Cadet World Championship to Tasmanian crew
by Peter Campbell 8 Aug 2015 09:31 BST
2-7 August 2015
Australia has won the International Cadet World championship for the second consecutive year, with the Tasmanian crew of Sam Abel and Hugo Allison becoming 2015 champions off Riva on Italy's Lake Garda.
Abel (15) and Allison (10) finished third in the 12th and final race of the regatta for a net 35 points, three ahead of the British crew of Archie Penn and Hazel Whittle, who ended with a net 38 points after placing second in the last race.
Third overall went to the Ukrainian crew of Yehor Samarin and Maksim Remez, who won the final race to end the regatta with 48 points.
The complete official final results have yet to be posted on the event web site but it is understood that another Tasmanian crew, Angus Price and Archer Ibbott, finished fourth and that five of the seven Australian crews finished in the top eleven placings in the 58 boat fleet from a dozen nations.
The two top placed Australian crews are from Hobart's Sandy Bay Sailing Club, a small dinghy club on the foreshores of Nutgrove Beach and the home of Tasmania's only fleet of International Cadets.
The victory on Lake Garda is the eighth time an Australian crew has won the World championship in the International Cadet dinghy since 1970, with Abel and Allison the fourth crew from Sandy Bay Sailing Club to win the Worlds.
David Rees and Grant Maddock won the Worlds in 1978, the first Tasmanians to win a world championship in any sport, and the following year Rod Behrens and Justin Keating won the title. Paul Burnell won the Worlds in 1986 and 1987, the first time with Nick Behrens as crew and the following year with RIchard Menadue as crew.
The success of the Australian team on Lake Garda is a tribute to the coaching of Geelong-based sailmaker and yachtsman Tony Bull in achieving consecutive World champions with Abel and Allison following the 2014 win by Royal Geelong Yacht Club crew of Thomas and Sophie Alexander.
Two-times World champion Paul Burnell and a past Commodore of Sandy Bay Sailing Club, today described the victory as "fantastic for the Club, for Tasmania and Australia."
"The win by Sam and Hugo carries on a great family tradition in Cadet dinghy sailing at Sandy Bay Sailing Club – Sam's mother Jill, Hugo's mother Felicity and I all went to Spain in 1982 as crew for older skippers and now all our children have followed on as Cadet sailors.
"Although Hugo is only ten yet this has been his third World championship regatta, a world title now added to his Australian championship win as crew for Sam Tiedemann a couple of years back.
"Sam has been sailing since he was seven, starting as crew for my son Oliver....so we are all very excited at the wonderful outcome overnight," Burnell added.