Nearing Youth Match Racing World title

The 2023 Youth Match Racing World Championship has seen the elimination of eight teams as the top four have advanced to the Semi-Finals. Competing in Elliott 7s, among the top teams is defending champion Jeffrey Petersen (USA) who went undefeated in the qualifying round-robin stage and Quarter-Finals. Racing is being held December 11-15 in Sydney, Australia.

Update from December 14:
Today saw the most challenge conditions to date in the World Championship. With a moderate wind forecast of 8-11 knots, competitors had to drastically change gears in each race as conditions ranged from 4 to 26 knots on the Harbor.

As racing got underway at 1200hrs, a very light north-wester struggled to stay in, resulting in some massive margins between the boats on the race course. However, after a 30 minute delay, a very hot, dry westerly settled in from western Sydney, pulsing underneath Sydney’s iconic Harbor Bridge, delivering tough conditions.

In the first Quarter-Final pairings, reigning World Champions, Team USA, skippered by Jeffrey Petersen came out firing against Tom Higgins from Ireland. Petersen was able to overcome his competitor rather quickly, winning all three races to be the first to book a berth in the Semi-Finals.

However, the other three Quarter Finals, saw each pairing use all five races to determine a winner. In Quarter-Final Two, Australia’s Will Sargent and Brazil’s Nicolas Bernal traded leads on nearly every leg of their series, with the Australian eventually coming out on top 3 – 2.

In the third Quarter-Final pairing, young French skipper Ange Delerce was able to defeat late World Championship entry Robbie McCutcheon from New Zealand. For McCutcheon, it was a bitter pill to swallow following a close tussle in Race 5, following the kiwi black flagging the French in Race 4 to even the series.

Finally, Australia’s Cole Tapper staged in the biggest comeback of the competition so far when he leveled then took out his Quarter-Finals over France’s Timothee Rossi, after being 0 – 2 down after the opening two races. The Australians fought back hard and sailed away with excellent boat speed and maneuvres to qualifying for the Top Four.

Following the Quarter-Finals, Team USA then selected France for the Semi-Finals, leaving the two Australian teams, both representing the host Club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia to face each other.

Event details – Crew lists – Results