2024 World Sailing Youth Match Racing World Championship at Jeddah Yacht Club & Marina - Overall
by Jordan Reece 3 Dec 2024 11:40 AEDT
29 November - 2 December 2024
Cole Tapper, Hamish Vass, Jack Frewin, Chelsea Williams & Joel Beashel, representing the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, have been crowned 2024 World Sailing Youth Match Racing World Champions after a flawless Finals Series on the Red Sea.
The Australian crew went undefeated through the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Finals to claim victory over ten nations in one of the most comprehensive victories at these World Championships.
To first win the World title, the Australian team first had to qualify for the Finals. In the Semi-Finals the team were paired against Trans-Tasman rivals Josh Hyde, Cody Coughlan, Mason Mulcahy, Sofia Higgott and Zachary Fong, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The Australians had the might over the New Zealanders in all three starts, and around the race track to comfortably book the first berth in the Finals 3 - 0.
In the other semi-finals, regatta leader, France chose to race Marius Westerlind from Sweden, who put up an amazing fight, however eventually fell to the French 3 -2.
With a rematch of last year's Finals, the ghosts of the 2023 World Championship campaign in Sydney, Australia, were firmly put to rest, with Tapper, Vass and Williams turning the tables on defending champions Ange Delerce, Julia D'Amodio, Julien Bunel, Sylvestre De Giuli Morghen and Thomas Flachon Sanchez of France, to dominate the Finals Series, winning 3 - 0.
This marks the fourth World Championship title for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia with Tapper, Vass, Frewin, Williams and Beashel joining the ranks of youth sailors from the CYCA Youth Sailing Academy who have claimed World titles in Los Angeles (2017), Yekaterinburg (RUS) and Auckland (NZL).