By Ian Grant.
Teenage Whitsunday Sailing Club 420 class sailors Klaus Lorenz and Ollie Annear overcame the important lack of class experience to finish 10th in the OAMPS Australian Youth championship on the windy Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron courses earlier this month.
Klaus has always shown exceptional talent with a dedicated training program to climb the ranks in the Australian Optimist Dinghy class and was not out of his depth steering his dinghy Drag Queen to a deserved top ten result.
He had a soul searching decision to make regarding his future career after finishing with the Bronze Medal at the Australian Optimist Championships hosted by the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in 2011.
The time had arrived for the talented tropical water sailor to step up to a class which would not only offer a competitive one-design racing environment but also provide the young skipper and his long term school mate Ollie Annear with the opportunity to race against the best 420 crews.
Because of their age they had that Optimist dinghy racing with the Whitsunday Sailing Club fleet was over and accepted the challenge of combining and improving their individual skills in making sure they were on the pace in the Olympic trainer 420 class.
Both Klaus and Ollie were excited after announcing the decision in August and just five months later they gave notice that Drag Queen was on the pace in spite of training alone on Pioneer Bay.
“Racing in the 420 class was an easy decision to make, however both of us understand the challenges that are ahead but we are young and prepared to do the hard yards”. Klaus Lorenz said last August.
Klaus and Ollie are not only school friends but great mates with a personal dedication to help each other to become recognized as North Queensland’s best young sailors.
Judging by the results of finishing 8th in the Open Australian championship and 10th in the OAMPS Youth championship the Drag Queen crew are destined to achieve their goals in 2012.
They have learnt that boat preparation and endless hours of training to improve their boat skills have overcome the lack of racing regularly in big fleets.
Meanwhile the testing waters of Pioneer Bay will become the important test bench for the promising 420 class racing team who will be focusing their careers on becoming selected to represent Australia at a future World Youth championship.