Despite their youth, only 18 and with much less match racing experience than their opponents, Seve Jarvin and his crew went down fighting in the final of the Hardy Cup ISAF Grade 3 youth match racing championship on Sydney Harbour last week.
The CYCA 1 team of Jarvin, Tom Clout and Sam Newton lost the final 3-1 to the RSYS 1 team of Michael Dunstan, Wade Morgan and Andrew Hutchinson, losing the vital fourth flight after two penalties against them, the last as the drew level halfway down the final spinnaker run to the finish.
The CYCA 2 team headed by match racing novice Evan Walker also put up a great fight in their semi-final against Dunstan and the sail-off for third place against the experienced New Zealander Simon Minoprio.
This was Dunstan’s second win, along with two seconds, in the Hardy Cup but the first appearance in this international event for Jarvin and Walker and their crews, all in the teens.
Both CYCA crews impressed with their aggressive tactics and sailing techniques in handling the Elliott 6s, with both Jarvin and Warren forcing Dunstan into fierce tacking and gybing duels in their semi-final and final encounters.
In the final, Dunstan, with his heavier crew of Wade Morgan Andrew Hutchinson, was clearly faster upwind in the fresh southerly that gusted to 20 knots, but Jarvin kept right on the his stern with aggressive tacking duels on each of the windward legs of the four flights.
The lighter CYCA 1 crew twice overtook the RSYS 1 on the downwind legs of the finals and showed some spirited match racing fighting through tacks and gybes, but the greater experience of Dunstan and his crew came through in the end.
In flight three, down 0-2, Jarvin overtook the RSYS 1 boat close to the leeward mark and forced them into a penalty, which subsequently gave them the flight when Dunstan took the penalty near the finish.
The RSYS clinched victory 3-1 when Jarvin incurred an instant penalty in a gybing incident as they sailed from astern and drew level with Dunstan on the final spinnaker run to finish of the fourth flight. They were already carry one penalty.
Twelve teams from Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and the USA contested the Hardy Cup, with donor Sir James Hardy, the former America’s Cup, Olympic and World Champion yachtsmen among the spectators today.
In the sail-off to third place, New Zealander Simon Minoprio and his Vision Yacht team won 2-0 against the CYCA 2 team, with helmsman Evan Walker, a dinghy and Hobie catamaran champion, making an impressive debut in international match racing.
Evan is only 17 years old and his team’s late inclusion in the regatta enabled the CYCA Youth program to provide opportunities for up-and-coming champion sailors.
It is a very important aim of the YSA to provide opportunity for as many young sailors as possible. From the 2004 enrolments, eighteen sailors have already had the opportunity to represent CYCA in interclub regattas
