Sailing Pair Crack Top Ten

The Australian Sailing Development Squad crew of Steven Thomas and Nick Brownie has finished an impressive 10th at the 2010 49er European Championship in Poland.

Making the performance of the West Australian Institute of Sport crew all the more impressive is the fact that the European Championship was just their second event together, after debuting as a team at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Germany last month.

Thomas and Brownie steadily climbed the ladder throughout the week and heading into the penultimate day the pair was in 17th place. After the final four fleet races they booked themselves a position in the medal race with two race wins, a fifth, and a 16th in a strong Gold fleet.

The young crew then finished ninth in the final medal race to end the regatta tenth overall, with Great Britain’s Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh crowned the 2010 49er European Champions.

“We’re super excited about the result as the Euros was only our second ever event together and for Nick it is just his second international event in the 49er since he first sailed the class way back at the 2008 Worlds in Sorrento, Victoria,” said Thomas. “So we’re pleased that we are having success so early and are excited about the future for the team.”

“We achieved three milestones at this regatta, the first being that we made gold fleet for the first time as a combination, second we won our first gold fleet race and then making the Medal race was an obvious highlight,” said Thomas.

Thomas and Brownie have developed impressively as a team since they began training together earlier this year and have been working closely with West Australian Institute of Sport head coach Belinda Stowell, Australian Sailing Team 49er coach Emmett Lazich and crew Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen.

“We’re happy with our progression as we have had very limited time in the boat together and every time we hit the water we are making big leaps in boat handling and speed skills,” said Thomas. “We made the decision to sail together in March and our first training began in May when our container from the Worlds Championship in the Bahamas arrived back in Sydney.”

“We had an intensive camp to get up to speed with only two months before we were to leave for Europe, we’re going to make every opportunity of the University breaks to get regatta experience in as we feel this is where we have been able to progress the fastest,” he said.

Thomas and Brownie had eight top ten finishes during the regatta with their final position all the more impressive after having to retire from the second race of the week due to an equipment breakage and Thomas sees plenty of room for further improvement as they progress together.

“We broke our forestay at the T-ball in the second race of the regatta when we were in a top five position, so I guess we will need to work on our equipment,” said Thomas. “We were also able to see how different teams run their programs which has helped us to decide which way we would like to head as a team and how to tackle the class.”

“Next we go back home and back to University, Nick had his exams deferred so he could do Kiel, then we are gearing up for the Sail Down Under series starting with the Perth International Regatta in November,” he said.

– Yachting Australia