The Youth Sailing Academy’s (YSA) team of Will Sargent, Finn Tapper, Nathan Gulliksen, Ryan Ewings and Jess Tavener have won the Ecostore Match Racing Regatta 2021, hosted by the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.

The prestigious Harken International Youth Match Racing Regatta was postponed for 2021 due to interstate and international teams being unable to travel, and so the Ecostore Youth Match Racing Regatta was born to support the local teams and clubs. The event also marked the YSA’s first event in over nine months.

The two-day event saw six teams from Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and the CYCA compete. The CYCA’s second team of Cole Tapper, Jack Littlechild, Charlotte Alexander, Hamish Vass and Evie Haseldine finished in third.

The opening day saw teams competing in very light and shifty breezes. By the afternoon though, teams were enjoying a steady southerly breeze and close competition. The double round robin was completed with Sargent coming away at the top of the leader board, only losing one race to their fellow CYCA team. Tapper sailed through to the semi-finals with a 6-4 scorecard to finish in third after qualifying.

Sunday saw a wet and blustery afternoon on Pittwater which challenged all of the teams for the final day of racing. Winds varied from 8-25kts at times with 30-degree wind shifts across the course.

In both the semi-finals and finals, Sargent had to come from behind to take the win, taking out the semi-final 2-1 over RSYS’s Max Paul, then 3-1 over RPAYC’s Alistair Read. In turn, Tapper may have lost his semi-finals 2-0 from Read, however, bounced back to comfortably take the petit-final 2-0.