On Sunday 25 May, two teams from the CYCA YSA’s Development Match Racing Squad took on teams from Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC) and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS) in a day of fleet racing of the 2008 Interclub Challenge hosted by RPAYC at Pittwater.
Light breezes greeted the competitors early on Sunday morning and the race committee was keen to start racing as soon as possible in order to complete as many of the scheduled six races as possible. CYCA started strongly with Hamish Hardy, Lachlan Fraser, Arvind Hughes and Alex Wyatt placing 2nd in the first race of the day followed closely by Kurtis Poole, Samantha Nugent, Natalie Greentree and Oliver Hartas in 3rd. The teams continued to sail impressively throughout a day of very tough and variable conditions with multiple delays throughout.
The young sailors’ concentration and determination payed off and by the end of the five completed races Poole, Nugent, Greentree and Hartas finished in second place overall on 7 points – only one point behind RPAYC 1. The other CYCA team also had a fantastic day, finishing 4th overall after a count-back was required between them and 3rd placed RSYS 1.
These results were consistent and allowed CYCA to dominate the overall team series pointscore finishing the day’s racing on a combined score of 19 points, with RPAYC on 27 and RSYS on 28. This places our young, up-and-coming sailors in a great position leading into the next two rounds to be held at CYCA and RSYS over the coming months and defend the title which the club also won in 2007.
The young sailors learnt a great deal about light-air sail trim and did a fantastic job adapting to the extra time required for the boats to accelerate – the Force24 yachts supplied by RPAYC being considerably larger and heavier than the Elliott 6s the CYCA sailors are used to sailing.
Congratulations must go to the sailors for their fantastic efforts over a long day as well as thanks to their parents for supporting the sailors both on and off the water. Thanks to our hosts RPAYC for the organisation and running of the first regatta of the 2008 Interclub Challenge. – Tom Barker, YSA Coach
