12 January 2012
By Peter Campbell
Nathan Outteridge was riding the waves of Port Phillip on a foiler Moth this week when the Australian Olympic Committee formally announced that he and crew Iain Jensen would represent Australia in the 49er class at this year’s London Olympic Games.
Nathan Outteridge racing his Moth in the Australian championships on Port Phillip this week. Photo: Lochlin Byrne
The previous week he had been sailing another spectacular craft, an A-Class catamaran, in the national championships on his home waters of Lake Macquarie.
Perhaps a different programme in preparation for the Olympics, but the young Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron member is an extraordinarily multi-skilled sailor, with such high-speed craft as the 49er, the A-Class cats and the foiler Moths. Remarkably, he is a dual world champion in the 49ers and the Moths.
In Perth in December last year, Outteridge and Jensen won the second successive world title in the 49ers and are undefeated on the Olympic course at Weymouth, England, winning three World Cup events there in addition to the Olympic test event.
He won the International Moth world championship on Lake Macquarie earlier last year and last week finished second overall to World Champion Glenn Ashby in the A-Class cat Australian championship in a star-studded international fleet that include America’s Cup winning skipper (in multihull) James Spithill and World Laser Champion Tom Slingsby.
This past week he has been contesting the Australian championship for the Moths at Mornington, Victoria, enjoying, but not winning, sailing on the big waves of the bay. At last report, Outteridge was third overall with the Tasmanian Rob Gough leading the series going into the final days of racing in these amazing little craft that lift out of the water on a foil to gain speeds of 20 to 30 knots.
Jensen represented the pair at the AOC announcement in Brisbane of the first six sailors for the London Games – he and Outteridge (49er), Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (470), Tom Slingsby (Laser) and Jessica Crisp (RS:X sailboard).
“Since missing out on a medal at Beijing all I have thought about is getting to London and righting the wrong,” said Outteridge after being told of the official selection. “I’ve got a new partner and we have been racing really well together – in fact, we’ve never placed worse than fourth in a 49er regatta.
“We both fleet confident in the course at Weymouth – it’s a great venue with a variation of conditions. We’ve been able to work out the main tricks and train for them back home in Australian waters where conditions are pretty similar,” Outteridge added. And then he went back to sailing a foiler Moth on Port Philip!
From Peter Campbell
M: 0419 385 028
E: peter_campbell@bigpond.com
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