Hardy Cup - New Zealander hits top form on day 3

by Peter Campbell on 7 Feb 2013 New Zealander Chris Steele hit his straps on day three of the Hardy Cup Under 25 match racing regatta on Sydney Harbour, unbeaten after five flights of an unfinished third round-robin.

Steele, who last week finished third overall in the Warren Jones International Youth Regatta in Perth, had had mixed results on the first two days of the Hardy Cup, sailed in Elliott 6 sports boats.

This morning, he finished the uncompleted round-robin 2 with two wins and a loss, a total of five wins for the round, then sailed through the unfinished round-robin 3 with five straight wins.

'Our only loss in today’s racing was to David Chapman and that was after we got a penalty and, we think, should have got another against David, but the umpires thought otherwise,' added Steele, whose crew is David Hazard and Jay Prestt.

Despite a freshening north-easterly seabreeze on a warm Sydney day, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron race officers were unable to complete the third round-robin of the Grade 3 event today. The final five flights are scheduled for tomorrow morning to decide the top four teams to go into the semi-finals and final later in the day.

David Chapman, representing the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, still heads the overall standings, but fellow RSYS skipper Jordan Reece and Chris Steele, from Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, have closed the gap after three-and-a-half round-robins.

Chapman and his mixed club crew of Ollie Nicholas from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and Daniel Nixon from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, finished round-robin 2 with three more wins and then won three of their three flights in round-robin 3.

Fellow RSYS member Jordan Reece had the best overall result in round-robin 2, finishing with seven wins, his only loss being to Chapman. In round-robin 3 he has had four wins out of five so far.

West Australian David Gilmour, who last week won the Warren Jones Regatta, finished round robin 2 with only three wins, but in the unfinished round-robin 3 won four out of four flights.

In the final flights of round-robin 3, Chapman has four flights, including one against Steele and another versus Reece. Ashlen Rooklyn (CYCA) has three more flights to sail, while David Gilmour just two to complete his third round-robin races

Placings after two round-robins, with total wins from 16 flights each:

David Chapman (RSYS, NSW) 13 wins
Jordan Reece (Estate Master Sailing Team, NSW) 11 wins
Chris Steele (RNZYS, NZ) 10 wins
Ashlen Rooklyn (CYCA, NSW) 10 wins
Jay Griffin (CYCA, NSW) 8 wins
David Gilmour (RFBYC, WA) 8 wins
Sam Gilmour (RFBYC, WA) 7 wins
Adam Middleton (RPNYC, NZ) 5 wins
Nick Howe (RSYS, NSW) 0 wins

Round-robin 3 is incomplete.