The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s long-awaited return of match racing events finally arrived today as the Bollé Austalia Match Cup got underway in almost perfect conditions. A building sea-breeze ranging between 12 – 20 knots greeted the sailors who enjoyed afternoon sailing on Sydney Harbour with the first 7 flights of the regatta completed.

Nestled down in Rushcutters Bay the six teams from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and CYCA put on great display on match racing using the Club’s fleet of Elliott 7m keelboat. It was the first outing on Sydney Harbour in over 9 months, with regattas scheduled in June lost to gale force conditions then Sydney’s lockdown due to COVID-19 prolonged the match racing season.

Heading the leader board at the end of the day was CYCA’s Cole Tapper. Tapper alongside his crew of Jack Littlechild, Charlotte Alexander, Hamish Vass and Evie Haseldine almost went undefeated for the entire day, falling victim in their final race. That lose though still sees them sit clear atop the chasing pack on 6-1.

Chasing hard and delivering Tapper’s only loss was fellow CYCA Members headed by Will Sargent. Sargent and his team are fresh off victory at RPAYC’s Ecostore Match Racing Regatta which concluded over the weekend. Their opening day was less than ideal, losing two match racing in Round Robin 1, whilst so far undefeated in Round Robin 2.

In third place is Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s Jed Cruickshank. With a new crew for 2021, the team is coming to grips well with each other and the Elliott 7s and will be one to watch as the week progresses.

All of today’s results can be found here and followed live throughout the week.

Racing continues tomorrow in this three-day event with the completion of the triple round robin qualifying round commencing at 1153hrs.