Day 1 of the Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship has delivered a perfect scorecard for sister combo, Juliet and Clare Costanzo from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. Along with their crew of Jess Angus, Ann Scholten and Emma Rankin, they were able to have a perfect day with a final result of 8-0 (wins-losses).
After a short postponement this morning due to lack of wind, the race committee quickly fired off the races to make up time and finish the day on schedule with the first two of four round robins now complete.
For Juliet Costanzo, this is her first National Championship event as helm. Whilst her older sister Clare, whom won the Australian Women’s title back in 2016 as helm, has traded the tiller for crewing and is proving to be just as valuable in her new position.
With a building northerly breeze, the race committee set up a spectacular race course just off Point Piper with the wind peaking at 16 knots in the final races of the day. All teams handled the conditions well with tight racing throughout the day.
The chasing pack is currently led by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s Charlotte Griffin on 5-3. Griffin and her team are looking to build off their recent regattas over the winter period and training program out of their Kirribilli based yacht club.
Closely following in third is New Zealand’s, Celia Willison. This week’s highest ranked skipper, at World #37 heading into the regatta, Celia finished the day on 4-4. Having finished runner up at the CYCA Women’s Match Racing Regatta earlier this month, Willison will be hoping to climb the leader board of the coming days and described the racing as ‘a lot of fun but stressful at times.’
India Howard, representing the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia had a tough day on the water, only managing two wins from her eight starts. With a new team on-board her Elliott 7m this week, she to is hoping that time over the coming days will see better results to come. Tanya Kelly, representing Queensland rounds out the leader-board on 1-7.
Follow the racing live at the live results page HERE.
