Consistency and speed has won the young Queensland 29er pair of Josh Franklin and Lewis Brake the 2010 29er Australian Championships.
Franklin (17yrs) and Brake (15yrs) successfully took out the Australian championships over 14 races, sailed on Lake Macquarie out of the Belmont 16ft skiff Sailing Club. The team was competitive and consistent through the SailDownUnder series with two near wins in Sail Brisbane and Sail Sydney and then finally a win in Sail Melbourne.
The Australian Championships started with moderate conditions that gave all 53 entrants clean and highly competitive racing on the flat water of the Lake. Throughout the first seven races Brake and Franklin placed in the top three in four races, proving their consistency. However as the regatta progressed the team became even more dominant across the fleet, resulting in three wins and all top three positions for the final seven races.
As the regatta came to a close, the young Queensland team had a battle on their hands against Western Australian rivals Jasper Warren and Daniel Roberts. With a mere three points separating the interstate teams and the experience of a World Championship win in the 29er class for Warren, it was now or never for the Queensland boys. Their strategy and speed allowed them to race away in the windy final day of the regatta and secure the overall points win. Brake commented on the final races, “It was windy and we enjoyed the afternoon sea breezes on the lake. We worked the shifts towards the land and we had the speed to race away from the fleet”.
Both Franklin and Brake are part of the elite Queensland Sailing Team and Queensland Academy of Sport, and are some of the youngest members. ‘Dedication and a lot of extremely hard training’ gave them the edge over competitors said Brake. This championship win puts this young team another step closer to their end goal – selection in the Australian Youth Sailing Team heading for Croatia later this year.
The next leg and last regatta for these two Yachting Queensland sailors is the OAMPS Australian Youth Championships held at the Georges River Sailing Club on Botany Bay (6th – 9th January).
Andrew Gough
