Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship - Griffin leads

by Jennifer Crooks on 24 Nov 2011 Jay Griffin and his crew of Joel Turner, Kurt Hansen and Jack Breislin (who represents the host club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA), have continued their winning form finishing on top of the leaderboard at the end of Round Robin two in the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship.

For Griffin the day was a mixed bag as he won five matches and lost one race.

'It was good to finish the round robin in front of Tim Coltman (RPNYC) and Jordan Reece (RSYS),' Griffin said. 'We had a few tough calls go against us today.'

As there was sufficient time and wind to move into the minor placing sail-offs and semi-finals Griffin elected to sail against Chris Steele, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, who had finished the round robins in fourth place. At the end of sailing Griffin had lost the first match of his best of three semi-final.

'It’s disappointing to be one down in the semi-final but tomorrow is a new day,' Griffin said.

Chris Steele was the most improved competitor today finishing Round Robin two with five wins and one loss; then adding to his winning total with the first match of the semi-final.

'I’m pretty happy with our performance. This is my first match racing regatta as skipper and we have been getting better each day. With each race, our confidence grows and we are more positive,' Steele said.

Despite a broken tiller extension in their first match of the day (which was repaired after the conclusion of the match), Steele and his crew of Aaron Reynolds-Lovegrove and David Hazard knew getting the basics right would help them; plus a few calls from the umpire going their way didn’t hurt either.

'We knew that we had to beat either Griffin or Reece in the round robins and we managed to beat Griffin. We managed to throw off a penalty at the bottom mark and put enough distance between us to take the match.

'In our match against Davidson (Balboa Yacht Club) we nailed the pre-start which gave us lots of confidence but we also managed to get a penalty. They (Davidson and crew) were dead in the water and we got away from them and won the match,' Steele continued

'I knew that we had to win the last match of the round robin against our fellow club mate Dawson as whoever won that match would go into the semis. It was a really tough match and we won the race with less than one metre between us!'

'In the first semi-final flight we got a better start than Griffin and managed to catch one or two shifts that he didn’t, which gave us the edge and Griffin couldn’t catch us!,' Steele concluded.

The Trans-Tasman battle continues in the other semi-final match with Jordan Reece (RSYS) one up on Tim Coltman (RPNYC).

Grey skies and rain showers greeted competitors again today and Race Officer Denis Thompson had another busy day on the race track finishing seven flights in total to complete Round Robin Two and commence the minor placing sail-offs and the semi-finals.

Racing was conducted in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay with mostly east south easterly winds that swung to south east at times and ranging in strength from 9-20 knots.

'We had a number of course changes today due to wind shifts and rain showers. The standard of competition has got better and better as the regatta has progressed,' Thompson commented.

Hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, racing is being conducted on the Youth Sailing Academy Elliott 6s and continues through until tomorrow, Friday 25 November, when the Musto International Youth Match Racing Champion will be crowned. The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting east to north easterly winds of 15-20 knots, with cloud cover and areas of rain.

Results at conclusion of Round Robin 2: (Skipper/Club/Points)

1st - Griffin (CYCA), 15 points
2nd - Reece (RSYS), 14 points
3rd - Coltman (RPNYC), 13 points
4th - Steele (RNZYS), 11 points
5th - Dawson (RNZYS), 11 points
6th - Rooklyn (CYCA), 9 points
7th - Forbes-Smith (CYCA), 5 points
8th - Davidson (BYC), 5 points
9th - Sexton (RPAYC), 4 points
10th - Howe (RSYS), 3 points

Full Round Robin results here
Live results on CYCA’s website website