The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s (CYCA) Finn Tapper has won the Hardy Cup Match Racing Regatta, hosted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS), for the second year running.
Eight youth teams representing a range of clubs from NSW and New Zealand have fought it out in the Elliott 7s on Sydney Harbour over the past four days (May 10-13).
Tapper, 22, and his crew of Will Sargent, Cole Tapper, Jess Tavener and Ryan Ewings beat RSYS sailor Max Paul and his team in the final.
In contrast to yesterday’s strong northeasterly winds, Tapper won both races in light conditions on Sydney Harbour.
In an interview with the RSYS, Tapper said, “The conditions today were really challenging: light, shifty, it was anyone’s game.”
This win will give Tapper a confidence boost when he goes to New Zealand next week to compete in the Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup (May 18-22), and then to France in July for the Youth Match Racing World Championship.
In an interview with the RSYS, Tapper said: The entire team, we are working towards the worlds in France later in the year and this is our first big competition where we’ve been gelling as a group, trying to get things really schmick before later in the year. It took a little while, we did alright in the first round robin then had a couple of slip ups but we learnt from those mistakes and it came together today.”
Robbie McCutcheon’s team from Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron placed third, beating CYCA’s Jack Littlechild in the petit final.
For live results, see: https://www.matchracingresults.com/2022/hardy-cup/schedule.php
For more information on the history of the Hardy Cup, see: https://www.rsys.com.au/hardycup/#:~:text=History%20of%20the%20Hardy%20Cup&text=Since%20its%20inception%20in%202001,Adam%20Minoprio%20and%20Michael%20Dunstan.
By Greta Quealy
