French wins Youth Match Racing Worlds

France won the 2023 Youth Match Racing World Championship held held December 11-15 in Sydney, Australia. With racing in the Elliott 7m, Ange Delerce and his crew of Julia D’amodio, Julien Bunel, Corentin Goulon, and Erwan Felio took the title after five days of racing on Sydney Harbor.

Australia’s Cole Tapper with Max Brennan, Chelsea Williams, and Hamish Vass were runners up, while defending champion Jeffrey Petersen (USA) and his team of Justin Callahan, Enzo Menditto, Daniel Pegg, and Marbella Marlo secured third place.

Spectacular conditions and building sea breeze once again graced the competitors for the final day as the final four teams completed the semi-final stage, with Delerce upsetting Team USA 3 – 0, whilst teammates from the host Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Cole Tapper and Will Sargent, went 3 – 1 in the other.

As the breeze continued to bend left towards the sea breeze, a fresh north easterly settled for the Finals Series.

Delerce nailed the opening two races of the Finals Series, continuing his undefeated record for the day to head into Race 3 with a 2 – 0 lead. However, the Australians clawed their way out of another extremely difficult spot and showed their skills in the Elliott 7m to come from behind in Races 3 and 4 to level the Series and head into a winner-takes-all final race.

After winning the start, the French led for the opening half of the race, but once again the Australians pounced on the first downwind run. However, a missed judged gybe, saw Tapper penalized for the maneuver and he passed.

On the final upwind and downwind leg, the pair were never more than a boat length apart, and as they drew closer to the finish line, the Australians tried to offset their penalty but the French were able to sail around and break ahead just metres from the finish line.

“We are just stoked to win, it’s a dream come true for us,” shared Delerce. “Cole and the Australian team have been great competitors all week and always fight back hard, so it was awesome to come up against them in the finals, you can’t get any closer than that to finish – Sydney really turned it on for us today, it’s an amazing feeling.”

Event details – Results – Facebook

Format: All competitors had to be under 23 years old in 2023, with each team having at least one female and one male in the crew.