CentrePort International Youth Match Racing Champs - Day 3
by RPNYC Events on 19 Feb 2011
CentrePort International Youth Match Racing Champs Chris Coad Photography
http://www.chriscoad.co.nz/
Day three of the CentrePort International Youth Match Racing Champs has been a cracker. A lovely 8-10 knot southerly with smooth waters and plenty of shifts, building to 15 to 20 knots in the afternoon, provided ideal match racing conditions for the competitors.
This also allowed race management to move swiftly through the remaining flights of the scoend round robin. It urned out to be one of the closest round robin contests in the history of the event with five teams still vying for four spots in the semis when the last match of the round robin was sailed.
And what a match it was. Porebski from the host club and Banks from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron had a resail of their earlier match as a result of a protest hearing. Banks got the early lead from the prestart but gave Porebski the right up the second beat and he pounced, then held on to win by three seconds. Porebski's five wins in the second round robin was enough to see him gain the fourth semi final spot ahead of Banks and Galati from Italy.
The other semi finalists were Griffin from the Cruisiing Yacht Club of Australia, Reece from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Coltman from the host Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club. Griffin as the leader coming into the semis chose to race Porebski leaving Coltman to face Reece.
The locals got off to a great start winning both their first matches but the Aussies bounced back to take both their second matches. It came down to the last match in both semis to determine the finalists.
In the first semi it couldn't have been tighter all the way around the course with Reece prevailing in the end over Coltman by three seconds to take the match and gain the first final berth. In the second match the racing was again very tight but with Poresbki carryng a penalty from the prestart the runway was too short and Griffin did a nice job of defending his lead to take the second place in the finals.
Racing has concluded for the day with the finals scheduled for tomorrow. The sail offs will be as follows.
Doyle v Trudgen for seventh and eighth
Galati v Banks for fifth and sixth
Coltman v Porebski for third and fourth
Reece v Griffin for first and second
Up to date results are below as well as the Twitter feed for live updates. Alternatively text 'Follow wgtnspirit' to 8987 for live updates to your mobile phone.
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