Thomas Cooper recently competed at the ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, with 307 sailors in the Youth Men’s fleet. This was his first ILCA 6 Worlds after moving up from the ILCA 4 at the start of this year.
Speaking about the event, Thomas said:
Aarhus delivered a mix of conditions throughout the week, which made for challenging racing and put a lot of emphasis on adapting quickly. I had some good races during qualifying, including a 10th, but also left too many points on the course. I finished qualifying on 101 points after my discard, just two points short of making Gold Fleet.
I was disappointed to miss Gold by such a small margin, but reset for the finals and had some good racing in Silver, including a 2nd place. I finished 2nd in Silver Fleet, 79th overall and 12th U17 from 75 sailors.
One of the best parts of the event was being there with Jasper Stay and Hugh Healy, with Oliver Pabbruwe coaching us. We had a really good team environment and plenty of fun together on and off the water. Having other WA sailors there to train, race and debrief with made the experience even better.
Overall, I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made in my first year in the ILCA 6. The Worlds highlighted plenty to keep working on, particularly consistency across a long championship, and gave me a much better understanding of the level required internationally.
A big thank you to the Ron Tough Yachting Foundation, Fremantle Sailing Club, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and ILCA WA for supporting my sailing and helping make opportunities like this possible.
