A Winning Team Effort of a School and a Club

By Laurie Jarman, retired Teacher in Charge (1992-2015), Matthew Flinders Anglican College Sailing

The current 2016 Australian Schools Match Racing Champion Team, Matthew Flinders Anglican College, has come from a long 25-year association with Mooloolaba Yacht Club.

The team was skippered by James Hodgson, currently Queensland’s Open Match Racing Champion, highest internationally ranked Youth skipper and his crew of Taylor Rogers and Frazer Brew, are both products of the current MYC Youth Program.

It all began in 1992 when I, as a newly appointed Teacher in Charge of Sailing at MFAC, put together MFAC’s first sailing team to enter the Sunshine Coast Schools Teams Racing Championships. With no seniors at the new College, years eight to 10 students were selected, all with little or no sailing experience but had passed the rigorous swimming test fully clothed.

The captain, Heath Walmsley was the most experienced who was a competent lifeguard and occasionally sailed a 125 on Noosa River, and the outcome was a thrashing by Immanuel Lutheran College with a team full of champion youth sailors from the MYC. The next few years (mid ‘90’s) were building years for MFAC with new students, Nick Brecciaroli, Patrick Lambert and Liam Barnes, junior dinghy sailors from Lake Cootharaba with Tim McNaught, Rebecca Sedden and Julia Carter, juniors from MYC.

Things were about to change; the Carter family became very involved with Julia and Mark enrolled at MFAC, Peter was Commodore of MYC and Sue on MFAC’s Parents & Friends Association Committee.

The College bought a few old 125’s and boat trailer, held vacation sailing camps and after some training MFAC had a stronger sailing team but still couldn’t match the formidable ILC team still boasting MYC’s champion sailors, Trent and Kyle Robson, Stacey Jackson, Dan Sowden, the Morey family and a hot little Year 8 sailor David Biggar.

A new era was about to begin in Sunshine Coast School Sailing when Julia Carter said; “wait till my little brother comes up from Primary, he’s a really good sailor”. She was right and in 1998 MFAC won its first of six Queensland Junior School Sailing Championships.

Mark Carter, Tim Grant and Marco Fritz were all top youth skippers at MYC in either 420’s or NS14’s and the crews were junior members of MYC. MFAC finally had ILC’s equal, Trent and Kyle had graduated and after years of dominance and mighty battles, David Biggar was left to try in vain to stop MFAC taking the mantle of Sunshine Coast’s Schools sailing champions.

Then came the O’Roukes in the early 2000’s, Sean and Emma winning Australian Sabot Championships for MYC and School Championships for MFAC.

In 2006 Sean O’Rourke was in Year 12 and MFAC had ranked high enough to represent Queensland at the Australian Schools Teams Racing Championships at the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. Sean was Team Captain, Tristan Heaney from Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club and a young Year 8 Mitch Kennedy from MYC was the third skipper due to Emma being overseas.

Some of the judging calls at that national championship convinced me to look for an alternative direction in school sailing.

In 2007 along comes Mitch’s little sister Madison both top Australian Sabot sailors, both later going on to win World Laser Championships for MYC and maintaining MFAC’s dominant presence in Queensland School Sailing and undefeated school on the Sunshine Coast for over a decade.

I saw MFAC’s main source of top junior sailors was coming to an end with MYC negotiating troubled waters and the MYC Dinghy Division disbanded, and so made contingency plans by instructing and coaching new juniors at Maroochy Sailing Club on Chambers Island and in 2009 the college bought three old 505’s to introduce Schools Match Racing to the Sunshine Coast.

So, the history of Sunshine Coast Schools Match Racing began in 2009 and 2010 with MFAC winning both years then the three 505’s were moved to Mooloolaba for the 2011 Sail Mooloolaba Youth Match Racing Championships and the formation of a MYC Youth Program. The College 505’s were stored on the MYC’s Youth pontoon with masts rigged for easy after school training, coaching and for a MFAC Primary School introduction to sailing.

The 505’s were soon replaced with Elliott 6’s after MYC’s Tracey Johnstone saw merit in match racing and the potential growth of the MYC Youth Program. I was semi-retired by then, but kept the MFAC Primary School Sailing program running in the new Elliott 6’s with the assistance of MYC members Robert (Stevo) Stevenson, Garry McMahon and Gaye Hoole.

In 2015 I finally retired, some 23 years later and the parents of MFAC sailors formed a Flinders Sailing group and either joined or were already members of MYC and the rest is current history.

What a wonderful and successful 25 years thanks to the parents and students of Flinders Sailing and MYC.

Two of MFAC’s recent sailing captains, Mitch Kennedy and James Hodgson, have both won Queensland Youth Match Racing Championships for MYC, Mitch is involved in Australia’s Olympic program and James in Australia’s International Youth Match Racing program, and both are currently highly ranked in world sailing and are still members of the MYC.