Youth World Championships in Kingston, Canada. Keep up the good work! 

Congratulations to all the winners on the night at the Australian Sailing WA Awards and a well done to AS on the night. A massive thank you needs to be given to Phillipa Packer and her board of the Ron Tough Yachting Foundation who presented many WASS sailors with funding support for their upcoming campaigns this year! We cannot thank you enough. 

Girls to the Front Camp!

Two weeks ago at RFBYC, WASS undertook the Girls to the Front Camp initiative. 20 young girls from around Perth’s sailing clubs came together for a weekend of fun and learning on and off the water. The Girls to the Front camp aimed to provide a positive sailing pathway vision and experience for the young girls, giving them the chance to try out the Youth Classes with some expert coaching on hand. We had Nacra 15, 29er, 420 and Lasers for the girls to experience. The camp was led by a group of WA’s best female coaches and sailors including Belinda Stowell, Shelley White, Chelsea Hall, Ella Clark and Hayley Clark. Rio Olympian Carrie Smith also came down to share some stories with the girls on Sunday morning. 

Other activities included some fitness with our WASS Strength and Conditioning Coach Brock Fleau as well as Mother’s Day SUP Boarding with Belinda and Chelsea! It was a fantastic weekend and WASS wants to thank all of our supporters who made the camp possible. Thank you to RFBYC, SoPYC and FSC for supporting the coaching efforts, Chobani for providing us with yummy healthy yogurts each morning and Australian Sailing WA office for their funding support of the weekend. 

See Lisa Smith Media’s highlights video from the weekend below to see what the girls got up to.

HBF Run for a Reason

This last weekend many of the WASS squad members including coaches Denis and Ben took part in the HBF Run for a Reason. Well done to all who took part and had a crack! Thanks to the WA 29er Association and Denis for supporting some additional training and organisation

Sailors Overseas

In other news, we have had some sailors overseas in the last month competing against the World’s best. Lachy Gilham has been in Athens this last week competing at the Finn European Championship. 83 boats on one startline, imagine that! A tough week of competition for Lachy against the best Finn Sailors in the World. Lachy finished in 58th with lots of lessons learnt with reigning Olympic champion Giles Scott winning the event. Lachy says “90 boats and one fleet so it’s tough. It was a super brutal regatta, but I’m happy with the result.” Well done Lachy, keep on learning and fighting!

Caitlin Shaw has recently been away to Japan on the Youth Exchange Program with the Australian Sailing Youth Team. Caitlin and the team spent 10 days in Karatsu, about an hour south of Fukuoka, competing against Japan’s best youth sailors. The regatta is the Japanese Youth Worlds Selection Trials bringing 80 + Laser Radial and 80+ 420s to the event. The regatta was dominated by light winds which was great practice for the Australian contingent. Caitlin showed great focus to improve her light air skills, moving through the fleet as the regatta progressed and finished up with a Bronze medal. A great achievement in a hot fleet and challenging conditions. Other highlights of the trip included experiencing a baseball game in Fukuoka and eating traditional Japanese food! 

Look out for soon!

Several sailors will be gearing up for World Championships in July and August. 
- Richard Maher is at the Laser Full Rig European Championships in Porto this week.
- Kieran Bucktin and Axel Fleet will be heading to Gydnia, Poland for the 29er World Titles. 
- Michael, Stefan and Caitlin will be heading to the Laser Radial Youth World Championships and several sailors will be heading to 4.7 World Championships, both in Kingston, Canada.

The Squad will be moving in Winter Training mode with the WASS Winter Camp planned for 7-8 July.

Mid-week sessions moved to weekends to make the most of the light.