Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship at CYCA - Day 1
by Ross Macdonald 28 Nov 2017 17:46 PST
Last year's grand final between Price and Dargaville © Andrea Francolini
The leaderboard at the 2017 Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship has been turned on its head with pre-regatta favourites falling victim to a tricky Sydney south-easterly breeze whilst three teams came away with a perfect scorecard by the end of Day 1.
Recently crowned Harken Champions, Leonard Takahashi’s Pacific Sailing Team from Japan continued their dominance on Day 1 of the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship, showing their stern to each of their six competitors to return to the CYCA with a perfect 6-0 scorecard. They are tied with Australia’s newest youth match racing national champion, Tom Grimes and team, representing the host yacht club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.
Leonard Takahashi, who this week is representing Japan and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, acknowledged the challenging work he and his team has put in over the recent months to enjoy his success today. “We have had a solid training program back in Auckland which is heavily supported by RNZYS and their members which we really appreciate. Obviously for us, just coming off the Harken regatta, we feel like we are in good shape as a team, but know we need to keep improving if we want to win this regatta.”
Clare Costanzo’s all female team from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club also has an unbeaten scorecard, sitting on 5-0 with one less match sailed compared to the other teams. The United States of America teams also enjoyed a relatively successful day on the water with David Wood from Balboa Yacht Club also on 5 wins and fellow club member, Porter Killian on 3 wins.
With racing commencing at 1000hrs in Rushcutters Bay the Race Committee, led by Denis Thompson, did a fantastic job to complete the 12 scheduled flights for the day. With an ambitious regatta format of more than 150 matches across the four days, 48 of those have now been pencilled in the books. Numerous course changes and shifting marks made it tough for both officials and competitors with pre-regatta favourites, CYCA’s Harry Price and RNZYS George Anyon, not happy with their first day’s performance.
Hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, this World Sailing Grade 2 event features 15 of the World’s best youth sailors with nine of the fifteen skippers ranked inside the Top 100 World Rankings. Racing will continue Wednesday 29 November at 1000hrs in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay with live results via the CYCA website.