Jason Waterhouse, Lisa Darmanin at pre-Tokyo Olympic sailing regatta

He’s recently been on a fast track to success. But at the Tokyo Olympic sailing test event Jason Waterhouse was happy just to make it round the racetrack.

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Earlier this month Jason Waterhouse was part of the Australian GP sailing team which belted to an extraordinary - and record - 51 plus knots while racing the radical F50 catamarans on the new Sail GP series in Cowes, England.

This week the top sailor was happy just to make it round the racetrack - fast or slow.

“We don’t hit any speed records in the Nacra’s,’’ Waterhouse said from Japan where he and cousin Lisa Darmanin are competing at the pre-Olympic sailing test event.

“In normal racing we’d hit a top speed of 25 to 26 knots but it’s actually a lot scarier in the Nacra than in the F50 because we aren’t in a cockpit.’’

Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin won silver at the Rio Olympics on debut.

Waterhouse and Darmanin, two of Australian Sailing’s leading contenders for a medal next year in the foiling Nacra 17 class, were involved in a crash with a rival boat early at there Olympic test event in Endoshima, the site of next year’s Games sailing program.

With their foiling Nacra 17 holed and taking on water, the pair recorded a 20th to put them on the back foot from the start in their quest to win the pre-Olympic Test event.

But four days later the pair had managed to fight their way back into the top five to eventually finish juts off the podium in fourth at the Test event.

Their comeback came courtesy of a consistent second half of the regatta where the majority of their placings were in the top five.

Jason Waterhouse and cousin Lisa Darmanin racing the Nacra 17 in Japan. Picture: Australian Sailing

It was the pairs first loss in over a year but still a firm indicator they are in track to better the silver medal they won in Rio if they make the Olympic sailing team.

While only one crew was able to represent Australia in the test event, Waterhouse and Darmanin have stiff competition for the Olympic spot from Nathan and Hayley Outteridge, the brother and sister from Wangi who last year won a world silver medal in the Nacra 17 class.

Nathan Outteridge is also skipper of the Japanese team which Waterhouse and the Team Australian will race in next month’s two-team finale of the Sail GP season in Marseilles, France.

The Australia SailGP Team, helmed by Tom Slingsby, during the racing in Cowes, off the Isle of Wight.

It was in the Cowes leg of the SailGP series that the Tom Slingsby lead Team Australia cracked 50 knots for the first time in racing.

This followed on from a mad rush to have the Australian F50 foiling catamaran boat back on the water in good knick after it sustained damage to its wing in practice.

Waterhouse is the only member of the Australian crew to be splitting his time between Sail GP racing and an Olympic campaign.