Category: Woollahra Sailing Club Updates

Twins and teammates Lilly and Matilda Richardson, from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula are twins are trying new things and mixing it up.

“We just got into the 29er,” says Lilly, the eldest (by about ten minutes).
The have been sailing the boat for two months and recognise it is a difficult class to get skilled at. Particularly as next year is the final year of high school. Lilly wants to study medicine, Matilda psychology.
We all get the deal with twins, right? The look the same, have similar personalities, hobbies and passions. Right?
Wrong. “We started (sailing) at the same time but I hated it,” Lily explains. So she boycotted it. “Dad kept shoving me back in my Opti until … I wasn’t so scared.
“I think I got a little bit jealous of Tilda sailing and I wasn’t there.”
Their father no longer sails. “He just likes to come out and watch us.”
Which leads to the

See Full Post >>

“Pint sized windsurfer has never ‘sailed’!”
By Stephen Brook
Friendly and welcoming, just like her community, RSX windsurfer Courtney Schoutrop, 20, knows she is in a minority at Sail Sydney.

But that doesn’t bother her at all.
“They are all pretty friendly, the sailors that I interact with, but we all tend to stick to our discipline,” says the Queenslander, who trains at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in Brisbane.
“At my club we are down the other end, really segregated from the boats, but when we see them we say hi.”
She has not been tempted to try sailing – except once.
“I got in a Laser once and capsized. That’s my boat experience.”
“Windsurfing is hard, it can be mentally challenging, physically hard at times too.”
Managing the pain can be the toughest challenge as the sport can be intensely physical, particularly in light winds, when the board needs to be “pumped” to increase speed. Courtney holds

See Full Post >>

𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐒𝐲𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐲 – 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐎𝐟 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬

Written by Stephen Brook

 

Sofiane Karim, is an 18-year-old French sailor, a sailing coach, and when it comes to describing his love of the sport, a poet.

 

“You play with the elements,” he says of sailing Laser Radials. “You play with the water, you play with the wind, play with the current, with the clouds everything,” he says.

 

“And you also have to take care of the boat and you have to take care of yourself.

 

“You learn a lot by sailing, that is why it is my favourite sport.”

 

Sofiane is in Australia on a gap year, coaching at Woollahra Sailing Club and here to “learn English” even though he can speak it perfectly.

 

Home is Antibes (“Have you visited? You must”), between Cannes and Nice on the French Riviera, where the winds are lighter than Sydney Harbour and the water often choppier.

See Full Post >>

Written by Stephen Brook
Most of the time, Brin Liddell and Rhiannan Brown are on the same page.
The two 17 years olds, competing in the Sail Sydney Nacra 15 class, have an easy familiarity with each other that comes from crewing together for two seasons and being friends since they were eight.
And sometimes they even finish each other’s sentences.
For both, passionate parents were their entrée into the sport: Rhinnan’s mum first showed her the ropes when she was just five, Brin’s dad campaigned in Tornadoes at the Barcelona Olympics, while his mum crewed on the tall ship Young Endeavour on its world voyage when she was aged 18.
The pair hope to sail all the way to the Youth World Championships in Brazil next December, and the youth spot will be decided early next year.
Brin steers, while Rhiannan crews. Asked how that was determined, Rhiannan replies succinctly, “He was already in it.”
And

See Full Post >>

Legends of Woollahra Sailing Club – Brett Beyer
By Yves Stening
In November this year, Brett Beyer was honoured by the NSW/ACT Laser Association with Lifetime Membership.  Usually this kind of award comes to an athlete at the end of a distinguished career, a mark of respect for a once great contributor.  However, while Brett’s contribution has indeed been great, he receives this award while still at the top of his game, both as an athlete and coach.  
In the last 18 months alone, he has achieved the following:
Sailing 
Laser Masters World Championships, Dublin – 1st
Laser Masters World Championships, Netherlands – 2nd 
Australian Laser Masters Championships- 1st 
NSW Laser Masters Championships – 1st 
South Pacific Laser Masters Championships – 1st 
Coaching
Currently coaching WSC’s Sylvie Stannage – Laser Radial, for path to Paris, 2024
Regularly coaching DBSC fleet programs 
Private Coaching 
His past achievements are extraordinary, by any standards.

Won 13 Laser Master’s World Championships, and Podium places in 4 others
Olympic Laser Coach

See Full Post >>