A solid Adelaide sea breeze kicked in yesterday for the first day of the 2017 Australian Youth Championships — with a number of sailors feeling very superstitious about finishing the practice race, as expected.
However a Laser Radial sailor from Tasmania, Sam King, felt a little different to most competitors, labelling his victory in the practice race as “a tradition” he is getting used to upholding.
Sam said he had won practice races at a number of regattas over the years and it had no effect on his overall result — and it was actually a good way to check out the race track and get used to new conditions.
“It’s more of a tradition for me, I don’t find (winning practice races) unlucky, I usually do it and have done it for the past four years,” he said.
“I just like to go up the course and see what’s poppin’ and just see what’s going on.”
Sam has sailed Lasers out of Tasmania for a number of years now and also competed in the recent Peter Lehmann Wines Adelaide Laser Nationals, where he said he didn’t sail as well as he would have liked.
Sam King racing in yesterday’s practice race. Photo: Down Under Sail — MORE PHOTOS CLICK HERE
He said he was always told that in Adelaide sea breezes you “bang left”, however yesterday’s race and some of those in the nationals were actually rather shifty.
“I tried going left but it was still pretty shifty so it’s nice just to try these things out before the real deal,” he said.
The first day of championship racing for the Australian Youth Championships starts today with racing in the Laser Radial, Laser 4.7, 420, 29er and Techno sailboard classes kicking off at 12 noon.
For more information about the regatta head to the EVENT WEBSITE.
