Like most children they have left the class room environment to spend the break from school doing what they like best and in the case for the Lorenz siblings it has meant spending two weeks away from sailing of Airlie Beach to visit Yeppoon for the Yachting Queensland youth training camp.

Both Klaus and Eva are members of the Yachting Australia accredited program and are no strangers to testing the skill on the open waters of Rosslyn Bay.

While they renewed their friendships with other Yachting Queensland Youth Development team members their personal focus was on improving their skills under the guidance of Australian high performance coach Adrian Finglas and YQ's Ben Callard.

This opportunity allowed Klaus and his crew mate Ollie Annear to gain important sail-fast techniques as the face the new sailing season in the highly competitive 420 Olympic training class.

Klaus a self-taught sailor who has spent endless hours of mid-week training and weekend racing on Pioneer Bay to achieve a career best Bronze Medal result in the 2011 Australian Optimist championship earlier this year will be presented with a supreme challenge to master the 420 with his school mate Ollie Annear.

Last week they gained some important sail-fast tips from a former Australian 420 champion Adrian Finglas who also coached Lisa Charlson and Sarah Roberts Thomson to win the Women's World championship in South Africa.

However as Klaus, Ollie and Eva understand their career results are purely determined from making the right decisions on the race course and those skills are progressively refined with the time they are prepared to spend on training.

"Ollie and I are good mates and understand what is needed to become competitive," Klaus said.

Later this year their skill and boat speed will be measured on the result from the Australian championship on the unfamiliar and open water course on Brisbane's Deception Bay. Meanwhile the new young and enthusiastic 420 Whitsunday Sailing Club team have a little over three months to be race ready.

As expected their busy schedule will include mid-week after school training sessions on Pioneer Bay while Klaus will also remained involved with the WSC Optimist sailing team as the their 'new leader' Eva Lorenz heads into the National championship with the prospect of being the only Lorenz on the list of entries.

However like her older brother the talented 12 year old promises to continue a climb up the National rankings.

Other Info ...
• Full Story
• 2012 OAMPS Insurance Brokers Australian Youth Championship, 6-10 January 2012

Source: Ian Grant

Image: Klaus Lorenz in his Optimist - Sail Mooloolaba 2011 © Andrew Gorton