Harken International Youth Match Racing - Australia beats Kiwi crew

by Stephen Collopy on 23 Nov 2015 Harry Price has skippered his team, Ben Robinson, Murray Jones, Alex Chittenden to victory in the 2015 Harken International Youth Match Racing Championship and takes home the Rockin Robin Trophy to the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA)

It’s not since 2005 that a team from the CYCA have won the HARKEN International, they got close last year with Harry being narrowly beaten by The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s, Milly Bennett in the final the race.

“It feels great! After the loss to Milly last year I wanted to step it up this year. The boys put in a really good effort and I’m really happy with it, ” said Harry.

“It was all over the place today with some good wins and a few losses but we were able to get it together for the final” Harry added.

The win didn’t come easy for Harry with his opponent, George Anyon from The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) and his team who gave it their all during the finals making it a classic ANZAC battle.

In the finals George showed everyone that he wasn’t just the “Round Robin King” (known by his peers for his ability to do well in the round robin and struggle in the finals.) He sailed extremely well matching up to Harry and was very happy with the result.

“ I’m really happy, at the end he just came at us and a few small mistakes cost us, we were fast and we came really close at times but it was definitely some of the best match racing I’ve ever done.” Said George.

Third place went to RPAYC’s Will Dargaville and his team who raced very well with 13 wins and 2 losses in the round robins but unfortunately had a few to many errors and missed wind shifts during the semi finals against George and couldn’t progress into the finals but just held on to defeat Lachy Gilmour from Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (Perth) in the petit final so secure 3rd place.

The event tested all competitors with scorching heat, cold southerlies and windless summer afternoons. With racing being delayed during Friday’s heatwave, Race Officials managed to roll out 60 plus races on Saturday and to accommodate a record number of 16 teams in a youth match racing championship over 130 races were conducted over 4 days of competition.

“All the Race Officials and Umpires just kept things going on Saturday it was like clockwork, the wind stayed steady and they (Race Management) just rolled out race after race.” Said Katie Spithill, event co-ordinator.

Harry and his team not only get their name on the HARKEN Trophy but also have a unique opportunity to go out for a training day on 33 South Racing Team’s Extreme 40 High Performance Racing Catamaran on Sydney Harbour.

Below are the overall standings:
1st Harry Price – Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Ben Robinson, Murray Jones, Alex Chittenden
2nd George Anyon – New Zealand Yacht Squadron Leonard Fry, Josh Wijohn, Cameron Moss
3rd Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club – Will Dargaville, Harry Hall, James Farquharson, Sarah Parker, Rachel Bower
4th Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club – Lachy Gilmour, Ryan Donaldson, Alex Negri, Cameron Seagreen
5th Sunshine Coast Sailing Team – James Hodgson, Hayden Johnson, Leroy McAvoy, Fergus Gillanders
6th Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club – William Eastman, Angus Adamson, Stuart Williams, Callum Pritchard
7th Cercle Nautique Calédonien – Lucas Chatonnier, Kim Goetz, Mathew Hughes, Thomas Andrews
8th Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron – Matthew Kempkers, Logan Andresen, Jacob Willis, Matt Kelly
9th Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club – Milly Bennett, Alice Talnawski, Chelsea Connor, Jessica Russell, Seldon Coventry
10th Cruising Yacht Club of Australia – Lauren Gallaway, Caitlin Tames, Rosie Lee, Nicola Bradley, Tara Blanc-Ramos
11th Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club – Clare Costanzo, Tom Vincent, Evelyn Foster, Nick Connor, Meghan Bouman
12th Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania – Zac Pullen, Alec Bailey, Sam Tiedemann, James Brewer
13th Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club – Will Boulden, Douglas Campbell, Sam Monkhous, Damian Garbowski
14th Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club – Zoe Bennett, Polly Wright, Amy Anderson, James Ayr, Jaymin Southee
15th Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron – Nick Rozenauers, Fergus Abbot, Zac Quinlan, Claudia Thackray, Charlotte Alexander
16th Canberra Yacht Club – Eliot Bassili, Jules Kirk, Kelsey Hanrahan, Jaidan Stevens

For more information visit:
Website: http://www.intyouthmatchracingchampionship.com.au/
The 2015 HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championships marks the 17th consecutive year with HARKEN Australia as naming rights sponsor. Their ongoing commitment to the development of youth match racing is a credit to this leading manufacturer and marketer of quality sailboat hardware and accessories. Visit the Harken website at www.harken.com.au