SAILING: Bunbury junior sailors Luke Dobrich, Will Drew and Kaiella Taylor are best mates on dry land but all that will change when they compete in the Open Bic Nationals in Victoria this weekend.
The fiercely competitive trio from Koombana Bay Sailing Club, Luke (14) Will (11) and Kaiella (15), have spent months training in choppy waters off Fremantle to prepare for similar sailing conditions at the nationals on Port Phillip Bay in Sandringham against 80 other top juniors from across Australia and overseas.
Kaiella, who just competed in the 2014 Hobie Cat Nationals, is ranked in the top five Open Bic sailors in WA, while Luke is ranked in the top 10 in the state.
Luke and Kaiella will compete in the Gold Fleet class and Will will pit his skills for the first time in a national competition in the Silver Fleet class.
“The three of them are fierce competitors on the water, but best mates back on land,” said Koombana Bay Sailing Club Rear Commodore Sailing Warren Drew.
“They encourage each other all the time while sailing. They are part of a really tight knit group of junior sailors we have at the club and our top three Open Bic sailors.”
Bics are high performance junior boats and the national competition is aimed at junior sailors in the under 13, under 15 and under 19 categories.