Fifteen-year-old Sam Abel and his 10-year-old for’ard hand Hugo Allison early today became the fourth crew from Hobart’s Sandy Bay Sailing Club to win a world championship in the International Cadet dinghy class.
Abel and Allison outsailed 57 other crews from a dozen nations on Italy’s famous f Lake Garda after jumping from second to first on day four following the sensational 'dne' disqualification of the leading British crew of Jamie and Bettina Harris from race nine.
The 'dne' means 'do not exclude' and could not be used as a discard race. It cost the young British crew 65 points and dropped them from first to seventh overall on 85 points.
Official results finally published today (10 August) show Abel and Allison won by a convincing margin of 10 points and that five of the seven Australian crews finished in the top dozen boats, the best team result by any of the nations competing.
The Tasmanian's win was the second consecutive victory for an Australian crew (from Geelong in 2014) and the eighth time Australians have won the worlds in this prestigious two-handed dinghy class since 1970.
Abel and Allison finished third in the 12th and final race of the regatta, scoring a net 35 points, 10 ahead of the British crew of Archie Penn and Hazel Whittle, who ended with a net 45 points after placing 15th in the last race. Third overall went to the Ukrainian crew of Yehor Samarin and Maksim Remez, who won the final race to end the regatta with 48 points.
Official results confirm that a second crew from Sandy Bay Sailing Club, Angus Price and Archer Ibbott, finished fourth on 61 points.
Victorians Julian Sasson and Mischa Suda finished eighth overall, placing 4th in the final race while Marty Hood and Jack O’Donnell from Port Lincoln were ninth overall and the youngest crew, William (13) and Laura (11) Cooper, also from Sandy Bay, finished 12th overall.
The two other crews, Oliver Manton and Benjamin Garner and Dominic Randall and Ella Purnell from Royal Geelong Yacht Club finished 27th and 33rd overall.
In winning the world championship, the Sam and Hugo achieved something their mothers did not quite manage as young girls sailing in the Cadets.
Two-times world champion Paul Burnell and past Commodore of Sandy Bay Sailing Club, described the victory as “fantastic for the Club, for Tasmania and Australia” also recalling early Club and family involvement in the Cadet class.
“The win by Sam and Hugo carries on a great family tradition in Cadet dinghy sailing at Sandy Bay Sailing Club – Sam’s mother Jill, Hugo’s mother Felicity and I all went to Spain for the worlds in 1982 as crew for older skippers, and now our children have followed on as Cadet sailors.
“Although Hugo is only ten, yet this has been his third World championship regatta, a world title now he can add to the Australian championship win as crew for Sam Tiedemann a couple of years back.
“Sam has been sailing since he was seven, starting as crew for my son Oliver….so we are all very excited at the wonderful outcome overnight,” Burnell added.
Past Cadet world champions from Sandy Bay Sailing have been David Rees and Grant Maddock (1978), the first Tasmanians to win a world championship in any sport, Rod Behrens and Justin Keating (1979), and Paul Burnell and Nick Behrens (1986) with Burnell winning again in 1987, the second time with Rhys Menadue as crew.
Peter Campbell
UPDATED ON 10 August 2015
