100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

The 'scary' move that saw Sarah become one of Queensland's top young sailors

Do you have a news tip? Click here to send to our news team.

How Coast will benefit from new Games plan

The Sunshine Coast will be home to new and upgraded facilities and a modern public transport connection, but a proposed indoor sports centre will More

Long-awaited Brisbane 2032 venue plan finally revealed

After some false starts, the race to the Brisbane 2032 Games is underway with the Olympic venue plan finally unveiled. A 60,000-seat main stadium in More

Surf sports icon donates collector board for fundraiser

A Sunshine Coast surf sports legend has gifted a special board to be auctioned for a rescue service. Hayden Kenny has commissioned the making of More

‘Time for me to give it another crack’: surf star’s comeback bid

Former world tour surfing star and Tokyo Olympian Julian Wilson is making a comeback to competitive surfing after an absence of almost four years. The More

Driving range proposal open to public input

Public notification is now underway for a proposed golf driving range on land that was formerly a pick-your-own strawberry farm. The facility, which would also More

Swim icon’s touching tribute to sporting legend

Tributes have flowed for a local sporting legend and war veteran who passed away last month, aged 96. China Johnson, of Cotton Tree, was a More

It all started with a win.

Back in 2017, sailor Sarah Johnson was the first female at Queensland Youth Week. It was the first time she had competed in a laser radial, the class of sailboat used in the Olympics.

The rush of adrenaline that comes with using the power of the wind to propel a boat forwards and the unpredictable nature of the sport, which forces its participants to keep improving, is what sparks the Buderim sportswoman’s passion for sailing.

The now-21-year-old now aspires to sail in the World Match Racing Tour.

Johnson said the move into racing laser radials four years ago was a turning point for her.

“That was a really scary thing to move into the radial, because I felt like I wasn’t really ready for that yet,” she said.

“I was just getting smashed in all the training … but the day before I think things kind of clicked. Then I ended up coming first female in that one, which was awesome because that was a national.”

Without a lot of training and minimal coaching she was thrown into the deep end, but the win gave her the incentive to train harder and to continue to improve.

The rush of adrenalin sparks the Buderim sportswoman’s passion for sailing.

Johnson began sailing for fun when she was 12 but was introduced to the competitive side of sailing when she was 15 and she did her first regatta, Sail Mooloolaba.

Johnson soon became addicted to the feeling of being out on the water, learning to analyse weather patterns and discerning the tactics of racing.

She was invited to compete in Queensland Youth Week a few months after Sail Mooloolaba and it was only two years later that her hard work paid off and she had her first big victory at that same event.

Since the world pandemic hit, Johnson has been unable to travel and compete as much as she would have liked to.

Like stories about Sunshine Coast people doing great things? Help us deliver more by subscribing to our free daily news feed: Go to SUBSCRIBE at top of this article to register

“A lot of things have been cancelled, or it will get cancelled a couple of weeks before so yeah: it’s been pretty tricky with coronavirus,” she said.

Johnson will begin to train for Match Racing Nationals once competitions start up again and says she hopes to qualify for the World Match Racing Tour.

“My favourite thing about competing, particularly in sailing, would be that it’s kind of anyone’s game because the conditions and things can change so much during the race and it’s a little bit unpredictable sometimes,” she said.

Johnson sails at the Mooloolaba Yacht Club and  Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in Brisbane.

After sailing the radial for a couple of years she went off the Olympic path and began to focus on match racing.

Follow Sunshine Coast News on Facebook

“(I) really enjoy the technical aspects of it like trimming sails and trying to get the most out of the boat – just trying to find tiny little improvements that you can make to be a little bit faster than someone else,” she said.

Match racing is a competition between a pair of boats as opposed to fleet racing, which is a group of more than three boats competing. Johnson is part of a team of three that sails a VX One, a smaller and faster high-performance sports boat. Johnson and her VX One team were supposed to do Kiel Week in Germany last year but the competition was cancelled due to Covid-19.

Johnson trains for match racing at the Mooloolaba Yacht Club and sails the VX One at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Brisbane. She puts up to five sessions in each week in the lead up to important competitions.

Johnson applies her ability to strategise and problem solve in other parts of her life, studying civil engineering with support from USC’s High Performance Student Athlete program.

Competitive sailing is traditionally a very male dominated sport, and Johnson says that tradition continues.

“Especially I think when you kind of grow older and get into the professional yachting world most of the professionals are males,” she said.

“But the female participation is increasing a lot.”

This profile is part of a series on sportsmen and women in the USC High Performance Student Athlete program. The writer is a USC journalism student.

Subscribe to SCN’s free daily news email

Hidden
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
[scn_go_back_button] Return Home
Share