The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club Club Team of Tom Spithill, Nina Curtis, Ian McKillop, Sam Sexton and Josh Dawson have won the 2008 Harken International Youth Match Racing Championship following a dramatic day (yesterday) on Pittwater which saw rain, sunshine, calms and gusts up to 30+ knots. The CYCA teams skippered by Will Ryan and Kieran Searle finished fourth and eighth respectively.
Spithill won the Round Robin phase on countback from Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Adrian short, Scott Burling, James Maloney and Donovan Neill and despite several abandoned attempts to conduct a Petit Final and Final in the gusty and wildly shifting conditions it was the Round Robin results which stood.
It was always going to be difficult day and PRO Ted Anderson was desperate to complete the four remaining flights of the Round Robin Stage after loosing almost all of Day 3 to the gale force W/SW winds. His chances were not looking good however, as similar, if not worse conditions were forecast today. Rain showers seemed to temper the fury and these flights were completed in a 12 kt W wind which saw great showdowns between some of the top seeds.
Tom Spithill AUS had only one match left to sail which he lost to defending champ James Williamson NZL. However things seemed to go downhill from here for Williamson and in Flight 20 he thought he had got lucky when Adrian Short let him go off unchecked to the right hand side of the track. In fact he had missed a vital course change and was heading away from the true mark. It was just not to be his day and he went down in the following two matches to slide off the podium into 5th place.
In Flight 21, Josh Junior managed to roll Adrian Short gaining an inside overlap just as they approached the bottom mark and proceeded to take the lead. The positions were reversed by the top mark and they were neck and neck on starboard as they approached the finish. With Short close to leeward Junior had no attacking options and was unable to prevent him luffing and diving over.
The die was now cast with both Short and Spithill carrying only two losses each, but Spithill had beaten Short in their encounter so he maintained his position at the top of the table. The win has been a long time coming for Spithill who was runner-up to Torvar Mirsky in 2006 and ends a 9 year drought for the Alfreds who last took the title in 1999. And it was Tom’s sister Katie who skippered that team successfully defending the win of brother James in 1998, adding to the pressure on Tom. “Its pretty special to have all three of us on that Trophy” said Tom “I would never have lived it down otherwise”. Perhaps this is somewhat of a record, check your Guinness book!
Final Placings
Place Club Skipper Country
1. RPAYC Tom Spithill AUS
2. RNZYS Adrian Short NZL
3. RPNYC Josh Junior NZL
4. CYCA Will Ryan AUS
5. RNZYS James Williamson NZL
6. RPYC Kinley Fowler AUS
7. RSYS David Chapman AUS
8. CYCA Kieran Searle AUS
9. RPYC Robert Gibbs AUS
10. RPAYC Amy Lee AUS
11. RFBYC Tristan Brown AUS
12. BBYC Hayden Cockburn NZL
Report by Sailsportz
