Australian Match Racing Championship - Gilmour's team leads

by Jennifer Crooks on 22 Sep 2013 At the Australian Match Racing Championship, Sam Gilmour and his team of Jack Breislin, Adam Negri and Chris Smith, representing the University of Western Australia, lead after the completion of Round Robin One and four flights of Round Robin Two

'Things are working well for us,' Gilmour said this afternoon. 'We had some great matches and our only loss today was to Evan Walker. We made a call on the breeze which split us. He came out in front at the top mark and capitalised on that to take the win.

'The next few days will see some really close racing. It will be good to see where we stand after the next few races against Evan and Ash (Rooklyn) in the continuation of Round Robin Two,' Gilmour added. Gilmour and his team finished on top of the leader board at the conclusion of Round Robin One and currently sit on 13 points, one point clear of Evan Walker.

Evan Walker and his team of John Flannery, Hamish Hardy and Jaidan Stevens representing the host club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, did not drop a single match today to hold onto second place.

'It was really tight racing today. Today’s course (set in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay) was easier to defend your position compared to yesterday. There was breeze on both sides of the course upwind which kept the boat behind in the game,' Walker said.

'I thought we’d blown our match against Hugh Tait, thinking we were outside of the course area. I went at him to come back inside and he got red flagged. We weren’t outside of the course in the end and were able to sail away after inflicting the penalty.

'Our match against Andrea (Green) was also tight but he made one mistake at the top mark which gave us room on the starboard lay. We got a penalty on him and manage to get the lead and come away with the win,' Walker added.

Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson pushed through nine flights today to complete Round Robin One and four flights of Round Robin Two.

'Once the north easterly breeze settled in, we were able to push through the program. There was some good solid racing. The first flight of the day was started in a light westerly breeze and only one match of the flight was able to finish before the breeze started to fade and we had to can the whole flight,' Thompson said.

'We had a delay of 1.5 hours whilst waiting for the north easterly breeze to develop and then re-started the flight,' he added.

Ashlen Rooklyn and his team of Jeronimo Harrison, Sam Ellis and Chris Steele, representing Darwin Sailing Club, are in third place on 11 points after losing three matches today.

'We had a few communication errors and took a few risks that weren’t needed and didn’t pay off,' Rooklyn said of his day. 'Days like today help us move forward as a team – finding out what works for us and what doesn’t.'

'Overall it doesn’t affect us too much losing one or two matches early on in the regatta. Tomorrow we need to finish the round robin off strongly to be in a good position for the semi-finals,' he added.

Andrea Green and his crew of Jack Dawson, Byron White, Matt Stenta and Rosie Lee, representing the host club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, sit in fourth place on 10 points.

'The breeze was more stable today once the north easterly breeze came in. We made life difficult for ourselves a few times with some calls that didn’t pan out for us but our knowledge of the boats helped push us forward,' Green said.

'Our best match of the day was against Ash (Rooklyn). We managed to inflict two penalties on him during the start - we locked him out. Ash is one of the toughest competitors in this regatta so it was great to get a win.'

Amanda Scrivenor and her crew of Tiffany Fulde, Breanna Hope, and sisters Jamie and Sasha Ryan, representing the CYCA, still lead in the Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship, despite dropping one match today to Milly Bennett (RPAYC).

'We had a better day today,' Milly Bennett said. 'There were still a few unforced errors that had big consequences. We just have to keep it simple tomorrow and get a few more wins on the board.'

The Australian Open and Women’s Match Racing Championships are being hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and contested on the new fleet of ten Elliott sevens.

Racing is scheduled to continue tomorrow, Monday 23 September at 1015hrs and continue until Tuesday 24 September. The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a mostly sunny day with north to north easterly winds of 10 to 15 knots becoming variable late in the afternoon.Racing will be conducted in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay and live results from each match will be posted on the CYCA website

The Australian Youth Match Racing Championship will follow on from the Australian Open and Australian Women’s Match Racing Championships from 25-29 September and will also be hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

Australian Match Racing Championship Standings after Round Robin One and four flights of Round Robin Two:
1st: Sam Gilmour (University of Western Australia) – 13 points
2nd: Evan Walker (CYCA) - 12 points
3rd: Ashlen Rooklyn (Darwin Sailing Club) – 11 points
4th: Andrea Green (CYCA) - 10 points
5th: Hugh Tait (NSC) – 10 points
6th: Matt Jerwood (South of Perth Yacht Club) – 7 points
7th: Malcolm Parker (RPAYC) – 6 points
8th: Murray Jones (CYCA) – 5 points
9th Amanda Scrivenor (CYCA) – 5 points
10th: Milly Bennett (RPAYC) – 4 points
11th: Rayshele Martin (RFBYC) – 2 Full results