Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship day 1 all tied up

by Jannifer Crooks on 22 Nov 2011 Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship 2011 day 1. After the completion of racing Jay Griffin, representing the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA), and Tim Coltman, representing the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club, New Zealand are tied on four points.

The Trans-Tasman rivalry between the duo has been re-ignited; Griffin faced off against Coltman in the finals of last year’s Championship with Griffin the victor. With only four flights being sailed today, Griffin and Coltman are yet to race each other – swords will be drawn tomorrow when flight eight of round robin one gets underway.

'It was a tough day – we had a couple of fluky races,' Griffin said this afternoon. 'We were lucky to finish our third match with the breeze dying out and racing was abandoned. It was also probably one of our toughest matches of the day against Ryan Davidson (USA). We had built up a reasonable lead but as the breeze dropped so did our lead.'

'I’m sailing with a pretty new team this week and so far we’ve been working well together. Kurt Hansen and Jack Breislin have joined the team from the Development Match Racing squads and are proving to be great sailors,' Griffin added.

'A fickle day on water,' was how Race Officer Denis Thompson describe racing. A light south westerly breeze settled in and racing commenced at 1025hrs in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay.

Two flights were sailed before the breeze died early in the afternoon. A small north easterly came in and the race course was shifted to Double Bay. Flight three commenced and only one match (the Griffin vs Davidson match) was able to be completed before Thompson was forced to abandon the remaining matches of flight three.

Sailors were forced to wait over an hour until the southerly breeze came back in and the course was moved back into Rushcutters Bay. Thompson got flight four underway and rain squalls and a shift to sou’westerly breeze came in. Due to fading light and conditions racing ended at the end of flight four.

'When the southerly came in, the Race Committee witnessed some hard match racing, but it was also good to see skills of sailors in light weather sailing,' Thompson said

Nicholas Howe from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron was given a black flag in his flight four match, after receiving two penalties. He did not enter the start correctly and then failed to undertake his penalty turn in a timely manner, thus being black flagged by the umpires handing the match to Jamie Dawson from Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Ryan Davidson from Balboa Yacht Club is missing Thanksgiving with his family to compete this week. 'We got a nice start in our second match, which we ended up winning; and our third match was tough against Griffin.

'It was a shame that the wind died – if we had a bit more breeze we could have had a better chance. Jay’s got a lot more practice in these boats than we have. Here’s hoping for a bit of sun tomorrow,' he added.

Hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, racing is being conducted on the Youth Sailing Academy Elliott 6s and continues through until Friday 25 November.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting south to south westerly winds of 15-25 knots tending south to south easterly 10-15 knots later in the afternoon.

Results from Day 1: (Skipper/Club/Wins vs Losses)

Griffin (CYCA) 4-0
Coltman (RPNYC) 4-0
Reece (RSYS) 3-1
Rooklyn (CYCA) 3-1
Dawson (RNZYS) 2-2
Steele (RNZYS) 2-2
Davidson (BYC) 1-3
Sexton (RPAYC) 1-3
Forbes-Smith (CYCA) 0-4
Howe (RSYS) 0-4

Full Round Robin results here
Live results here