Australian Sailing’s Youth Team has wrapped up the 2019 Hempel Youth Sailing World Championships in Gdynia, Poland with one gold, one silver and one bronze medal.

Western Australian Zac Littlewood won silver in the Boy’s Laser Radial, while Max Paul and Archie Cropley won bronze in the Boy’s 29er. The day prior, 2018 Youth Olympian Will Cooley and crew Rebecca Hancock had already sealed the deal winning gold in the Mixed Nacra 15 after a consistent performance. 

In the Mixed Nacra 15, Australia’s Cooley and Hancock were models of consistency all week long, proving that you do not have to win races to win regattas. The Sydney-based pair finished the penultimate day of the Youth Sailing world titles on Thursday with an unassailable nine-point lead and in the final race on Friday they bagged their first race win, going out on a high.
 

“This regatta’s been absolutely amazing,” commented Cooley. “It’s been one of the most fun regattas so far. The competitors were so nice and it was a really tight competition. Even though we’ve won, there are always things we could have improved on, but being consistent and working together as best as we can, that’s what this came from. All the effort we’ve put it and to see it come out the other end is just the best feeling” 2018 Youth Olympian Cooley said.

Hancock commented, “I personally didn’t think we could win. It was mind blowing on the first day when we did as well as we did. It was a big wake up call. We played it low risk and raced smart, not racing to win any races but to win the regatta. We wanted to be consistent and try our best. We’ve both worked so hard and it definitely paid off.” Hancock added.

Silver went to France with bronze awarded to Germany.

The Boy’s and Girl’s 420 titles were also already confirmed the day prior but the competition was still wide open for most of the medals in the remaining six fleets going into the final day that saw plenty of excitement as well as some dramas.

A dramatic final race on Gdanks Bay in the Boy’s Laser Radial turned the podium inside out in Gdynia, Poland as the Hempel Youth Sailing World Championships came to a close.

Ahead of the final Boy’s Laser Radial race, Australia’s Zac Littlewood was ranked first with Poland’s Tytus Butowski following in close second, split by one point with a good points advantage but not enough for them to get embroiled in close quarters as their discards were high scores.

But that did not stop them as they locked horns which positioned them in the middle of the pack. While Tytus Butowski and Zac Littlewood were fighting for gold they got stuck in the middle of the fleet and their match racing opened the door for others to steal gold.

Turkey’s Yigit Yalcin Citak saw an opportunity and claimed a gold from almost nowhere finishing the final race in fifth. A 22nd for the Polish racer and a 23rd for Zac Littlewood meant gold for Citak with Littlewood upgrading his 2018 bronze to silver.

Littlewood and Butowski ended up locked on 63 points and the Western Australian claimed silver having won two races across the nine-race series. Butowski, a resident of Gdynia, had to settle with bronze. 

Australia’s Max Paul and Archie Cropley also made it quite dramatic in the Boy’s 29er with the pair locking in the bronze medal behind Norway and Finland after an intense final race and with only two points separating them from Great Britain in fourth place in the end.

The pair from Middle Harbour Yacht Club went into the final day ranked third with a small buffer to fourth place and secured bronze with a 9-10 in the last two races.

Paul and Cropley managed to hold their nerves, but made it a very close affair in the process and a pretty stressful one for everyone watching as well, including their coach Harry Morton.

“We went out today trying to catch five points to silver and we attacked pretty hard in the first race. But we had to do penalty turns and ended up not where we wanted to, so we burnt a lot of that gap to third,” Max Paul said about the start of the day.

“And at the end of the day we started the last race with three boats all within catching distance of us. In the pre-start we then had a bit of a tangle with the French team (5^th) and got rolled off pretty easily of the start.”

“So we were pretty deep to start off with and the British who were only nine points behind us heading into the last race were winning around the top mark so we had a lot of work to catch right up.

“At the end of the race we caught up to tenth and we didn’t think it was enough, but the British lost their first place right at the end to come second and we managed to hold bronze by two points, which was pretty stressful.” Max Paul described the day’s events.

“A big shout-out to Australian Sailing, our parents, our club, Middle Harbour Yacht Club as well as our home coach Mike Fletcher. We wouldn’t be here without him and we are just grateful to be able to come here and are pretty stoked about the medal,” Paul wrapped up a successful week of racing.  

“It’s great to finish the week with a bronze medal, especially after a pretty light week. Today we had lighter conditions again and we did really well considering how big we are compared to the rest of the fleet and we are really happy with how we have gone,” Archie Cropley added recapping the week.  

“We really stepped up and worked hard for the position we got. We also made the most of the one day with the breeze and I think it would have been a different story if we had had one more breezy day.”

In the 29er-girls Tasmanians Alice Buchanan and Dervla Duggan finished the regatta in 13^th.

In the Boy’s 420 Ryan Littlechild and Jack Ferguson finished the World Championships with a strong sixth place in the final race and a 12^th place overall after a few challenging races in the 30-boat fleet.

“We found it really tough and we were struggling to get a foot in this week. But I think we did well just to just keep trying and keep the intensity up. It wasn’t the result we had hoped for, but we are still sort of happy with how we sailed. We definitely learnt a lot and we have lots to go off from for the future. I didn’t expect to be in this position and I’m really happy that we managed to get here. It shows that anything is possible when you put the work in,” Jack Ferguson reflected on the week at his first Youth World Championships.  

The two sailors from Woollahra Sailing Club and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron are amongst the youngest sailors on the team and are looking forward to having another crack in the future.

“We definitely learnt a lot in this event and it has given us some clear goals. We need to spend more time in bigger fleets, because we are spending too much time not sailing our competitors but racing our own race which is causing us to fall behind a little bit and we also need to work on our starts. We know what we need to work on for next year and it was a good experience,” Ryan Littlechild said about the goals ahead.

In the Girl’s 420 division Victorians Lily and Matilda Richardson finished the regatta in 16^th after a 19^th place on the final day.

In other Australian results, Hamish Swain jumped up three spots on the results ladder in the RS:X (Boys) on the final day to finish his first Youth World Championships in the class in 19^th. It was the second Youth World Championships for Amelia Quinlan, who placed 20^th in the RS:X Girls’.

“It was a bit of a tough week and there was a much bigger fleet than there was in Corpus Christi (2018 Youth Sailing World Championships), but I learnt a lot this week, mostly for light wind races.

“I need to improve in my light wind racing and unfortunately on the windy day I had to retire early because I had a collision and my board wasn’t fit to race anymore. But I did notice in that one race on that day that I did improve a lot in the windy breeze strength, which was good as that was one of my goals after the Corpus Christi regatta,” Amelia Quinlan said.

“The whole Youth Worlds experience is amazing. You get to meet so many different people and you make heaps of connection that you can use later on. I met a lot more people this year and I was able to form quite good friendships and I’m sure I’ll be seeing those people at lots of different regattas,” the Hunters Hill Sailing Club reflected on her Youth Worlds experience. 

Maddie O’Shea finished 26th in the Girl’s Laser Radial and had a similar experience as her team mate.

“It was a really tough week. I had some good results, but really struggled in the lighter winds. But overall it was a big learning experience and I’ve come away with a lot of friends and I’m excited for the future,” Maddie O’Shea said.

The Australian Sailing Youth Team Laser and Nacra were coached by Matt Jerwood, who also took on the role as team leader. Olympian Carrie Smith coached the 420 classes, while Harry Morton coached the 29er (all pictured below):

Spain clinched the Nations Trophy with Australia finishing in sixth place of the 67 nations contesting the 2019 Hempel Youth Sailing World Championships.

The next edition of the event will take place in Salvador, Brazil in December 2020.

RESULTS
Click here for result from Gdynia.

AUSTRALIAN TEAM RESULTS

Nacra 15 (Mixed team) Will Cooley and Rebecca Hancock (NSW): 2, 3, 2, 5, 5, 4, 7, (8), 4, 2, 8, 5, 1 – 1^st

Laser Radial (Boys) Zac Littlewood (WA): 26, 6, 1, (58 RET), 2, 1, 2, 2, 23 – 2^nd

29er (Boys) Max Paul and Archie Cropley (NSW): 5, 8, (13), 4, 8, 7, 4, 1, 3, 7, 12, 9, 10 – 3^rd

29er (Girls) Alice Buchanan and Dervla Duggan (TAS): 19, (26 UFD), 20, 11, 3, 3, 3, 3, 19, 26 RET, 12, 19, 20 – 13^th

420 (Boys) Ryan Littlechild and Jack Ferguson (NSW): 21, 16, 7, 18, 2, 4, 12, (24), 6 – 12^th  

420 (Girls) Lily and Matilda Richardson (VIC): 12, 16, 18, 3, 13, 6, 18, (23), 19 – 16^th

Laser Radial (Girls) Maddie O’Shea (NSW): 40, 31, 29, 2, 2, 9, (42), 41, 38 – 26^th

RS:X (Boys) Hamish Swain (QLD): 11, 12, 21, 23, (24), 24, 22, 19, 18, 18, 17, 12, 16 – 19^th

RS:X (Girls) Amelia Quinlan (NSW): 17, 20, 18, 15, (21 DNS), (21 DNC), (21 DNC), 17, 20, 17, 20, 20 – 20^th

See the full team line-up here: https://www.sailingyouth.org.au/youth-worlds/2019-australian-youth-team/

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Find all results on the event website - http://worldsailingywc.org/

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