Youth Trials - Close finishes and ties breakers feature on Final Day

by Yachting New Zealand on 15 Oct 2017 It was a day of calculators, capsizes and cliff-hanger finishes at the Yachting New Zealand Youth Trials and the winners of two fleets had to be decided on countback.

Sebastian Lardies and Scott McKenzie won the Boy's 29er on countback.

The top two crews in both the Boy's and Girl's 29er finished on the same points, forcing a countback, with Sebastian Lardies and Scott McKenzie (Kohimarama) and Crystal Sun and Olivia Hobbs (Kohimarama) emerging winners,

The two crews, along with all the other winners of their respective fleets, earned selection for the NZL Sailing Foundation youth team to compete at December's youth sailing world championships in China.

For Lardies and McKenzie, it was a nerve racking end to a long and demanding four days of racing. They started the day one point ahead of Fran Kayrouz and Jackson Keon (Wakatere / Murrays Bay) and thought their chances had slipped away until they discovered their nearest rivals had been disqualified from the first race of the day for not sailing around the correct mark.

'it’s good it’s finally over,' McKenzie said, 'because it’s probably been the hardest competition we’ve had this year.

'It doesn’t feel like we deserve it as much [because of what happened to Kayrouz and Keon]. It was quite tough for us today. We had a capsize on the last race which we were quite mad about. It was nerve racking.'

It all came down to the final reach of the final race and Kayrouz and Keon needed to finish two boats ahead of Lardies and McKenzie. It looked like it might transpire that way until another boat in the fleet capsized.

'We’re a bit gutted but happy to have had the opportunity to push these guys and hopefully they perform well at the worlds,' Keon said.

'We knew we just needed a point in between in the final race and we did up until the last reach but the boat in between us fell out and took a wee while to get back in the boat.'

There were plenty who went in the drink in the fresh conditions that topped over 20 knots off Manly Sailing Club, and some didn't even head out to race knowing it would probably be too challenging for them.

The Nacras were due to have three races today but were sent to shore after only one. The conditions were over their wind limit and Greta Steward and Henry Haslett had already wrapped up the regatta yesterday.

Josh Armit showed his class in the boy's Laser Radial to win the class ahead of Alistair Gifford and Luke Cashmore.

Sun and Hobbs handled the conditions the best in the Girl's 29er and sneaked ahead of Emma French and Zelda Ladefoged (Murrays Bay) on the last race of the day.

'It was really intense, close racing,' Sun said. 'Both of us were constantly calculating. We tried not to but it was hard.

'The mental game in this regatta was really important because we were all so close. We just needed to stay calm and collected and make sure we were consistent throughout the four days.

'It’s a great experience. It’s something we have been working towards for two years so it means a lot to us.'

It was a similar story for Annabelle Younger-Rennie (Murrays Bay) in the Girl's Laser Radial. She narrowly beat Olivia Christie (Worser Bay) by two points in a reversal of last year's result, when Christie competed at the Youth Worlds.

'It was a lot of fun and a good battle with Liv on that last beat especially,' Rennie-Younger said. 'It was neck and neck the whole time.

'I have been working towards that for two years now so it’s good to finally get one.'

Annabelle Rennie-Younger edged Olivia Christie in the Girl's Laser Radial.

Yachting New Zealand youth head coach Matt Thomas was impressed by what he saw over the four days.

'The standard of racing is a credit to every sailor out there to have such close racing and to have a number of classes come down to the last race showed the quality of the sailors in our youth programme,' he said. 'I'm sure we will see many of those sailors at the front of fleets in the future.'

Results and standing after the final day of the Yachting New Zealand youth trials at Manly Sailing Club Sunday:

Nacra 15

1st: Greta Stewart / Henry Haslett (Murrays Bay Sailing Club / Waketere Boating Club) 1 1 1 1 1 1 (2) 1 2 2 - 12 points
2nd: Helena Sanderson / Jack Honey (Bay of Islands Yacht Club 2 3 (4 DNF) 2 2 2 (4 RET) 1 2 1 1 - 20 pts
3rd: Hamish McLaren / Rebecca Morgan (Royal Akarana Yacht Club) 3 2 2 3 3 3 (4 DNF) 3 3 3 4 DNF- 29 pts

Boy's Laser Radial

1st: Josh Armit (MBSC) 1 1 1 1 2 (5) 1 2 - 9 pts
2nd: Alastair Gifford (Queen Charlotte Yacht Club) 2 (21 DSQ) 2 2 1 3 2 1 - 13 pts
3rd: Luke Cashmore (WBC) 7 6 8 7 7 2 (9) 4 - 41 pts

Girl's Laser Radial

1st: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (MBSC) 5 3 5 3 3 (10) 5 5 - 29 pts
2nd: Olivia Christie (Worser Bay) 3 2 4 4 5 (12) 6 7 - 31 pts
3rd: Samantha Stock (MBSC) 15 16 16 (17) 16 9 7 13 - 92 pts

Boy's 420

1st: James Barnett / Sam Street (Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club / WBC / MBSC / NPYC) 1 2 2 2 2 3 1 (4) 2 - 15 pts
2nd: Seb Menzies / Blake McGlashan (MBSC) 4 3 1 1 1 1 (9 DSQ) 1 6 - 18 pts
3rd: Robbie McCutcheon / Jono Weston (Wakatere) 3 1 4 4 3 2 (7) 2 1 - 20 pts

Girl's 420

1st: Xanthe Copeland / Annabel Cave (WBC) 2 4 3 3 4 (7) 5 7 3 - 31 pts
2nd: Ella Gladwell / Alice Haslett (WBC) 5 5 5 (9 RET) 7 4 2 3 (9 RET) - 40 pts

Boy's 29er

1st: Sebastian Lardies / Scott McKenzie (Kohimarama Yacht Club) 1 2 (4) 2 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 (6) 3 - 22 pts
2nd: Francesco Kayrouz / Jackson Keon (Wakatere / MBSC) 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 4 1 (16 DSQ) 1 2 - 22 pts
3rd: Lewis Anderson / Pat Morgan (KYC) (8.0) 4 3 3 5 6 3 1 3 6 2 2 1 - 39 pts

Girl's 29er

1st: Crystal Sun / Olivia Hobbs (KYC) 7 6 (11) 5 9 3 8 8 10 8 6 3 7 - 80 pts
2nd: Emma French / Zelda Ladefoged (MBSC) 6 8 8 6 (11) 7 6 6 6 4 5 8 10 - 80 pts
3rd: Kerensa Jennings / Safron Nixon (MBSC) 9 7 7 12 6 5 10 12 14 15 9 (16 DNF) 16 DNF - 122 pts

Boy's RS:X 8.5

1st: Max van der Zalm (TYPBC) (2) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 - 13 pts
2nd: Max Meffan (Nelson Yacht Club) 5 5 5 2 4 2 (6 BFD) 3 2 1 2 1 - 33 pts
3rd: Lloyd Perratt (MBSC) 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 3 (6 DNF) 3 3 - 34 pts

Girl's RS:X 8.5

1st: Veerle ten Have (TYPBC) 1 3 3 (5) 2 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 - 36 pts