Musto Youth Match Racing Championship an all New Zealand final

by Pam Scrivenor/CYCA Youth Sailing Academy on 26 Nov 2009 Josh Junior and his crew of Matthew Steven and Chris Jones representing Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club, NZ, have sailed their way into the grand finals of the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship, after three days of competition.

After finishing the round robin stages in first place, today Junior elected to sail against Scott Burling (RNZYS) in the first of the semi finals, leaving William Tiller (RNZYS) and Will Mackenzie (CYCA) to battle out the other semi final.

All races were closely fought, but it was Junior and Tiller who were victorious taking their semis with two straight wins each. In the Grand final tomorrow Junior will race Tiller for first place and Mackenzie and Burling will fight it out for the final podium position.

Sydney turned on another perfect day for day three of competition in the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship. The Race Committee chose to complete stages 3 and 4 today in steady north easterly winds that made for perfect sailing conditions with racing commencing in 12-14 knots.

Stage 3 saw the sail off for minor places fifth through to tenth with the first skipper in each pair to score two wins being awarded the higher overall place. The first match for ninth and tenth position between Jason Waterhouse (RPAYC) and Jaidan Stevens (RSYS) saw Stevens miscalculate his timing and received an immediate penalty for not being in the correct position to enter. Waterhouse took advantage of this situation and held Steven’s out and a second penalty was then given for not entering in the time period. Steven’s then received a black flag for not taking a penalty immediately after the start. Waterhouse went on to take the second match against Stevens to confirm his 9th place.

The sail off for seventh and eighth saw close racing between Jordan Reece (RSYS) and Jay Griffin (CYCA) with Reece taking the first race and Griffin getting one back to even the score. In the decider, Griffin won another close race to finish ahead of Reece in 7th place.

Racing for fifth and sixth place was a similar story with Peter Nicholas (RFBYC) and Lucinda Whitty (CYCA) taking it to three races to decide the result with Nicholas victorious after three close races. In their first race, Nicholas received a penalty in the prestart and carried it to the final windward mark rounding where he waited for Whitty and endeavoured to engage her in an effort to cancel out his penalty. Unfortunately for Nicholas, Whitty had practiced this yesterday being in the lead position with a penalty against Mackenzie and today she managed to get past Nicholas and raise her spinnaker to the finish taking the race.

Racing commences tomorrow at 1115 hrs with for a 15-20 knot north westerly breeze forecast easing to 10-15 knots in the afternoon.

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