Kristin School leads on Day 1 of the Harken Schools Regatta

by Georgia Witt on 17 Mar 2017 The Kristin School Team skippered by Jackson Keon, are in the lead of the Qualifying A series today. Keon and his team, which include: Josh Berry, Henry Haslett and Thomas Crook, had three bullets.

In second place overall is the Selwyn College team skippered by Eli Liefting, with his crew of Harry Butler, Craig Keenan, Michelle Keenan with a total of 19 points. Also on 19 points is Westlake Boys team helmed by Tom Fyfe, with his crew of Blake Nicholson, Harry Milne and Matt Jacobi. Fourth place went to Rosmini College and Takapuna Grammar finished in fifth. The top five all qualify for the Gold Fleet series which will be on Sunday afternoon and the remaining two qualify for Silver Fleet on Sunday morning.

The Qualifying B group of ten schools are scheduled to begin racing tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 10am the top five teams will qualify for gold fleet and race on Sunday.

This year’s event has attracted 17 school teams from the wider Auckland Region as well as Marlborough and the Bay of Islands. The 17 teams have been split into two Groups which each complete six races with the top five going through to the final series on Sunday.

Youth Training Programme Coach Guy Pilkington commented “All the teams sailed extremely well today! For many of the teams it was their first regatta sailing an Elliott 7. We consistently had 5 to 8 knots of breeze today, meaning we smashed out six races and were back on shore by 4pm.“

The Harken Schools Regatta was an initiative established by the Youth Training Committee to promote the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme and to give school aged teenagers an opportunity to race in a high performance keelboat. Since it’s beginnings in 2007 when the event was sailing in Elliott 6’s and only four schools entered it has grown not only in size but is now attracting schools from all over New Zealand. The event has been sailed in the Youth Training Programme Elliott 7’s since 2011.

 Today’s Results – Friday

SCHOOL (Qualifying A)	SKIPPER	1	2	3	4	5	6	TOTAL	PLACE
Kristin School Team 1	Jackson Keon	1	1	1	2	5	5	14	1
Selwyn College	Eli Liefting	3	4	2	7	1	2	19	3
Westlake Boys High School	Tom Fyfe	2	5	6	1	2	3	19	2
Rosmini College	Francesco Kayrouz	6	3	3	3	6	1	22	4
Takapuna Grammar	Jono Weston	4	2	5	6	4	6	27	5
Mahurangi College	Matthew Leydon	5	7	4	5	3	5	29	6
Kristin School Team 2	Jack Rush	7	6	7	4	7	7	38	7