CAPTAINS LUNCH / SYC Performance Team

Fourty of the local and international professional Superyacht Captains, clients with local dignatries such as David Good (CEO Superyacht Australia), Steve FIsher (Director of International Business - Paul Archer (CEO Arrow Services Monarco) joined Rivergate Marina & Shipyard and Southport Yacht Club for the annual Captains Lunch on May 15th.

A rare opportunity for the Captains to get together to discuss any issues, share information and insights and no doubt a great moment to mix business with pleasure.

SYC PERFORMANCE TEAM

It has now been over 2 years since SYC re-shaped our youth development program and it is looking like 2019 is shaping up to be our best year yet. Coming off an exciting summer season for our sailors we were keen to get back into the swing of things. Lead by multiple Olympic medalist Mathew Belcher, the coaching team went into the new season with the main objective to find more time on water for the sailors and to add more structure to each training session. It is clear now that as we enter the winter season the new structure has seen a dramatic shift to each and every sailor. Each week the sailors are met with a new article which contains the focus for the week, for example “Fighting for your position on the line”, they are expected to read through the contents of the article so that when they show up for the Thursday afternoon session they can try out new tactics, strategies or manoeuvres the article may have gone over. The coaches are ensuring that each week the on-water training drills meet the topic for the week so that sailors can apply what they have learnt.

The program has also seen a continuing trend in sailors achieving high results in and out of state. Just recently young gun Angus Sherring placed 2nd overall in the flying 11 state championships missing out on first by a very small margin. We have also seen 4 SYC local boys take out the top two spots in the Queensland Pacer State Championships with Blake Wilson partnered with Harry Hogan and Angus Wheatley partnered with Andrew Douyere placing 1st and 2nd respectively. In the older age groups Melanie Watson, Sam Martland and Leigh Lomas represented the SYC performance program placing 10th, 11th and 16th respectively out of a 44 boat fleet. Not only that but the radial fleet in which they competed saw some of Australia’s top sailors competing. Also over the break SYC saw a large percentage of our junior skiff sailors traveling up north to compete in the now O’Pen Skiff Class National Championships. Congratulations to Lachlan O’Gorman, Jonah Parry and Ariel Ding who all competed.

In the months to come the Performance Team is narrowing in on the summer season where we will start to shift our focus more and more onto racing and tactics. We are going to be pushing hard through the winter to getting closer and closer to our competition. Good luck to all sailors competing in and around the Hollywell program.

Article by George Morton