NSW Youth Sail - Coaches 2024

Coaching Clinic 2 - 4 October 2024

Coaches 

More coaches may be included and the classes they are to coach will be confirmed closer to the event.

Ethan Lozevski - Optimist

Ethan Lozevski grew up sailing multiple classes all around Sydney Harbour. He's competed at the world championships in the Optimist and the 29er, raced 420's at a high level and has experience in Etchell racing, match racing, teams racing, skiff racing and Waszps. He is now a helm on a 470 starting his journey into Olympic sailing. He's been coached by plenty of high-level coaches all around the country and for the past 5 years has been sharing his knowledge with the upcoming youth at Woollahra Sailing Club. 

Craig Ferris - Senior Sailing Coach

Craig Ferris is an Australian Sailing Senior Sailing Coach, Chief Powerboat Instructor and Club Support Officer. Known in the Sailing world as Fez, he has coached Australian national and state youth teams and Olympic teams in Australia, Italy and Singapore. Craig has won multiple state, national, and world championships in multiple sailing classes.

Jim Colley - 29er

Jim Colley’s sailing journey began at just 5 years old in a timber boat built by his dad and learnt to sail on Pittwater. By age ten, he was racing Manly Juniors at Avalon Sailing Club. Jim went onto represent Australia at the Optimist World Championship before moving up to the 29er class with now team mate Shaun Connor. When they were just 16 the pair raced at the Youth World Championships before transitioning to Olympic classes at 19. They represented Australia in the 49er at the Paris Olympics. Jim has also been coaching sailors for the last 6 years and studying mechanical engineering.

Brin Liddell - WASZP

Brin began sailing at the age of eight at Hunters Hill on Sydney Harbour. He learned to sail in a Sabot and in 2016 he won the Sabot Australian Nationals. Alongside sailing the Sabot, Brin sailed a Flying 11 out of Belmont, Lake Macquarie, and placed 6th at the nationals. In 2017 Brin moved into the Nacra 15, In 2018, Brin represented Australia with his brother at the Nacra 15 Europeans in Lake Como, Italy, placing 9th overall. The following year, in 2019, he competed in the Nacra 15 World Championships in France and placed 14th overall. Finishing off his youth sailing, Brin won the Australian Nacra 15 Nationals at Sorrento in Victoria. In 2020 Brin moved into the Nacra 17, and this year he and crew Rhiannan Brown represented AUS at the Paris Olympics.

Jervis Tilly - WASZP

Jervis coaches / runs events around the world with SailGP Inspire and puts on WASZP clinics with awesome people like Team Australia Challenge and the Australian SailGP team. He has been in America’s Cup teams, competed in world match racing tour events and finished in the top 10 in Etchells worlds.  
He is currently the WASZP European and Australian Champion... in his age group ;-)

Zac West - ILCA

After finishing my Laser (ILCA) campaign in 2020 after 3 world championship top 10s and a silver, I moved into the Match Racing scene as a sailor and into the coach boat. In addition to maintaining a top 10 world ranking in Match Racing, I have coached the ILCA & Opti class consistently over the past 4 years. Here, I have moved from the club scene with my sailors achieving national titles into the performance space with Australian Sailing, namely the ILCA 6 & 7 Pre-emerging, Emerging and NSWIS Squads, as well as the ILCA 6 Youth Squad. Outside of ILCA class, I coach Match Racing at RSYS and Waszps with SailGP Inspire.

Joshua Becker - ILCA

Josh Becker brings a wealth of knowledge coaching across various youth class boats over the last decade. His qualifications include sailing coach and sailing instructor. Experienced at establishing and developing long term youth programs around Sydney. His involvements include Cranbrook School, Ascham School, George’s River Sailing Club & Double Bay Sailing Club. 

Paige Caldecoat - ILCA

Paige Caldecoat is a sailor/coach who is determined to give back to youth sailing in Australia and NSW. She is currently a ILCA 6 sailor with NSWIS as well as an avid match racer and keel boat sailor. She has coached all levels of sailing from learn to sail up to at an international level in many classes of boat. Some notable achievements of Paige’s include ILCA 6 Vice-Youth World Champion, Multiple youth and U21 national titles in ILCA 6, and SB20 World Champion 

Sophie McIntosh - Flying 11

Sophie started sailing at the age of 5 in a timber 2-up sabot, winning the nationals at age 11. She went on to compete in the Flying Eleven and then the 420 Class, winning states, female national titles and representing Australia at the Youth Worlds. She then transitioned into the 470 Class as part of the Australian Sailing Squad and Futures Program. Sophie has a Masters degree in Applied Sport Science and is looking forward to coaching at Youth Sail NSW.

Dante Olivieri - Wing/iQFOiL

Dante Olivieri is a performance sailing coach from Wollongong NSW. I am passionate and motivated to help youth sailors become better athletes. For just under a decade, I have coached Australian Match Racing teams, Flying Ants, 29ers, 49ers, 16ft skiffs, Windsurfers as well as Opti’s and ILCA’s in Europe. I have recently started coaching the new Foil Classes. I’m really looking forward to the NSW Youth Sail and working with new and familiar faces!

Jaime Swavley - Optimist

I have been coaching various classes for the past eight years including the Optimist & 420. A large part of my philosophy when coaching is to help each sailor grow and improve aligned with what they need as an individual.  

Last year I completed a bachelor of Sports Coaching and now I am currently in my second year of the Next Level Advanced Coaching scholarship with Australian Sailing, where I am being mentored & developed to keep growing as a coach. I also received a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport in developing high performance female coaches, which has significantly grown my self-awareness and ability to help others. A big reason I love coaching is the challenge of simplifying the complexity of sailing and helping sailors create clear pathways towards their goals- especially in a technical class like the 420. 

In April this year, I was the assistant coach for the 420 worlds squad domestic camp. Most recently (June-August '23), I have been coaching in Bellport, New York, working with the Optimist Race squad for 5 days a week in a 7-week program. 

India Gilbert  - Optimist

India has coached Optis, F11s, 29ers, Elliot 7s and 420s at a range of levels from learn to sail to high performance. 

Daniel Constandi - Open Skiff

Since learning to sail at the age of 10 on Georges River, I have progressed in single-handed classes from the Optimist, to the Laser 4.7, Radial and now Standard where I have competed in 7 world championships and numerous international level events.  When not competing, I am always looking to give back to the sport which has given me soo much. In the 5 years I have been coaching, I have coached all the way from learn to sail up to regattas in a variety of classes, primarily being the ILCA and Optimist. 

Fynn Sprott - 13'Skiff

Fynn’s Sprott started sailing 13 years ago in the Optimist class. He progressed into International Cadets where he represented Australia in Buenos Aires. Proceeding Cadets Fynn crewed in a 29er for 3 years where he placed 3rd at a youth nationals and then 2nd at the 29er nationals in the following year. 

Since Fynn’s youth sailing journey ended he has continued racing in 14ft, 16ft, and 18ft skiffs. Last season 2023/2024 he was the sheethand on the Balmain 18ft skiff who placed 7th at the JJ World Championships. 

Fynn has 6 years of coaching experience at the Woollahra Sailing Club and the Sandy Bay Sailing Club. He coached the WSC intermediate optimist squad at their nationals earlier this year.  

Mina Ferguson - Optimist

As a competitive sailor myself, currently sailing the 49er FX and Waszp classes, I love sharing my knowledge with sailors who are keen to improve their skills and have some fun. I grew up sailing the Optimist, becoming female national champion and top 5 overall in 2016, allowing me to attend the world championship in Thailand, and then transitioned into the ILCA where I enjoyed competing internationally. I’ve been coaching for the last 7 years, in everything from Tackers through to high performance in the ILCAs, Optimist and 29er classes and I’m excited to see some familiar faces at the clinic!

Julian Taylor - Optimist

David Sorenson - Wing Foil