Harken International Youth MR Regatta - An exciting final day

by Stephen Collopy on 23 Nov 2014 At the 2014 Harken International Youth MR Regatta Milly Bennett (RPAYC) defeated Harry Price (CYCA) in an exciting final day of sailing to be the first ever female team to win the Harken International Youth Match Racing Championship in it’s 22 year history.

Milly and her all female crew didn’t start the finals flight well losing to Harry in the first race. Milly fought back in race two to equal the scores. After that she was on a roll, winning the next two consecutive races in some very close and exciting racing!

'It was intense, we stuffed up our start and spent to whole race playing catch-ups' said a very overwhelmed Milly.

After a convincing win in the quarterfinals, Harry was very humble in his lost to Milly congratulating the girls on their win.

'I’d really like to congratulate the girls, it was really amazing racing out there.'

The conditions favoured Milly with her home ground advantage, the early morning fog and shifty winds made it very difficult for both teams to navigate in the final races.

Harry’s experience in skiff sailing helped his team with the downwind legs but Milly’s experience sailing in Pittwater helped her excel upwind.

'Downwind was more our specialty due to fact we all skiff sailors, upwind they were always there and we couldn’t shake them at all so full credit to them.' Said Harry.

To determine fourth and fifth position, George Anyon (RNZYS) and Sam MacKay (RPNYC) had a best of three wins flight with Sam MacKay beating George Anyon making Sam third and George fourth overall.

The overall standings are as follows:

1st Milly Bennett (RPAYC)
2nd Harry Price (CYCA)
3rd Sam MacKay (RPNYC)
4th George Anyon (RNZYS)
5th Sam Ellis (GSC)
6th Malcolm Parker (RPAYC)
7th Matthew Kempkers (RNZYS)
8th Clare Costanzo (RPAYC)
9th Dylan Gore (RYCT)
10th Cyril Fortin (CNCYC)
11th Tom Trotman (SYC)
12th Emma May (CYCA)
13th Tiphaine Leroux (CNCYC)