Darminan and Waterhouse win world cup sailing event

Rio Olympic silver medallists and NSWIS athletes Lisa Darminan and her cousin Jason Waterhouse have crushed their opposition to win the Nacra 17 class at the Sailing World Cup Final in Melbourne.

The Sydney based duo ended the ten race regatta with a net result of just 12 points, only once finishing worse than second in a race, to account for New Zealand (21 net points) and Great Britain (31 net).

The Australian pair were very happy with the win, particularly given this week was their first time sailing the Nacra together since the medal race in Rio.

“We had a really fun day out there,” Waterhouse told mysailing.com.au at the conclusion of race.

“It was really shifty and quite challenging. We were watching the other fleets and we saw several start line disqualifications, so we knew we had to be careful.

“When we finally got out there, we got a good start and controlled the race from there.  We were leading at the first bottom gate and probably made the wrong call so we had to fight our way back, but we had fun doing it.

“Next up is a bit of training back at home (Sydney) and then I’ll head back to Bermuda (for America’s Cup preparations) in the new year.  Lisa and I will try and do a training camp in Bermuda ahead of our first big regatta next year – the Nacra Europeans in Kiel during July.”

Olympic gold medallist and NSWIS’s ClubsNSW male athlete of the year, Tom Burton, was fourth in the laser class in his first major competition in Australian waters since his magical Rio regatta.