Zhik Combined High Schools Sailing Championships at Belmont 16ft Sailing Club
by Rod Carter 12 Apr 2022 09:44 PDT
8-10 April 2022
16ft skiff in action - Zhik Combined High Schools Sailing Championships © Red Hot Shotz Sports Photography
The Zhik CHS sailing championships commenced this week at Belmont 16ft Sailing Club. The iconic event is steeped in history and has been a rite of passage for many young sailors. Many past winners include State, National, Olympic, SailGP and AC sailors.
The event is fortunate to have one of the most desirable sailing venues in the country as well as a terrific naming right sponsor Zhik. This year's event marks the fifth year of Zhik's involvement as a sponsor of the event and their ongoing support of youth sailing is invaluable.
The event is open to any class of boat in which competitor represent their school. Typically the CHS Sailing Championships attracts fleets of over 100 boats. Unfortunately numbers are well down with only 52 entries. However, the racing is still as fierce at the top of the leaderboard.
Day 1 of the regatta saw blue skies with light and variable winds. With the breeze barely enough to fill the flags on the committee boat. After a 2 hour postponement and the probability of conducting a race, the organiser made the decision to postpone racing to the next day.
The decision by race organisers to postpone racing was a masterstroke. Day 2 saw sailors greeted with a constant 12-15knt Southerly breeze filling the course area. Race 1 was filled with plenty of action, some spills and even a few competitors not reading their course maps correctly and sailing the wrong course.
Bryn Robinson-Mills representing St Johns the Evangelist Catholic High School - Nowra sailing his Hobie 14 Trap navigated the conditions extremely well to secure the win on corrected time in Race 1. Second place went to Addison Newlan from Foxwell State Secondary College - QLD sailing an Open Skiff, with the Hobie 16 team of Noah Skewes and Hayley Fisher from Pittwater High School in third.
Race 2 saw the same boats dominate the results. With the breeze building and shifting to the left, Bryn Robinson-Mills and Addison Newlan backed up their Race 1 result with a first and second respectively in Race 2. Emma Tallis (Barrenjoey High School) sailing her Open Skiff finished third.
Bryn a former Divisional winner in last year's championship has made his intentions clear he has his eyes firmly on the Overall Championship crown. With wind conditions forecast to be similar for tomorrow's racing, it will be a day to consolidate on his positive start.
Results can be found here