The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia is in strong contention for a second consecutive win its own Bavaria International Youth Match Racing Championship with the opposition having to face Seve Jarvin who led his formidable team to victory in the recent National Championship.
Highly regarded on the international youth match racing circuit, places for this Under 20 ISAF Grade 3 regatta, which will be hosted by the CYCA from 18-22 November, filled quickly with ten teams from Australia, Italy and New Zealand lining up for the four-day competition.
The strongest challenge to Australia’s current supremacy in international youth match racing is expected from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s team of Matt Littlejohn, Nick Blackman and Mike Naulls. For many years the RNZYS has run a year round youth development program and through this initiative, set the early benchmark in youth match racing excellence.
A second New Zealand team from the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Squadron, home of the 98-foot Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race entrant Konica Minolta, has entered and for the first time, a team from Italy, which has hosted many international yachting events including the Rolex IMS World Championships and the Maxi World Rolex Cup in Sardinia, will add a real international flavour to the competition.
The Italian team of Lacopo Pasani, Carlo Mazzini and Alberto Riucci from the Circolo Velico Ravennate will represent the Italian Sailing Federation after winning a recent Italian Championship.
Amongst the seven Australian teams, the competition is equally fierce with the 2004 Governor’s Cup winning team of Murray Gordon, Tom Spithill and Hamish Roughley from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club challenging the two highly skilled CYCA teams, one led by Seve Jarvin, who skippered his team to victory in the recent Club Marine State Championship and Australian Championship, and crewed by Robert Bell and Mark Langford.
The second CYCA team, which placed third in this year’s Governor’s Cup, will be helmed by Jacqui Bonnitcha and crewed by Tom Clout and Sam Newton.
The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron has put forward its high scoring team of Stuart Pollard Crew, Ben Barzach and Ian Quartly, who finished second in the NSW Championships, while Western Australia has posted three teams, two of which enjoyed success at the Australian Championship in Victoria a month ago.
Thursday 18 November will be an orientation day with racing on the Elliott 6m class yachts from 19-22 November on Sydney Harbour expected to be fast and furious as the world’s best young match racers battle for the prestigious title.
This is the third year the CYCA has run an International Youth Match Racing event and the first year Bavaria Yachts, an existing Youth Sailing Academy sponsor, has taken up naming rights sponsorship of this internationally recognised youth regatta.
