Off the windy ramp of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, Queensland 470 team Angus Galloway and Alex Gough christened their new mackay 470, along with a small crowd of family and friends.
As the champagne was showered on the bow by Liz Hepple of the Queensland Academy of Sport the boys dipped the stern into the water, as the windy westerlies battered the small crowd that gathered around the boat.
Following their recent international successes in the 420 class, Galloway and Gough are now ready to train and sail in the Olympic 470 class. There to congratulate the team was 470 World Champion Mathew Belcher, who spent some time going over the boat with the boys, and offering some serious advice in their training preparation.
Naming the new Mackay 470 was easy for Alex and Angus. It was a thank you to the endless hours of help they received from Angus’s grandfather Keith Galloway, who had driven the boys to training everyday whilst they were attending school at Brisbane Boys’ College. Mr Galloway had also collected the boat from the wharfs of Sydney and driven it to Brisbane so the boys could train and prepare for their lead up into Sail Melbourne and the ISAF Worlds in Perth in November.
Adrian Finglas, long time 420 coach of Galloway and Gough and High Performance coach for Yachting Australia, Ken Hurling president of Yachting Queensland, Peter Conde Director of High Performance development for Yachting Australia and rear commodore of RQYS along with family and friends were on hand to make this christening a memorable moment.
Andrew Gough
Yachting Queensland