Australian Sailing has announced its 4-person sailing team to represent the country at this year’s Pacific Games to be held in Samoa between 7-20 July.

Australia will send athletes to contest the Boys and Girls single-handed and a Hobie Cat 16 mixed team.

The team representing Australia at the 2019 Pacific Games is Will Sargent (Boys single handed), Paris van den Herik (Girls single handed) and Sarah Hoffman and Thomas Dawson in the Hobie 16.

The sailing events will take place at Mulifanua – a village on the second-largest Samoan island named Upolu one hour away from the Samoan capital, Apia.

Sailor Will Sargeant said it was a bit of a surprise when he heard the announcement.

“This event is at a nice time of the year, it is winter in Australia and not sailing season, so coming from Tasmania where you can see snow on the mountains it’s going to be really different,” Will said.

“The Pacific Games will be a smaller racing fleet, so I think the race is going to be a bit more tactical than the bigger fleet stuff.

“It will be interesting with the trade winds as it is such a different environment to Australia.

“I have started hiking, which is not too much fun, but the increased strength and weights should equal more speed on the water.”

Sailor Paris van den Herik, formerly of the Northern Territory and now living in Queensland to concentrate on her sailing, is keen to “have a crack” at the 2019 Pacific Games.

Unlike Will, Paris is already acclimatised to the tropical weather expected in Samoa and that could be her advantage.

“Oh, honestly, I’m so keen for the Pacific Games, it will be awesome to meet new people and to learn from them as well. I’m so excited – I get to travel to a new place, meet new people and sail in a really cool competition,” Paris said.

“Sailing in the Northern Territory we had maybe 1 other radial, the rest with a full rig or a 4.7 but a smaller fleet is always quite challenging – there’s a lot more to lose if you make a mistake but being aware of other boats is important and something that I am already okay at.

“It’s just a great opportunity… going into the race I think the best tactics will be to go fast, get off the line and just have a crack – just get speed, use tactics when you need.”

Sailing will feature for the 13th time in the history for the Pacific Games, with a total of 12 countries expected to participate at this year’s event.

The sailing will take place from 9- 19 July, and you can track the athletes’ progress here.