Youth stepping up in Manly 16ft Skiff Club fleets
by Adam Lucius 16 Sep 14:01 PDT
National Champion Skipper Joel Beashel with Trent Barnabas, Rob Napper © Manly Skiffs
Joel Beashel hopes his nomination in the NSW youth sailor-of-the-year awards acts as a spur for the rest of the young guns pushing through the various Manly 16ft Skiff Club fleets.
Manly put the 17-year-old forward for recognition following a stellar 2024/25 season in which he became the youngest skipper to win the national 16s crown - piloting IMEI to a win at Hervey Bay - as well as a member of the victorious CYCA entrant at the Youth World Match Racing Championships in Saudi Arabia last December.
The winner will be announced at the St George Sailing Club this Saturday, with the national awards to be held in November.
Beashel won't be able to attend the NSW awards as he is overseas at the 52 Super Series regatta in Sardinia, with mum Lanee to take his place at the presentation. Whatever the outcome, the teenager sees the nomination as a win for everyone at Manly.
"The club's been very supportive of me and my sailing in the 16s and also outside of the 16s and that's definitely been a big help," he said. "It'd be really cool to win this award as NSW is such a competitive state for sailing, not only for me but the club in general.
"They do so much for junior sailors and hopefully this nomination encourages everyone who is coming through."
Further underlining the strength of the new generation, skipper Zoe Dransfield guided Red Pumps Red (RPR) to a win and a second in races one and two of the 16s' short course pointscore series on Saturday.
In a light easterly, RPR opened the day with a 48-second win over Buckingham Marine with new member to the fleet Canberra Airport (formerly Imagine Signage) third.
Canberra Airport (skipper Archie Cropley and crew Max Paul and Tom Cunich) turned the table in the next race, beating RPR and Buckingham Marine home. Cropley, Paul and Cunich sail 49ers and 18s together and are already proving a welcome addition to the 16s fleet.
Dransfield, who combined with Hugh and Jamie Stodart in the 1-2 result, said: "We were super happy with how we went. "We had two shocking starts and just needed to get into a really good groove on the upwind to catch up. "We had pretty difficult conditions, the wind was light and shifty, there was a decent swell with chop, and it was a very competitive fleet.
"It was also super exciting seeing Canberra Airport do so well on their first weekend sailing together (in the 16s). "They'll definitely be a boat to watch this season. "As for ourselves, we're keeping it pretty low-key again this year with no real expectations apart from improving on our result at the nationals (7th)."
The 16s fleet has also been boosted by the elevation of 13s graduates Liam Karunaratne (Aristocrat), Tom Cameron (Buck & Simple) and Hugh Skeen (Nozomi).
Just as exciting is the rise of former Flying 11s competitors to the 13s ranks, including Modern Concepts (Meg Bates/Rosa Crawford), QED (Beau Dransfield/Toby Williams) and Texco (Angus Griffin/Ewan Darlow).
Two 13s specialists - Sophie Hart (IMEI) and Harken (Heidi Bates) - shared the spoils with a victory apiece in Saturday's short course races.