The young Gotta Love It 7 crew of Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and Robert Bell officially became the new world champions when they won the SLAM-Winning Appliances Giltinan International Championship on Sydney Harbour today.
They first came together as a crew at the CYCA’s Youth Sailing Academy, claiming a number of major victories while representing the Rushcutters Bay club on the competitive international youth match racing circuit before making the move into 18 foot skiffs.
Their combined talent was spotted by coach Andrew Palfrey as a result of their second place in the 2006 ISAF Nation’s Cup and later that year the highly awarded YSA graduates signed with the CYCA’s host broadcaster Channel 7 and Iain Murray to campaign Gotta Love it 7.
Defending champions Michael Coxon, Aaron Links and Nathan Ellis brought Fiat home a narrow winner today to finish second overall behind Gotta Love It 7, while Hugh Stodart’s Asko Appliances was third, just ahead of Omega Smeg (Trevor Barnabas).
Coxon and his team led all the way in today’s race and looked likely to score an easy win but had to survive a brilliant finish by Kinder Caring Home Nursing (Brett Van Munster).
In the final of the seven race series, the Gotta Love It 7 crew worked their way into second place at the final windward mark with just the spinnaker run between Rose Bay and Clarke Island to the finish.
Fiat and Gotta Love It 7 were above the finish line and had to gybe twice near the mouth of Double Bay. Fiat completed her gybes while Gotta Love It 7 capsized as Kinder Caring came steaming home. The unexpected dunking made no difference to the final results tally with Gotta Love it 7 finishing on 13 points to Fiat’s 24 points. – Frank Quealey/Lisa Ratcliff
