Sailed from the expansive lawn of the Teralba Amateur Sailing Club on north Lake Macquarie, the 2022/2023 NSW State Championships were won by RPAYC Youth Development sailor Louis Tilly. This caps off an amazing week for Louis after lifting the SailGP Inspire trophy the previous Sunday. Louis now holds the WA and NSW state titles and won the NSW Slalom ski and the Queensland state championships regattas as well as placing 2nd in the Nationals in January.
Louis led the fleet of 21 WASZPs after 7 races counting only 1st and 2nd race placings. 2nd was Queenslander Nicholas Dunne, 3rd was Mark Louis from the ACT, 4th was Markus Berthet from Norway and 5th was RPAYC sailor Will Troop. 14 sailors were Junior or Youth and there were 3 females in the fleet; the first of whom was Mina Ferguson from WSC who was 6th overall. The class continues its policy of free entry for females for all state based events in 2023. Please tell everyone.
The event which was sponsored by Ronstan was notable for fantastic foiling conditions on Saturday with some of the flattest water possible in the NE breeze of up to 17kts. This encouraged the Race Committee led by TASC President Brett Ellis to send off five excellent races. As a result, Saturday’s regatta dinner was over in the early evening with many pooped athletes heading for bed. After a fleet sharing session on maintenance and tuning, Sunday was a different challenge with a patchy and fading northerly testing foiling skills and sailor nerves in equal measure.
The next WASZP event is the Victorian States in late March. This is a test event for next season’s nationals and “International Games” which will also be held from the Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club in December. The International Games are effectively the WASZP world championships and so there is great domestic and overseas interest and high hopes for a 150 boat fleet.
Please contact Jervis Tilly or Gary Essex if you wish to try a WASZP. There will be a testable “WASZP X” available soon; tagged as the Ultimate Junior Foiler.
Watch the video below to see 30kg Callum Simmons sailing the X.