WA Coaches - 2024

Coaching Clinic Saturday 21 - Tuesday 24 September

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

Luke "Swifto" Elliott - ILCA

A member of the Australian National Team for 10 years and training partner to Tom Burton and Matt Wearn. Competed in the last 12 ILCA 7 world championships and qualified Gold fleet every single one. 3 top ten results in the last 5 world championships. Have been coached and trained for the last 15 years under Arthur Brett (Tom Slingsby's coach), Belinda Stowell (470 Gold Medalist and long standing WAIS coach), Michael Blackburn (3 time Olympic Gold medalist coach) and Rafa Trujillo (AST National Coach and current Gold medalist coach).  Coached four ILCA 4 worlds, one ILCA 6 worlds and two U21 ILCA 7 Worlds for the Australian teams as well as 2 of the last 3 Legends category world champions in the ILCA 6.  Just enjoy being around sailing at all levels and helping people get better at it 🙂 

Mikael Lundh - ILCA

The SUI IlCA6 Squad placed 4th or better on all peak events (EC, WC and Olympic Games) 2022-2024. 2nd EC 2022, 2nd WC 2022, 2nd WC 2023, 4th WC 2024, 4th Olympic Games 2024. On a youth and U21 level we placed 2nd at the 2021 World Sailing Youth World Championship in Oman and 2nd at 2023 U21 World Championship in Marocko.

Why do I coach sailing? I learn and thrive from helping others perform.  

How do I coach sailing? Empower and energise athlete/athletes to be present, act on and direct their energy towards mastery. Helping athlete/athletes realise their true potential thru a creative, relevant and realistic learning process. 

Zac Littlewood - ILCA

U21 ILCA 7 World Champion and ILCA 6 World Champion.A part of the Australian Sailing Squad in the ILCA 7. This will be Zac's 4th Westsail as a coach, 10th as a Sailor/Coach.  

Kaiella Taylor - Open Skiff

Started in open skiffs, moving into 29ers, 420s and then 470s, sailing at international events in all classes. Now sailing sharpies and f18s on the weekends for fun. Have coached since I was 14 years old starting with learn to sail and working my way through to coach a variety of classes. Currently I am the lead coach of the intermediate fleet at RFBYC.  

Lili McAullay - Open Skiff

Lili says: “I'm an ILCA 6 sailor and a WAIS athlete, and have been sailing since I was five years old. I started in the Optimist at RPYC, progressed to the ILCA 4, and now compete in the ILCA 6 class. I'm also a qualified coach and instructor, and have been coaching at RPYC for the past three years”

Conor Nicholas - Optimist

Conor started out sailing Pelican dinghies at South of Perth Yacht Club, before moving on to Lasers. He scored his first event victory at Sail Fremantle in 2011. In 2013, Conor won the bronze medal at the Laser Youth World Championships. In 2015 Conor was able to achieve his first Youth World Championship title in the Laser Radial (ILCA6). In 2019, he and Darren Bundock won the F18 World Championships in San Pere Pescador, Spain. 

After a break from the sport for a couple of seasons, Conor teamed up with Nia Jerwood to compete in the mixed 470. In December 2023, Conor and Nia secured a Paris Olympics quota spot at Sail Sydney, winning two races to pull 34 points clear of Oceania rivals New Zealand. Their form continued into 2024, finishing 15th at the 470 World Championships in Mallorca, Spain.

Nia Jerwood - 29er

Nia is a two-time Olympian, having competed at both Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.  Fresh from her Paris 2024 Olympic campaign in the 470s, Nia is back in WA and keen to share her experience with young sailors. 

Nia says: I really enjoy coaching at Youth Sail and passing on the knowledge I have gained from 8 years of Olympic campaigning. I have been lucky to have so many great coaches over my sailing career and I hope I can use the skills they taught me to deliver my best knowledge and skills to the WA sailors.  

Sam Rose - 29er

Michael Compton - Optimist

Lawson McAullay - Optimist

Zac Sprunt - Open Skiff

Caelin Winchcombe - iQFOiL

Green Fleet Coaches

• Meg McAullay
• Josh Till
• Aiden Grove