Sunny skies, steady sea breezes welcomed the record 16 teams for the start of the 2015 HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championship on Pittwater.
With some tunes flowing and games of UNO, the teams looked very relaxed whilst they killed timed between races.
After an impressive 40 plus races, New Zealand’s George Anyon (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) and host club’s Will Dargaville (The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club) came out on top with an undefeated day.
George, the “Round Robin King” as he’s know by his teammates has lived up to his name and performed very well in the first of the round robins
“I’m the Round Robin King because I do really well in the round robins but never seem to win the regatta, pretty much the same thing that happened to be last year but I’m just going to have to come out racing during the knock outs to do one better this year.” Said George.
Will Dargaville, Pittwater local, was pleased his team did well in some tough races throughout the day..jpg)
“We had some tough races and it’s only going to get harder from here.” Said Will.
The day’s racing also featured some major upsets with Zoe Bennett from New Zealand (Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club) who is one of the youngest competitors racing in her first match racing regatta, defeated 2014 HARKEN International Champion, Milly Bennett (no relation by the way) giving Milly one loss for the day.
“We had a few errors and she (Zoe) just crept up on us near the finish, full credit to her though she sailed really well, she was always on our tail.” Said Milly.
The wind eventually died and gave Pittwater a nice glassy finish, great for photographers but not so much sailors. Teams headed home after more than nine hours on the water. The forecast for tomorrow is predicting for one of the hottest days this year with 40 plus degree heat.
Keep updated with live feeds via:
http://www.matchracingresults.com/2015/harken-international-youth-championships/
Twitter: twitter.com.au/RPAYCYouthMatch
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HarkenIntlYouthMatchRacing/
Instagram: instagram.com/RPAYC
Website: http://www.intyouthmatchracingchampionship.com.au/
The 2015 HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championships marks the 17th consecutive year with HARKEN Australia as naming rights sponsor. Their ongoing commitment to the development of youth match racing is a credit to this leading manufacturer and marketer of quality sailboat hardware and accessories. Visit the Harken website at www.harken.com.au
