The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania (RYCT) hosted the 2024 Australian Open & Youth Match Racing Championships on the River Derwent over the weekend from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 October. The three-day event brought together 12 competitive teams from New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania, showcasing the best match racing sailors in the country.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (NSW) emerged as champions, with their team led by skipper Tom Grimes and crew Nick Rozenauers, and Max Vos clinching the Open National Championship title. They secured a hard-fought Final Series 2 – 1 over defending champion Sam King (TAS).

Sailing RYCT’s fleet of Elliott 6m keelboats, racing conditions on the River Derwent varied throughout the event, providing challenging for all teams as the Race Committee struggled to get the round robin qualifying series completed.

After completing 80% of the round robin, it was decided to terminate the remaining races in favour for the knockout stages. In the semi-finals, CYCA’s Tom Grimes took on fellow club member Finn Tapper, along with teammates Niall Morrow and Louis Schofield, in a rematch from their youth match racing days.

In the end, it was another hard fought semi-final series between the 2019 Youth Match Racing World Champion and Tapper who represented the Club at two World Championships. In the end the score went in Grimes favour, claiming the semi-finals 2-1.

Tapper and crew eventually finished in a tied third place. The CYCA’s third team of Chelsea Williams, Maddy McLeay, Mark Murray & Nick Drummond finished fifth in the youth division.

“It was great to come away as National Champions for 2024. When we saw the event was down in Tasmania, we all jumped at the opportunity to compete and it was great to see 12 teams from three States compete for this year’s title.” Commented skipper Tom Grimes.