Juniors compete at Jack Holt

07 May 09 2:19

On the May Day long weekend Humpybong Yacht Club's Junior sailors Matthew Johnson, Saraya Darth, Matthew Hatton, Kaitlyn Johnson competed in the JACK HOLT REGATTA at Lake Cootharaba.

The experience for these junior sailors was fantastic as they sailed in MIRROR DINGIES amongst a fleet of 27 boats made up of Mirrors, Puffin Pacers, and Herrons in a yardstick open age event. Matthew Johnson and Saraya Sailed together for the first time and it was Saraya,s first experience on a race course and to their credit, sailed very well, to be placed 20th overall. Kaitlyn Johnson sailed with her Dad, Brian, showing their skills with the use of a spinaker and finishing well in 13th place, beating Matthew Hatton, sailing with the Club President Russ McDonald,  on count back in 14th place.

The juniors learned greatly from their experiences on the race course, as well as being involved in working as a team off the water. They also gained  freindships with others over the weekend.

The Mums and Dads camped for the weekend and this too, acheived great times and the want to attend more that sailing has to offer.

Give a thought to the next regatta that comes along and maybe you too, would like to go along and let your junior sailor experience the thrill of racing and you may enjoy the company of new found freinds.

Humpybong was also represented by another Senior Mirror sailor Brett Buckley who sailed a very good regatta to finish in 5th place.

Below is a small note from one of our junior sailors.

Hi, my name is Saraya and I recently joined Humpybong Yacht Club.

I started off doing the 3 day learn to sail course, instructed by a volunteer Mark Adams, the course took us through the basics of dinghy sailing. It was great fun and interesting.

I got a bit of a shock when Russ McDonald the president, invited me to an annual mirror competition at Lake Coothraba to crew for another member of Humybong.

Competition sailing was a bit frightening as I had never raced before and I was a bit nervous, but once I got out there it was all good.

There were a few surprises like, trying to tack or gybe in a few seconds, figuring out the course of the race and dropping the captain’s sponge in the water while bailing!

We finished 20^th out of 27 sailing dinghies.

Overall it was a lot of fun and boosted my confidence towards dinghy sailing.