Coaching Team
Diana Chen
Krystal Weir is our lead coach for the Women's Laser Regatta and we introduced you to her a few weeks ago in our News Flash - but we want to introduce to her coaching team.
Katie Spithill
Katie holds approximately 15 Major Championships wins to her name, which is no mean feat, not to mention Bronze & Silver Medals at the Women’s Match Racing World Championships.
In 2015 she teamed up with her long-time crew mate and Volvo Ocean Racer Stacey Jackson to head up an all Australian team and skipper an Extreme 40 with a wild card entry to the Extreme Sailing Series in Sydney. Being only the second time that an Extreme 40 team was led by a female skipper (since double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson in 2009).
In 2018 Katie again joined fellow team mate Stacey Jackson and was part of Ocean Respect Racing, in a bid to encourage stronger female representation in Australian sailing, and to promote ocean health and sustainability. Sailing the Reichel Pugh 66 ‘Wild Oats X’, she was part of the first all-female professional crew to enter the 2018 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race which they campaigned to win the coveted Tattersall Cup in Hobart. Narrowly missing their goal of the win, they finished a very creditable 2nd Place IRC Overall,1st Female Skipper, 2nd IRC Division 0 & 2nd ORCi Division 1, all with only 13 days of racing/training prior to the race.
Karyn Gojinch
Karyn represented Australia in Sailing at three Olympic Games (1988, 2004, 2008) and competed in multiple World, European and National Championships.
Worked with numerous coaches at the highest level of our sport and have a true understanding of what an athlete needs out of a coach. Worked with Junior, Youth and Adults sailors new to the sport as well as aspiring Olympians helping them achieve their personal sailing goals, in various classes of Dinghies and Yachts.
2019 Pacific Games – Apia, Samoa (August 2019) Australian Sailing Team coach
2018 Youth Olympic Games – Buenos Aries, Argentina (October 2018) Australian Sailing Team manager/coach
2014-2018 Women on Water WGIS Female Coaching Regatta Westernport VIC (Saber, Pacer, Laser – coaching and racing support)
Marlena Berzins
Hot off the Press and Hot off the boat from winning the 2019 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup in New York with the RSYS team last week we have Marlena joining the coaching team.
Marlena Berzins has been sailing for eight years, mostly on the Laser competing Nationally and Internationally on the Laser Radial from 2015-2017. Marlena was an athlete on the Australian Sailing Squad. Some of my top results include being two time-female Youth National Champion, two-time female State Champion and 5thU19 at the U21 worlds. Since then she has been dedicating her time to coaching the youth Laser program at RSYS and some match racing on the side.
Charlie Alexander
Charlie Alexander is a match racer from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and with extensive experience sailing the Laser 4.7 and Radial at DBSC, RSYS, WSC and competing at Metro, State and National levels.
She, too, has just landed back in Oz after recently winning the 2019 Sailing Champions League Final in Switzerland and the 2019 National Sailing League Championship. Charlie has been coaching dinghies for 2 years and is really excited to be a part of The Women's Regatta.
We are so lucky to have these amazing sailors join us to coach, inspire, share and support you over the weekend. We hope you enjoy the coaching experience.
The NSW/ ACT Laser Association is supporting DBSC and the Women's Laser Regatta.
Happy Sailing !!!
From The Women's Regatta Committee
Christine, Clare, and Christine