Yngling Open Championships & Gold Cup day 2 - Consistency the key

by Jordan Reece on 29 Dec 2011
It was a picture perfect day on Sydney harbour on day 2 of the Yngling Open Championships & Youth Gold Cup, both lead up events to the Yngling World Championships 2012 starting at the beginning of January.

After a blowy start to the regatta yesterday, the breeze was coming from the south was around 13-17 knots. Consistency is always the key to winning regattas and Michael Nash and his team on AUS 57 showed just that. After sitting in second place overnight, the current Australian National Champions took the lead by nine points.

However the three races completed on day 2 did not come without surprise.

Overnight leader, the current European Champion Tom Otte on NED 328 was OCS in race 1 and with the black flag raised for the next start, was disqualified from the opening race of the day.

The young Dutch sailor Anne-Chris'n Kentgens on NED 365, who led the Gold Cup, tangled with current Yngling World Champion Maartin Jamin on NED 355 for the lead in race 1.

It came down to the wire with the young Dutch team taking their first win of the regatta with NED 355 in second and Hamish Jarrett AUS 60 in third.

Race 2 saw the first clean start of the event. The three lap course from Athol Bay across to Rushcutters Bay (Sydney Harbour) allowed many passing lanes especially with the Manly to Circular Quay ferry splitting the fleet at every crossing.

It was again NED 365 who outclassed the fleet to win their consecutive race with another young team from Denmark 199, skippered by Lucas Lier, coming in second with AUS 60 taking another third to move into the lead of the regatta whilst overnight leaders Ned 328 could only manage a 10th and world champions NED 355 a seventh.

Still with one race to go for the day, the regatta lead was going to come down to who had the most consistent day. Another surprise came in race 6 when 2004 Yngling World Champion Nev Whittey won the race ahead of Michael Nash on AUS 57 with the current world champions finishing third. A shocker for the races 4 and 4 winners NED 365 saw them finish 18th.

The regatta leader at that point was Hamish Jarrett (AUS 60) after finishing 15th and overnight leaders Otte (NED 328) took 10th again.

By the end of the day Michael Nash (AUS 57) took the overall regatta first with a nine point lead over reigning world champion Maartin Jamin (NED 355) with Jarrett (AUS 60) still sitting in third. NED 365 moved up to fourth whilst overnight leaders NED 328 dropped back to sixth.

In the Youth Gold Cup NED 365 still holds the overall lead with DEN 199 staying in second with Kentgens (NED 333) moving into third.

With only one day of racing to go and two races left in the series the regatta is still far from over and with bragging rights heading into next year's World Championships as the top prize, everyone will be eager to win.

Results at RSYS website