Warren Jones International Youth Regatta at Perth - Overall
by Jonny Fullerton 2 Feb 2018 22:33 PST
29 January - 2 February 2018
Harry Price winners - City of Perth Festival of Sail: The Warren Jones International Youth Regatta 2018 © Rick Steuart
Harry Price and his Down Under Racing Team crew of Murray Jones, Corey Hamilton, Matt Stenta and Cam Seagreen won the 2018 Warren Jones International Youth Regatta in fairly convincing fashion in the fading light on Perth Waters.
Finals day begun in the same pattern as the whole week with light and flukey Easterly's delaying any action until mid afternoon on a hot and humid Perth day. The semi-final heats were shortened accordingly to the best of 2 matches.
As winner of Round Robin 2, Will Boulden and his Alpha Racing Team chose to race Mark Spearman, both sailors coming from the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. Will's team won both matches in a very light Easterly breeze. Harry Price chose to race George Anyon's team from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron with the same result to progress to the final.
Before the final matches the breeze took a big shift to the S/SW and increased to a more acceptable 8 - 10 knots, much to the relief of a big fleet of spectators and support boats surrounding the short stadium type course in Perth Waters. The Finals were also shortened to the first to 2 points as the light started to fade in the late afternoon.
In the Petit-Final George Anyon (RNZYS) faced Mark Spearman (RFBYC) which turned out to be a bit one sided in favour of the local team skippered by Mark Spearman.
The Grand Final was set up for a race off between the highest ranked teams at this year's Warren Jones International Youth Regatta. From the entry into the start box in flight 1 Harry Price and his team hunted his opponent but copped a penalty in the process, which put him on the back foot. However Price manoeuvred his boat into a much better position at the start and led Will Boulden up the course. In the short two lap course Price extended on each leg and was easily able to off load his penalty and go on to win by three boat lengths.
On match point Harry Price again got penalised in the pre-start giving Will Boulden a glimpse of a come-back. However as before Price won the start and led away upwind through the traffic, which included the heavily laden vessel 'Dampier' full of the non-competing teams and their friends.
Price appeared to have much better speed upwind and was able to control his opponent to open up a good lead at the final top mark. Gliding down to the finish on the final run, Will Boulden did manage to close the gap but Harry Price was able to drop his kite and off load his penalty just before the finish line and cross to win the Warren Jones International Youth Regatta for the first time.
Final Standings:
- Harry Price, Murray Jones, Corey Hamilton, Matt Stenta, Cam Seagreen
- Cruising Yacht Club of Australia
- Will Boulden, Alister Young, Alex Negri, Emerson Carlberg, Peron Pearce, Will Drew
- Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club
- Mark Spearman, Luke Elliot, Rome Featherstone, Damien Garbowski, James Stewart
- Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club
- George Anyon, Taylor Balough, Tim Snedden, Connor Mashlan, Bradley McLaughlin
- Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
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