DINGHY

While most of us saw out the first weeks of the new year relaxing away from work or school, some of our Members were busy competing on the water. Our young sailors Bindy and Skippy Vitales-Jones headed for the Australian O’pen skiff championships competing against sailors from all over the country. Bindy came in 3rd out of 38 in the Gold division. Skippy won the U12 and came 2nd overall, competing against 29 others. She also won the sportsmanship award. Well done.

Another of our sailors, Ailee Milne, headed to NSW to compete in the biggest regatta of her life. I’d like to share with you Ailee’s personal account of the event below. This is a great example of the enthusiasm with which our sailors engage in their sport. Please enjoy Ailee’s adventure.

Hi, I’m Ailee Milne a 16yr old ILCA 6 (laser radial) sailor. In January this year I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Botany Bay, Sydney, NSW and compete in the Oceanic Youth and Open ILCA Championships which incorporated the ILCA Nationals. 13 countries were represented, with 180 sailors in the ILCA4, 6 and 7 classes. Top Aussie and international ILCA sailors, including Olympians and world champions, were competing. This fantastic opportunity was possible thanks partly to financial support from Hillarys Yacht Club, to which I am extremely grateful.

In preparation for this event, I trained hard - 3 times a week in various conditions in Perth, both on the river and in the ocean. Botany Bay, even though being enclosed waters like the river, had some strong currents and strong winds, but no large waves. I increased my fitness by asking my HYC sailing friend, Jack, to join me for a gym workout each week. We encouraged and supported each other when the going got tough!

Arriving

I have never sailed interstate and traveling with all my sailing gear had its challenges. I chartered the boat I would be sailing, but that was only the hull, foils and spars. All the rest of the hardware, ropes, and sails, I needed to take with me. I decided to take 2 of everything in case something broke, but managed to lose my gear box about 3 weeks before we travelled, which caused a bit of a ruckus with my Mum! Fortunately, the gear box was found a week before we left (I had left it at a regatta). I managed to pack ALL my sailing gear (clothes, pullies, ropes, tiller and extension etc) into a foil bag. It was bulging. The whole lot weighed 18kgs and went as oversize luggage with Qantas – no extra charge as it was my only bag.

I flew with my mum. We arrived at 8am on NYE the day before ‘Measurement’. I was able to collect my boat in the morning and went straight to the event venue – Georges River Sailing Club, also known as 16 ft Sailing Club. After rigging up and checking everything I was able to take my newly formed rig out for a practice sail with some of the other sailors, and our coaches from WA. Including Matt Wearn, Elyse Ainsworth, and Zoe Thompson, we had 20 sailors from WA, but us lesser mortals had our own coach, Chris Charlwood.

Sailing a new boat was great, as all the cleats were tight and the ropes stayed where they should be! I believe Otters

Pocket, (my own Laser) will need an upgrade now. Chris’ comment after the 1st practice race was, “Ailee has suddenly become rapid!” I had to be very careful not to scratch or mark the hull in anyway as I would lose my deposit.

On Measuring Day we discovered that the boat park area had filled up with 180 Lasers! I found myself sandwiched between Matt, Zoe, Mara Stransky (QLD), and Evie Saunders(NSW), and some of the girls from Hungary and Switzerland.

Ben Walkermayer, the Australian Female Laser coach, spent a lot of time with us girls. I chatted with him and got some tips on how to sail in Botany Bay compared to WA.

Matt Wearn (current Champion and Olympic gold medallist), was also very friendly and he told us that he doesn’t carry his deodorant to the actual regatta (my friend had forgotten to put his on that morning!)

I passed measurement without a hitch – yay.

After a picnic lunch with some of the WA crowd we managed to go out for another practice sail with Chris, who had managed to drum up some other

ILCA6 sailors so we could practise our starts with more boats on the start line.

The day before the race I had a rest day, had a sleep-in and chilled in our apartment with my mum and my phone for the day. Due to the number of ILCA6 competitors (82) the fleet had to be split into 2 equally sized fleets of sailors. The 1st 3 days (6 races) constituted a Qualifying series, at the end of which the top 40 sailors went into the gold fleet, with the remaining assigned the silver fleet. The finals were to be raced over 3 days (6 races). Each evening during Qualifying the fleet assignments were announced. I ended up in the gold fleet, only moving to the silver fleet at the end of the Qualifying series.

Day 1 dawned bright and breezy with a 15kt building to 20kts NE (like our SW in WA). Wheeling our boats down onto the beach at Dolls Point was quite a sight.

The tide was out, revealing a large beach with hard sand. Heading out from the beach was tricky with lots of rocks to negotiate. The racecourse was situated about 40 minutes sail upwind, to an area directly next to the airport runway. The planes landing and taking off over our heads was quite alarming. The engines were very loud and sounded like thunder – especially on the overcast days – I kept thinking a storm was coming!

We managed 2 races that day. It was quite dauting having 40+ boats on the startline for the first time. They utilised a 5-minute start sequence. Everyone was milling around. It seemed to go for ages and then suddenly we were off. We had a couple of stray ILCA 4s (Laser 4.7s) on our start, which threw me a little but I kept it together. I remember thinking – “This is it, this is what I have trained for. I am really doing this...”

The 2nd day was cloudy, and the visibility was quite alarming. Wind was slightly stronger 20-25kts and we were told they would abandon at 25kts. It was an incredibly long day. We ended up sailing home in the near dark – on water from 2pm to 7:30pm. We only sailed 2 races, with our fleet suffering 5 general recalls – I think the elite sailors were pushing the starts big time – a couple got sent home with black flags! – I felt for the ILCA 4s who had to wait for all our recalls.

Days 3 and 4 were cancelled due to ‘unsafe conditions on the water’. Both days saw over 25kts of wind and loads of rain (one day 46mm fell!) Unfortunately, they didn’t cancel straight away – one day we waited 4hrs before they cancelled. We ended up going to the movies one afternoon and bowling the 2nd afternoon.

The final 2 days were rather manic. We now had our proper fleet assignments but had not sailed any of the Finals series. We had to jam 3 races into each of the last 2 days. That meant earlier starts and longer afternoons. Fortunately, the weather was kinder to us with one overcast and one sunny day with NE 15-20knts. I was very proud of myself – I sailed and finished every race, even when over a quarter of my fleet went home early. I was lucky and managed a tow home one night, in exchange for transporting my coach, Chris, and all his gear on my Laser, from his moored coach boat to the beach without capsizing – I was pooped!

Overall, in the 6 days, 12 races, I was pretty chuffed with myself in my first Nationals and first interstate regatta. I managed not to get timed out, only have minimal swimming sessions, only hit 2 capsized drifting boats at the top mark (causing me to execute 2x 720° penalty), and 1 mark (360° penalty turn). I didn’t get lost on the long course, often with little visibility, and didn’t break anything (though I did lose my windy in the first race due to a lost ILCA 4 capsizing on me!). I learnt a huge amount from the experience – one thing was to check the point system as it may be advantageous to sit out a race because you can include maximum points in those dropped races! I could have climbed 3 overall places if I had done that. More importantly, the experience allowed me to cement current friendships and meet new sailors from around the world. I met a lovely girl from the Samoan team and a couple of girls from NSW and Queensland that I will keep in touch with. During the presentation the guest speaker talked about an ‘ILCA family’, and how we can make new friends through sailing. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay for the full presentations but was presented with ‘The Performance Award’ for the Regatta. Matt Wearn looked after it for me until the next day. Overall, in my fleet I came 32nd, 5th U19 female overall and 3rd U19 female in my fleet.

Roll on Adelaide 2024!

Well done Ailee. We love seeing HYC represented in regattas and we look forward to hearing of more exciting exploits from our fabulous sailors.