Racing forged ahead in the 2008 Harken International Youth Match Racing Championship with a further 12 flights completed, more than double the Day 1 tally with the host Club Team of Tom Spithill, Nina Curtis, Ian McKillop, Sam Sexton and Josh Dawson having a great day with eight wins from nine starts, though with competitors having completed differing numbers of matches it is too early to identify a clear leader of Stage 1.
Spithill's only loss was in the last match of the day to the top seed Josh Junior who used a one second advantage to windward off the line to effect a nice port layline push enabling him to hold the lead around all marks to finish six secs ahead.
The ideal 12 knot NE breeze allowed a day of classic match racing moves and incidents. This is indeed a top class field and umpires were kept on their toes in every match; in Flight 12 Robert Gibbs sliced Amy Lee off at the Committee boat with five seconds to go and bore down the line for a comfortable start leaving Lee to take the slower gybe route around. Not all Gibbs moves worked as well as this one and he probably copped the lions share of the penalties today.
In the same flight Kieran Searle copped a Rule 15 penalty when he contacted Will Ryan after hooking him aggressively in the push and shove phase. In Flight 10 Ryan luffed Gibbs off to the left grabbing a nice right hand phase all to himself only to miss the ensuing bottom mark course change dictated by that very same shift. Easy come easy go! That’s match racing. In flight 16 Royal Perth’s Kinley Fowler copped a red flag penalty over a proper course call as he carried Spithill beyond the bottom mark.
With a 30 knot SW change due tomorrow morning and forecast to continue through Sunday the text book moves may give way to survival mode and it could be quite an exciting two days ahead!
Score tally for the Round Robin Stage at the end of Day 2. NB. Five flights remain to complete the Round Robin.
Club Skipper Win/Loss
RPAYC Tom Spithill AUS 8/1 RNZYS Adrian Short NZL 6/1 CYCA Will Ryan AUS 6/2 RNZYS James Williamson NZL 5/1 RPNYC Josh Junior NZL 4/2 RPYC Robert Gibbs AUS 4/4 RPYC Kinley Fowler AUS 5/6 CYCA Kieran Searle AUS 5/6 RSYS David Chapman AUS 3/3 RFBYC Tristan Brown AUS 2/7 RPAYC Amy Lee AUS 2/9 BBYC Hayden Cockburn NZL 1/8
by Sailsportz
10:47 AM Fri 21 Nov 2008 GMT
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