The New Zealanders remain in control after another day of 15 knot match racing conditions on the Harbour for the 2015 MUSTO Youth Match Racing Championship.
What started out as a low breeze day soon ramped up to provide competitors with a great day for racing with shifts picked best by Leonard Fry who has only dropped one match today after finishing day one undefeated.
The other Kiwi to impress was Lucas Chatonnier and his crew, also from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. “We had a good day, we won the first match against Harry Price in challenging conditions, there was a light wind this morning and it picked up this afternoon,” Chatonnier said. “The conditions were very similar to what we are used to sailing in at home in Auckland so we sailed quiet strong. Today was certainly not easier but the team worked better together and we did a lot better.”
William Boulden and Lachlan Gilmour from the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Western Australia had a mixed day of results with their respective teams.
“All in all we had a pretty good day with a few good wins against the higher ranked teams early on in the day and some solid wins against the lower ranked teams in the second round robin,” Gilmour said. “We were pretty lucky to be off on the changeover boat to start so we had a nice long break, it was good fun in the afternoon, got some good down winds and while it is a bit similar to Freshwater we don’t have the ferries zooming around though.
“It is my first time at the CYCA and I’m really enjoying it, it’s great to be amongst all the big boats because we don’t have them in Perth.”
Gilmour finished fourth at the Harken International Youth Match Racing Championship last week and hopes to do better over the final two days of competition. “We are hoping for the best we can do this week, hopefully we can scrape into the semis or quarters on Friday and take it from there,” Gilmour said.
The James Hodgson led Sunshine Coast Sailing Team also impressed with a nail-biting win over William Boulden in the later stages of the afternoon.
The two CYCA teams competed strongly with Emma May scoring a few confidence boosting wins while Harry Price was left wondering after a final match loss to Fry.
Past CYCA Commodore, John Brooks and current Commodore, John Cameron joined the start boat to witness the day two action of the regatta and commended all participants on their skill level.
“I spent this afternoon watching our Youth Sailing Academy representatives and the other teams from across Australia and internationally,” Commodore Cameron said. “Witnessing their level of expertise in tricky conditions was second to none and a privilege to watch.”
– CYCA Media
