Tough conditions greet 9 teams at Club Marine NSW Youth Match Racing

by Lauren Hopper on 7 Aug 2016 Extremely challenging conditions greeted the nine teams competing in the Club Marine NSW Youth Match Racing Championship today with only six flights being completed over the seven-hour on-water day. This year’s championship marks the 13th consecutive year this regatta has been supported by Club Marine.

The Race Committee, led by Denis Thompson were commended on their efforts to get racing underway with the breeze shifting more than 120 degrees several times throughout the day as rain squalls rolled in over the city of Sydney.

Due to the challenging conditions, the regatta format has been amended with the initial schedule of a full round robin, super six, semis and finals now being shorted to go straight from the round robin stage to semi finals meaning only the top four teams will progress.

Harry Price from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia leads the fleet after scoring a perfect day on the water with five wins from his five races. Malcolm Parker from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club also scored five wins but has sailed an extra race, his loss coming at the hands of fellow RPAYC member Harry Hall who is helming his first match race event and sits in third place on four wins.

After the podium places, there is a logjam of sailors all sitting on the same points. Caitlin Tames, Tom Grimes, Angus Olding, Hugo Stoner and Finn Tapper are all currently tied with two points each meaning that every race tomorrow will be very important towards their semi final campaign.

Whilst no team has been confirmed yet for the semi finals, the top three have made a leap on the trailing pack. All eyes will be on the remaining three round robin flights tomorrow morning to see who will progress to the semi finals.

Tomorrow will see racing continue at 9:30am in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay with the completion of the round robin followed by finals series in the afternoon.