K1
Rising young star of West
Australia’s sailing elite has his
sights set on Olympic Gold
Ki-Raphael Sulkowski has made Laser Class Sailing his life. Known as K1 to his training companions in WA, Ki is currently touring Europe for a series of major, world-class events.
His touring performance in Europe will put him in the running for a place at the 2011 ISAF World Championships. An event held only once every four years and this year, for the first time, held in Ki’s hometown of Perth. With over 1400 participants the event will be bigger than the America’s Cup event in ’87, and of all the Australian sailors hoping to contend, Ki Sulkowski will be one of the youngest.
At just 18 years of age, Ki Sulkowski already has an impressive legacy of international racing behind him, and a determination, maturity and focus way beyond his years. Youth seems to pose no barrier, but with it comes amazing potential. He’s competing along side Olympians in the qualifying circuit this year, and he’ll still be just 24, in his prime, and have 7 years ‘Worlds’ competitive
experience behind him, when the Olympics go to Brazil, in 2016.
Ki is looking for sponsorship and he has plenty
to offer. Not only is he WA’s most exciting rising star in single-handed dingy sailing, he is competing in a sport that is attaining new audience recognition. Small boat racing is gaining new chic, thanks to digital filming accessibility which is bringing audiences, quite literally, on board. At the forefront of this development are those sailors taking their crafts and themselves to the very limits of what is possible.
Ki has a website and a huge online following that interfaces regularly through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. A trip from Rockingham to his hometown Fremantle, 25kms up the coast, in 30-35 knot winds, prohibition flags-a- flying and the Commodore shaking his head in dismay, was filmed from the bow of his boat and put on YouTube.
The “Rocko to Freo Run” has captured an audience of over 27,000 to date. A record set only to soar. This is just the kind of online content that businesses are looking to link to, to boost search engine optimisation, and furthermore, gain instant access to
international exposure. Other videos shot, edited and released to YouTube by Sulkowski include “Laser Surfing”, which has 18,000 views, and “Fremantle Laser Sailing” which has 21,000. This is exciting online video content with high social networking potential. Comments posted from Sulkowski’s fans from around the world are begging for more of the same. If the Freo Doctor comes good next spring, and Ki makes another smash hit YouTube clip, sponsors with the foresight to harvest that wind could be seeing some very sustainable profits for their investment.
Ki-Raphael Sulkowski
“Employing hard work and
dedication... Ki always achieves
what he sets out to do”
Ki began sailing at nine years of age, in an Opitimist around the sheltered bays of Albany. A member of the Princess Royal Sailing Club, he would get together with club mates and they would take off for hours, exploring the granite shores, finding caves and shacks.
Some of the first European settlers to WA landed on the cliff-lined shores of Albany, and it was to this area of Australia’s Southwest that Ki came with his family from Germany at the age of six. Ki says he remembers his first impressions of Australia; the instant love affair with the large expanses of water shimmering under the intense summer sun. Ki recalls trips with his family on his aunt and uncle’s powerboat around Fremantle, exploring beaches and snorkelling. This was when his love affair with boating began.
Ki isn’t sure what it was that drew him to sailing boats, but speaking to Ki’s father about Ki’s childhood it is clear he has always been drawn towards a challenge. Compelled to constantly draw from within himself all his inner resources to create and make things happen. Ki gets an idea; the idea crystallises into a vision, and then nothing stops him from
realising that vision. Employing hard work and dedication and a sharp analytical, and
problem-solving mind Ki always achieves what he sets out to do.
Ki’s father recalls how at just four years of age Ki became fixated on building himself a house from some wood that he had found in his Dad’s workshop. Employing his father’s carpentry services, Ki orchestrated the operation from the outset, pitching in with hammer and nails. His father recalls how to his amazement the two were suddenly standing in front of the house that Ki had envisaged. Dad’s patience held out until Ki said the house needed to be plumbed! Ki’s Dad threw his hands up at that one and went off for a well- earned cup of tea. When he got back he saw Ki had installed a hose, running from the garden tap, and a plastic bowl for a basin. His father laughs at the memory ‘When Ki wants
something to happen, he just makes it happen’. This is the kind of anecdote, along with Ki’s remarkable campaigning legacy in competitive sailing, that really makes you believe that he is going to achieve his ambition to enter in the 2016 Olympics.
“He has shown an amazing
ability, beyond his years, to
remain focused and calm”
In 2004, aged 11, Ki began sailing Mirrors and joining in races at his Albany club. Then at 14, he started travelling to Perth for major WA regattas and Westsail training camps. In 2008 he won first position in the WA Youth State Championships. By the age of 15, Ki was travelling to Melbourne for the Nationals. This is when he decided to pursue sailing as a career. Ki recalls,
“When I first saw all the boats from all the different countries it gave me that buzz, the first time in Melbourne, but then to every big regatta I go to. Every time it reminds me of the constant ambition to get to the top. I knew then that I wanted to be part of this life style of racing and traveling the world.”
And so the real hard work began. Ki went to Perth at 16 to do a sail making apprenticeship; to train in a competitive environment and in one of the best sailing spots in the world. There was no looking back. Sailing on the river or on the ocean, Ki is in his element. His work schedule is relentless. Rising at five to work out in the gym before going to the workshop to put in a full day, and then evenings and weekends are spent race training on the water, or fitness training, cycling or back to the gym.
Ki competed in his first international event in Japan in the ‘2009 Youth World
Championships’, gaining 25th position. Driven by this success, he went on to compete in the Netherlands, Great Britain, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney.
As a valued employee at the sail-making workshop, Ki was granted 10 weeks leave for his international campaign in 2010. Ki still managed to remain focused on his
apprenticeship, winning the Polytechnic West Tafe Award for Trainee of the Year.
His coach says,
‘We have spent many hours together learning new skills and pushing his physical boundaries. He has shown an amazing ability, beyond his years, to remain focused and calm.’
The Journey…
“Redefining dinghy sailing as
an extreme sport.”
Now the hard work has paid off. He has his trade certificate in his pocket and stands at the threshold of his ambition. He hold’s tenth position in Australia for Laser class sailing; has a European, major league regatta calendar ahead of him, and a chance at winning a place in the ISAF Worlds in Perth in December 2011. All this, and he’s still one of the youngest guns on the circuit, so if anyone has a run up to the 2016 Olympics Brazil, its this guy! It’s not all plain sailing of course. It’s not even all sailing. There are timetables to arrange; a travel itinerary to administer, planning, funding. Ki has amazing support from his parents, but gets involved in every aspect himself. Again displaying the problem solving abilities and doggedness they’ve always known him for. But when Ki isn’t working on his career or in competition sailing, then he’s just sailing.
Ki’s passion for the sport is pure fire. It’s all about being on the water, in the wind and pushing the boundaries. A self-professed sailing junky, Ki just can’t get out onto the ocean enough, and the more challenging the
conditions the better. Ki is redefining dingy sailing as an extreme sport; treating YouTube viewers to digital footage that brings, to even the landlubbers, the true thrill of the sport. It’s all good fun, and good exposure for the sport and sportsman alike, but it is also a really good way to sharpen the reflexes and hone boating skill. As Ki explains, conditions have to be good for competitions to go ahead, but if you can master a boat at 35 knots, then in calmer conditions it just feels much easier. Ki loves all the challenges of sailing, the diversity of conditions, all the variables; reading the wind, tide, swell, and responding to that; analysing and predicting, all in the
moment.
When asked if she worries about her son’s escapades, Ki’s Mother says ‘Never. I know he knows what he is capable of. He is extreme but not dangerous. When he was a toddler he climbed up some scaffolding to the first floor of a building site, but I didn’t worry, because he has always been the same. He just knows how far he can go and what he can do.’
So when Ki Sulkowski says he’s going to the Olympics, it’s not a foolhardy claim. His future is set. Right now though he has to face the challenge of finding sponsorship.
On the threshold…
“The world will be watching.”
Ki already has support from the Yachting WA Ron Tough Foundation, w.wa.yachting.org.au and Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club
www.rfbyc.asn.au but he urgently needs funds to help with equipment and travel for his international campaigns.
It won’t be hard for sponsors to see the value in getting in, at this entry point, with this rising young star. Sulkowski can offer sponsors logo placement on his sail, clothing and equipment for his international tours. That means
exposure, at premiere league regattas, in Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland and Japan, as well as in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. It also means a possible chance at exposure at the ISAF Championships. An Olympic qualifier, that only happens every four years, and this year is being held in Perth. 1400 participants, 4,000 official personnel, and tens of thousands of spectators are expected to visit Western Australia for the two-week Regatta. World Champions, for each of the 10 Olympic sailing events, will be determined; and seventy five per cent of all nations, to participate at the 2012 London Olympics, will be decided. The World will be watching.
Even if Ki doesn’t receive a place in the Championships, his sponsors will still get great exposure in the lead up. Ki will be training with the Olympic hopefuls in the prelude to the
Perth regatta, and competing in the Sydney International, and Sail Melbourne in November.
A child of the internet generation, Sulkowski can also, of course, offer sponsors logo placement on his website and in his YouTube promotions, as well as recognition in social networking updates; Twitter and Facebook. Twilight and big yacht excursions, private or corporate, in Perth can also be arranged through sailing club contacts.
Sponsorship
Ki-Raphael Sulkowski
Alias: K1
Born: 31.08.1992
Hometown: Perth/Fremantle
Nationality: Australian
Website: www.kiraphael.com.au
Twitter: raffak1
YouTube Channel: Raffak1's Channel
