Cecilia Wollmann will put her budding multihull skills to the test when she competes at the 46th Youth World Championships in New Zealand next month.

The Bermuda Red Bull Youth America’s Cup and Olympic sailor is competing in the semi-foiling Nacra 15 catamaran at the championships to be held off the waters of Waiake Beach from December 14 to 20.

It will be the first time that Wollmann, who represented Bermuda in the Laser Radial class in Rio de Janeiro, has competed in multihulls.

“I have done a lot of Laser stuff, so switching into catamarans will be interesting,” she said. “It will be different and interesting to see how that goes.”

Wollmann will rely on the experience she does have training in catamarans with her Red Bull team-mates.

“Being with the Red Bull team has really helped with learning all about catamarans,” she said.

“I have been sailing in the Nacra 17 here on the island. We [Red Bull team] have been practising in those when it is windy. But we haven’t really got too much racing scenarios, so that will be fun to do.”

Wollmann, the only athlete to represent Bermuda at junior and senior Olympic levels, took part at the Youth World Championships in Malaysia in the Laser Radial.

Brother Mikey, who was also in Malaysia sailing in the Laser Radial class, will serve as crew on the double-handed Nacra 15 in New Zealand.

“Normally we have sailed against each other, so it will be fun racing with each other in the same boat,” Wollmann said

Mikey is also looking forward to the rare opportunity to join forces with his sibling.

“It’s going to be a great experience,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting because I have never done double-handed sailing or even sailed with my sister, so that will be fun.”

The Wollmanns will be joined in Malaysia by Campbell Patton, who is making his debut at the event in the Laser Radial.

“I’m so excited, it’s amazing,” Patton said. “I haven’t competed in this class in such a prestigious event, so I don’t know exactly where I’m at. But I have sailed against some of these guys before.

“I hear that it can get breezy down there, and so I am preparing myself to be ready for anything.”

The 15-year-old Warwick Academy student has been spending as much time as possible training in the boat and was put through his paces last month during a clinic run by his Canadian coach, Robert Davis.

“My coach came down for a clinic over our midterm break and we trained every day from 8am till 6pm,” Patton said. “We did two sessions per day for a week and that was really, really good because he’s a very good Laser sailor.

“He had a lot to tell and a lot to give me to work on between then and December.”