Whitsunday Sailing Club's Jim Hayes' passion for sailing

10:51 AM Mon 26 Jan 2009 GMT

'Ashley Stoddart Australian Laser Radial Youth Champion' Ian Grant Click Here to view large photo

Whitsunday Sailing Club's Jim Hayes has dedicated endless hours of his personal time to ensure the sport of sailing continues to create opportunities for local young sailors.

The qualified sailing school instructor is passionate about the sport a passion which has flowed on from the first time he felt the cold power of the wind when leaning to sail in Tasmania over 40 years ago.

Like all Tasmanians he is proud of his sailing heritage but the chill factor associated with the bitterly cold South West gales meant that his love for the sport had to be placed on hold for almost six months of the year.

He was never happy with the extreme weather systems of the Tasmanian winter and packed his sail bag making a new home base in Brisbane before heading to Airlie Beach a place he is now proud to call home.

His love for open space and the aquatic environment has allowed him the opportunity to enjoy a carefree and casual lifestyle working in the marine industry during the day while his weekends are spent at his 'second home' the sailing club encouraging and educating local children to master the technique of sailing free with the wind.

In some cases Jim Hayes has placed his own sailing career on hold to make sure the WSC maintains a friendly and safe atmosphere where the new generation sailors are correctly educated.

Hayes has spread his experience over a wide range of classes from Olympic Laser class dinghies to ocean racing yachts and personally believes that the aquatic 'class room' still has so much more to offer.

'Our sport is continuing to evolve with our junior sailors having the opportunities to improve their skills with club training and racing as they grow their confidence' he said.

There are enormous opportunities for young sailors with Yachting Queensland sailors dominating the recent Australian Youth championship and World team selection trials held at Mandurah (West Australia) earlier this month.

The Queensland team won five Gold Medals with teenage Townsville skipper Andrew Torpelund expressing his talent to win the Laser 4.7 title.

He is being groomed to represent Australia at the 2010 World Youth Championships while Laser Radial dinghy skippers Curtis Skinner and Ashley Stoddart will represent Australia in Brazil with Bic Technico Sail board athletes Luke Baillie and Joanna Stirling.

All five 2009 Australian Youth champions started sailing at a young age with Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron girl skipper Ashley Stoddart showing the benefit from contesting her first Australian championship in the Laser 4.7 class at the tender age of eleven on Lake Macquarie.

Ashley described the experience to be like sitting in a bath-tub there was water everywhere 'I was a nose-dive specialist and capsized at lot then'.

'Thankfully that has all changed with the help and encouragement from the Laser Class support team especially Peter Conde, Greg Adams, Christine Bridge and Lyndal Patterson' she said.

The dedicated 15 year old is a worthy ambassador for the sport showing that all those capsizes four years ago are now a distant memory as she prepares to represent Australia at the Youth Worlds in Brazil during July.

by Ian Grant

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Whitsunday Sailing Club's Jim Hayes' passion for sailing

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