Spithill leads Harken Women’s International

by Lisa Ratcliffe on 12 Mar 2006 Despite a four hour delay because of lack of wind, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia today managed to complete round-robin 2 of the Harken Women’s International Match Racing Regatta on Sydney Harbour today.

Finally sailed in a 5-8 knots easterly, today’s racing saw defending champion Katie Spithill head a highly successful day for all three teams from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. The light breezes were a respite after two days of windy conditions which saw many out-of-control broaches and gybes and a couple of the young women injured, fortunately not seriously.

Katie and her crew of Stacey Jackson, Angela Farrell and Elizabeth Walsh go into tomorrow’s finals at the top of the leader board with 16 wins from the two round-robins.

In second place is fellow Alfreds club member Nick Souter and her crew of Genevieve White, Clare Brown and Rayshele Martin with 14 wins, third is the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Jess Smyth and her crew of Aimee Famuaro, Sara Roberts and Mann de Fluiter with 12 wins.

Making up the four finalists is French lass Christelle Philippe and her crew of Celine Devaux, Vanessa Godet and Sophie Gilbert, who finished the round-robvins with 11 points.

Just missing a place in the finals was the third RPAYC crew of Nina Curtis, Kylie McKillop, Amy Lee and Aline Siepmann. They lost every flight in the first round-robin but won every flight today.

These young women come from many different career paths, but two of them are yachting administrators, Jess Smyth in the Sailing Office at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Aline Siepmann in the Sailing Office at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, recently working specifically on the Hardy Cup match racing regatta.

Tomorrow the top four crews will sail semi-finals and the ultimate final to decide the Harken champion while the other six crews will race to decide their final order in the regatta.

In the light winds today, the racing were virtually incident free, apart from a starting line collision between Jess Smyth (RNZYS) and Royal Perth Yacht Club’s Jessica Eastwell. Despite having to take a penalty, Smyth recovered to win the flight.

Katie Spithill showed her experience in match racing tactics, including carrying the French lass, Christelle Philippe beyond the leeward mark and then coming in to claim buoy room, a manoeuvre that led her to another win.

Nicky Souter showed her aggressive tactics in winning every start of her round-robin flights with a faultless day of sailing,

The Regatta is being sailed in the CYCA’s Elliot 6 sports boats which, with their all-Harken equipment, have suffered no gear failures in the two earlier windy days.