Cream rising at Musto International Youth Match Racing Champs

Sydney, AUS (November 29, 2017) – Day 2 of the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship 2017 again tested the 15 teams from seven nations with not only a tricky easterly breeze settling in on Sydney Harbour, but with rain in the morning and a congested Sydney Harbour in the afternoon as regular Sydney racing yachts took set off for their own racing.

Overnight there was drama for one of the American teams with a late evening injury to Porter Killian’s crew. A substitute sailor was rushed onboard with the team now having two Australians, a New Zealander and two Americans on-board. The new dynamics proved to gel well though, with the American team jumping up three places.

Rain greeted the fleet and quickly evaporated any wind on the race course with the Race Committee forced into a 30-minute delay to racing. After this, the CYCA Race Management team completed another 40 races with two-thirds of the round robin new complete – Japan’s Leonard Takahashi holding onto the top spot. The team is now one of only two guaranteed a spot in the quarter-finals with only one more win to lock in the top spot after qualifying.

Western Australia’s Will Boulden from Alpha Racing Team, who is also safely into the quarter-finals had a successful day on the water shooting up to second overall on 9 wins followed by the all-female team from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club led by Clare Costanzo in third with 8 wins and two losses.

With only five flights left to complete the qualifying stage, all eyes will be on the remaining quarter-final spots with a flurry of teams still fighting for their spot in the next stage. Currently the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Tom Grimes is a strong contender but still not safe on 8 points with 3 more teams on 7 points and a further two on 6 points.

With 88 matches from 105 now complete, tomorrow’s focus for the race committee will be to complete both the round robin and quarter-finals.

Event details – Results – Entry list – Facebook

Hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, this World Sailing Grade 2 event features 15 of the World’s best youth sailors with nine of the fifteen skippers ranked inside the Top 100 World Rankings. Sailed from Rushcutters Bay on Sydney Harbour in the CYCA’s fleet of Elliott 7s, the event begins Tuesday November 28 with a qualifying round robin series scheduled, before knockout stages start on Thursday November 30 with Finals on Friday December 1.

Source: Ross Macdonald, Cruising Yacht Club of Australia