MHYC Youth Sailing World Roundup

Once again, our Middle Harbour Youth sailors have been spreading their wings in Europe and competing competitively in World Championship events. Will Wilkinson just finished top in the Bronze fleet of the Optimist Worlds in Turkey and now more of our youth sailors are making an impact on the world circuit.

49er Junior World Championships

Congratulations to both Max Paul and Jack Ferguson who came away with the silver medal at the 49er Junior World Championships on Lake Como in Italy. After a slow start they steamed home at the end and won six of the last seven races.

Max Reports “After a long week of sailing here in Lake Como we finished in second overall. Super proud of how far we have come since we teamed up in 2020, a little frustrated that we started on the back foot this week but happy to have shown what we can do over the last three days. We did all we could yesterday to close the gap, but it was a bridge too far in the end.

We will have a few days off then pack our bags to head to Canada to begin preparing for the Worlds, our last and most important event of the year.”

Also representing MHYC boat were Ryan Littlechild and Jack Hildebrand who were placed 22nd in the same 68 boat fleet.

29er World Championship

Just up the road in Barcelona, Spain were 242 boats competing in the 29er World Championships.

In the Gold fleet, Tyler Dransfield and Jamie Stodart representing MHYC were the first Australians home coming 20th overall in the gold fleet.

Also representing MHYC were Zoe and Jesse Dransfield who were placed 53rd overall and 13th in the silver fleet.

Ben Crafoord along with John Cooley were competing in the 29er worlds for the first time. They made their way up to the Bronze fleet and were placed 106th overall. Ben started out with our Opti fleet and was previously a FLYAS Award recipient.

Congratulations to all our young Youth sailors who are doing us so proud.

Julie Hodder