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R PAY C A C T I V I T I E S
R PAY C A C T I V I T I E S
NSW YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS
T

NSW Youth
Championships
presented by Lake
Macquarie City Council
Tight racing and big smiles
conclude a mammoth
NSW Youth Championship
68
YA C H T S M A N R PAY C
he
2018
NSW
Youth
Championship presented by
Lake Macquarie City Council
was the biggest NSW Youth
Championship ever with over
325 boats and over 420 competitors involved.
Many RPAYC sailors competed and full results
can be seen below. A special congratulations
to the following podium places. Optimist
Open Fleet 1st Daniel Links, 3rd Cooper
Bellingham. Nacra 15 - 2nd Nathan Bryant
The 2018 NSW Youth Championship
presented by Lake Macquarie City Council
finished day three with some of the “closest
racing this event has ever seen.”
After a slow start to the morning waiting
for the breeze to fill in racing got underway
in a building north to north-east sea breeze
peaking at around 15 knots. Laser Radial
winner, Zac West commented on the quality
of racing at the event in particular on the last
day of racing.
“The racing was so close and coming into
the last day I think there was only four or five
points between us, I had to step up my game
because this is like a nationals for us since
everyone’s here.” Said West
The racing couldn’t have been closer for
the tight-knit crew of Nacra 15 sailors. The
foiling catamarans came into the event with
their national fleet and the competitiveness
fuelled by the ongoing banter made for a
“good” event according to Ashleigh Swadling
and Nathan Bryant.
“There’s definitely a lot of banter and it’s
good, this is our nationals fleet so it’s good to
know what everyone’s going to bring. We’re all
at the same level and the difference between
coming first or fifth can be one or two bad
tacks.” Said Swadling. 
The camaraderie within The Nacra
15 sailors seems to be so close that
traditional rival States have teamed up.
The mix of Swadling, a Queenslander
and Bryant, a New South Welshman
worked since they finished a close
second and as Ashleigh jokingly
explains it just “happened to work
out well”.
“Nathan messaged me and asked if
I wanted to sail with him, so I picked
up the phone and took the opportunity
and worked out well.” Said Swadling.
The Nacra 15s to their credit
took time off racing to take out all
the younger sailors out on the water
experience what Nacra sailing is
all about.
“We took a whole bunch of opti
(optimist) kids out yesterday and they
all loved it and with Nacras being
new coupled with good competition
I think the fleet with only get better.”
Said Bryant.
Optimist Open fleet winner, Daniel
Links had an extraordinary regatta
clocking up five wins from seven races.
Links also missed racing on day one as
he had a school trumpet exam.
“I sailed pretty good, I didn’t sail
the first day because I had a trumpet
exam so I because those were my two
drops I needed to sail well today.”
Said Links.
Coming off a great Optimist World
Championship in Cyprus three weeks
earlier Links used his experience from
the event to his advantage to beat 81
other boats to claim the top spot.
Mornington twins, Matilda and
Lily Richardson racing in their 420
It’s a Twin Thing came back from
time off the water to travel up to Lake
Macquarie to work on their sailing in
the “challenging” conditions.
“We’ve had some time out of the
boat due to injury, so we wanted to
come here and work on some processes,
so it was pretty challenging conditions
to stay consistent against the boys.”
Said Richardson
Growing up sailing on their home
waters of Port Philip Bay the team were
well prepared to take on the range of
conditions over the event with only
one point separating them from a
podium finish.
Overall, the event produced
variable but exciting conditions to the
430 competitors. The NSW Youth
R PAY C YA C H T S M A N
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