Harken Schools Regatta - 14 teams, 10 races completed on Day 1

by Sara Tucker on 11 Mar 2012
A fantastic day on the water with 10 races completed, five for Group A and five for Group B in the Harken Schools Regatta.

Leading group A with a perfect scorecard of 5 wins is the St. Kentigern College team of Michelle Tait, Jake Tyndall, Jess Allen and Joseph Kearney.

Michelle who has sailed the Elliott 7’s before at the National Youth Training Weeks in December and the Harken Youth International Match Racing Championships in February really showed her confidence today in the small keelboats. Her onboard coach for the first three races was current RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme member Katie de Lange. ‘She sailed very well' commented Katie 'and with obvious confidence in her crew which really paid off'.

Second overall in Group A is the KeriKeri High School team helmed by Sam Brierly. Sam was part of last year’s winning KeriKeri High School team helmed by O’Shea Butler. KeriKeri High School has two teams competing this year and is keen to defend their Harken Schools Trophy which they have held for the past three consecutive years!

Third overall in Group A is the Kings College team helmed by Jack Collinson who was runner-up in last year’s event.

After Group A’s five races were completed the next seven teams (Group B) were transferred onto the Elliott 7’s with a fast change over made, and it was back into racing.

Leading Group B after their five qualifying races is the second KeriKeri High School team helmed by James Ayr just in front of the Canterbury Schools Team helmed by Jay Harris. With third overall going to the all girls team representing Westlake Girls High School helmed by current Youth Training Programme member Holly Hamlin.

Race Officer for the event Gerald Flynn was pleased to get all the racing in today. 'We were very happy to complete today’s schedule. There was certainly a lot of tide but all the teams handled it very well, with only one getting too close to the Committee Boat. Certainly the wind co-operated and we were able to get in ten very good races.'

The Harken Schools Regatta, now in its sixth year, has traditionally been open to only ten school teams. However this year due to a tremendous response from schools the event was expanded to accommodate all who registered their interest.

'We started with 16 expressions of interest,' commented Guy Pilkington, Coach of the RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme. 'But we didn’t want any team to miss out, so we changed the format to accommodate all the registered schools. Two schools withdrew last week so now we have 14 entered for the weekend. We are really excited about the new format and interest from schools. It’s great so many want to come out and sail in our keelboats and great exposure for the Youth Training Programme.'

The Harken Schools Regatta was established in 2007 by the then Youth Training Committee to promote the RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme to schools in the wider Auckland region. However it has now expanded to teams from KeriKeri High School, Hamilton and Canterbury.

Today’s Results
1 St. Kentigern College Michelle Tait 5 points
2 KeriKeri High School James Ayr 7 pts
3 Canterbury Schools Team Jay Harris 12
4 KeriKeri High School Sam Brierly 16
5 Westlake Girls High School Holly Hamlin 18
6 Kings College Jack Collinson 18
7 St. Kentigern College George Brasell 18
8 Westlake Boys High School Sam Schofield 23
9 Hillcrest High School Issac McHardy 23
10 Rangitoto College Liam Closey 24
11 Kristin School Will Cobb 24
12 Glendowie College Scott Webber 30
13 Wentworth College Matthew Hughes 31
14 Long Bay College Joe Buckley 32

The fleet is now split into Gold and Silver fleets. The top ten crews qualify for the Gold fleet with the remaining teams in the Silver fleet.

Racing is scheduled to begin at 10am tomorrow (Sunday) morning and racing is just off the Squadron Clubrooms, Westhaven.