AIODA 2012 Australian Teams Racing Championship

23-Jan-2012
Photo: Team WA from left Annalle Davies, Alistair Young, coach Mike Davies, Richard Maher and Elliot Young. Photo by Clare Murray

Team WA has won the AIODA 2012 Australian Teams Racing Championship at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. Conditions were trying for the fifteen teams of four and five with 18 to 20 knots from the south with choppy seas.

Coach of Team WA, Mike Davies, was really pleased with their result. “It was great to get some strong breezes; our kids like that. My confidence certainly grew in their ability to handle it and theirs did too. They’re all really happy.”

“The team cooperated and communicated really well. Good fun, good wind, good teams racing,” captain of Team WA Alistair Young said.

Team WA was followed by the team from The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in NSW in second and the team from Hong Kong in third.

“It was great fun. It was really different from fleet racing. There were a lot of different tactics involved and things can change really quickly,” captain of the RPAYC team Jim Colley said. “You have to tell people where to go because you are always talking to each other on the course.”

This event acted as an introduction to teams racing for most of the competitors. One team won by default after their competitors in the previous race had thought they didn’t win and sailed back to the Squadron.

Race Organiser Sylvia Talbot was pleased with today given it was her first teams racing event. “It was a nice finale to the Opti regatta,” Talbot said.

By Clare Murray
For more information:
www.rqys.com.au/index.php/2012-optimist-australian-championship/