TALENT alone will not win an Olympic gold medal.
Nor, taken in isolation, will intelligence, hard work, a
good attitude, family support or great coaches. But put all
these elements together and success becomes inevitable.
That's the package that Jason Waterhouse and his
equally dynamic cousin, Lisa Darmanin, have engineered
since they started playing around in multihulls with their
parents from the time they could walk.ROLLER COASTER
Sailing success came instantly for Waterhouse. He won
world titles in two Hobie classes while in his teens and
was selected to represent Australia at his first Youth
Worlds in 2006 as a 14-year-old where he placed fourth,
teamed with Jeremy Roberts. The following year he and
Michael McCormick won the bronze medal.
The international partnership with Lisa Darmanin,
the daughter of his father's sister, began at the 2008
Youth Worlds in Denmark, where they finished sixth.
But the following year they were unstoppable and
became Youth World Champions at Buzios in Brazil.
The Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro
in 2016, when Jason will be 24, and it would have been
natural for a 17-year-old to dream of returning to Brazil
and winning gold for his country on the biggest stage.
But that dream had already been dashed in 2007, when
the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), in their
infinite wisdom, decided that multihulls had no place ininternational sailing and replaced the Tornado class with
Women's Match Racing for London 2012. All training
and support for Jason and other aspiring multihull sailors
around the world effectively ceased.
Fortunately, someone could see further ahead than
the policy makers. Traks Gordon, coach at Jason's
club, Royal Prince Alfred on Pittwater, made the
decision to keep a squad of young multihull sailors
together. With financial support from club member
Tony Walls of Objective Corporation, Traks created
the Objective Future Champions Program which
allowed Jason and Lisa to continue full-scale training
for the following three years.
“Next thing the Nacra 17 mixed multihull is
announced, the America's Cup switches to multihulls and
the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup is created, all within
a few months of each other,” says Gordon. “Suddenly the
rest of the world springs into action and we realise we
have a significant head start.
“Good things happen to good people and these
unfolding events were a reward to Jason and Lisa for20
ROGER MCMILLAN
INVESTIGATES
THE MAKING OF
AUSTRALIA’S LATEST
MULTIHULL CHAMPION.
JASON WATERHOUSE
MULTI TALENTED
AUSTRALIAN SAILING (^) + YACHTING
APRIL-MAY 2015 MYSAILING.COM.AU
MAIN: Waterhouse and
Darmanin racing at the
Sailing World Cup in
Melbourne.
PROFILE: Jason
Waterhouse has been
sailing multihulls from
the time he could walk.
LLOYD IMAGES