Harry Price Has Won the HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championships
Sunday November 22nd, 2015
Harry Price has skippered his team, Ben Robinson, Murray Jones, Alex Chittenden to victory in the 2015 HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championship and takes home the Rockin Robin Trophy to the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA)
It’s not since 2005 that a team from the CYCA have won the HARKEN International, they got close last year with Harry being narrowly beaten by The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s, Milly Bennett in the final the race.
“It feels great! After the loss to Milly last year I wanted to step it up this year. The boys put in a really good effort and I’m really happy with it.” said Harry.
“It was all over the place today with some good wins and a few losses but we were able to get it together for the final” Harry added.
The win didn’t come easy for Harry with his opponent, George Anyon from The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) and his team who gave it their all during the finals making it a classic ANZAC battle.
In the finals George showed everyone that he wasn’t just the “Round Robin King” (known by his peers for his ability to do well in the round robin and struggle in the finals.) He sailed extremely well matching up to Harry and was very happy with the result.
“ I’m really happy, at the end he just came at us and a few small mistakes cost us, we were fast and we came really close at times but it was definitely some of the best match racing I’ve ever done.” said George.
3rd place went to RPAYC’s Will Dargaville and his team who raced very well with 13 wins and 2 losses in the round robins but unfortunately had a few to many errors and missed wind shifts during the semi finals against George and couldn’t progress into the finals but just held on to defeat Lachy Gilmour from Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (Perth) in the petit final so secure 3rd place.
The event tested all competitors with scorching heat, cold southerlies and windless summer afternoons. With racing being delayed during Friday’s heatwave, Race Officials managed to roll out 60 plus races on Saturday and to accommodate a record number of 16 teams in a youth match racing championship over 130 races were conducted over 4 days of competition.
“All the Race Officials and Umpires just kept things going on Saturday it was like clockwork, the wind stayed steady and they (Race Management) just rolled out race after race.” said Katie Spithill, event co-ordinator.
Harry and his team not only get their name on the HARKEN Trophy but also have a unique opportunity to go out for a training day on 33 South Racing Team’s Extreme 40 High Performance Racing Catamaran on Sydney Harbour.
Below are the overall standings:
1st Harry Price – Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Ben Robinson, Murray Jones, Alex Chittenden
2nd George Anyon – New Zealand Yacht Squadron Leonard Fry, Josh Wijohn, Cameron Moss
3rd Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club – Will Dargaville, Harry Hall, James Farquharson, Sarah Parker, Rachel Bower
4th Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club – Lachy Gilmour, Ryan Donaldson, Alex Negri, Cameron Seagreen
5th Sunshine Coast Sailing Team – James Hodgson, Hayden Johnson, Leroy McAvoy, Fergus Gillanders
6th Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club – William Eastman, Angus Adamson, Stuart Williams, Callum Pritchard
7th Cercle Nautique Calédonien – Lucas Chatonnier, Kim Goetz, Mathew Hughes, Thomas Andrews
8th Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron – Matthew Kempkers, Logan Andresen, Jacob Willis, Matt Kelly
9th Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club – Milly Bennett, Alice Talnawski, Chelsea Connor, Jessica Russell, Seldon Coventry
10th Cruising Yacht Club of Australia – Lauren Gallaway, Caitlin Tames, Rosie Lee, Nicola Bradley, Tara Blanc-Ramos
11th Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club – Clare Costanzo, Tom Vincent, Evelyn Foster, Nick Connor, Meghan Bouman
12th Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania – Zac Pullen, Alec Bailey, Sam Tiedemann, James Brewer
13th Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club – Will Boulden, Douglas Campbell, Sam Monkhous, Damian Garbowski
14th Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club – Zoe Bennett, Polly Wright, Amy Anderson, James Ayr, Jaymin Southee
15th Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron – Nick Rozenauers, Fergus Abbot, Zac Quinlan, Claudia Thackray, Charlotte Alexander
16th Canberra Yacht Club – Eliot Bassili, Jules Kirk, Kelsey Hanrahan, Jaidan Stevens
For more information visit:
Website: www.intyouthmatchracingchampionship.com.au
The 2015 HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championships marks the 17th consecutive year with HARKEN Australia as naming rights sponsor. Their ongoing commitment to the development of youth match racing is a credit to this leading manufacturer and marketer of quality sailboat hardware and accessories. Visit the Harken website at www.harken.com.au
About the Regatta
The 23rd annual HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championships, hosted by The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club welcomes the continuing support of HARKEN Australia as its naming rights sponsor.
This year, the RPAYC will be showcasing its fleet of Elliot 7s for this premier event held on the magnificent waters of Pittwater.
Teams compete for the Rockin' Robin Perpetual Trophy on the RPAYC's Elliot 7 performance keelboats with a crew of four or five, all of whom must be under 23 years of age.
By Stephen Collopy
Will Dargaville Crowned the New King of the Round Robin and Top Four Semi-Finalist Confirmed: Day 3
November 21, 2015
After 50 plus races during day 3 of the HARKEN International Match Racing Championship, The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s Will Dargaville is the winner of the round robins.
With weather being much cooler than the fan forced 39 degrees on day two, Race Management took full advantage of the 15 – 20 knot southerly to squeeze in as many flights as possible after postponing the racing the day before due to the heat.
For Will, there was no time for bird watching, he and his team of Harry Hall, Sarah Parker, James Farquharson and Rachael bower were switched on to achieve 13 wins and 2 losses with a close win to last year’s runner up, Harry Price in final of the afternoon’s races to seal the overall win.
“It feels great. We could have been doing a bit of bird watching but I think sailing was the better option but I think with today’s conditions sailing on our home waters really helped us in picking the right shifts.”
One of Will’s losses was to fellow club teammate, Clare Costanzo, Clare managed to stay in the boat today to cause a few upsets.
“It was pretty good today, pretty satisfying. We race him (Will) all the time and it was great to beat him, we had a very even race until the last downwind leg where we just got the win.” said a very happy Clare.
Last year’s winners, Milly Bennett and her MAXX Team weren’t strong enough to progress to the top four semi finals finishing 9th.
“It’s pretty devastating, we had too many little errors that cost us, it’s good that we (RPAYC) have a team in the finals though.” said Milly.
With a few changes to the to the race schedule due to the number of teams and time restrictions, Race Management decided to not race the quarter finals and head right into the semi finals. The semi finalists are as follows and the winner will be determined from these top four.
1st Will Dargaville - The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club
2nd Harry Price - Cruising Yacht Club Australia
3rd George Anyon - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
4th Lachy Gilmour - Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club
There will be 5th v 8th races to determine the bottom four placings and they are as follows:
5th Matthew Kempkers - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
6th James Hodgson - Sunshine Coast Sailing Team
7th Lucas Chatonnier - Cercle Nautique Caledonien (New Caledonia)
8th William Eastman – Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club (NZ)
As for the bottom 8 teams their racing is now over. HARKEN International veteran, Jayden Stevens, sailing in his record 8th Championship from the Canberra Yacht Club team aren’t heading to the finals but still enjoyed their racing.
“As my old man used to say during my previous 7 championships, you get a lot of seconds in match racing, that said we all had good time learning and having fun.” Said Jayden
“It was the first time some of us jumped on yachts so it’s pretty big stuff coming from little Canberra.” Jayden added.
The bottom 8 are as follows:
9th Milly Bennett The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club
10th Lauren Gallaway – Cruising Yacht Club Australia
11th Clare Costanzo – The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club
12th Zac Pullen – The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania
13th Will Boulden - Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club
14th Zoe Bennett – Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club (NZ)
15th Nick Rozenauers – Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron
16th Eliot Bassili – Canberra Yacht Club
To see the full results visit: www.intyouthmatchracingchampionship.com.au/results/live-results
www.matchracingresults.com/2015/harken-international-youth-championships/
Twitter: twitter.com.au/RPAYCYouthMatch
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HarkenIntlYouthMatchRacing/
Instagram: instagram.com/RPAYC
Website: www.intyouthmatchracingchampionship.com.au/
The 2015 HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championships marks the 17th consecutive year with HARKEN Australia as naming rights sponsor. Their ongoing commitment to the development of youth match racing is a credit to this leading manufacturer and marketer of quality sailboat hardware and accessories. Visit the Harken website at www.harken.com.au
About the Regatta
The 23rd annual HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championships, hosted by The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club welcomes the continuing support of HARKEN Australia as its naming rights sponsor.
This year, the RPAYC will be showcasing its fleet of Elliot 7s for this premier event held on the magnificent waters of Pittwater.
Teams compete for the Rockin' Robin Perpetual Trophy on the RPAYC's Elliot 7 performance keelboats with a crew of four or five, all of who must be under 23 years of age.
By Stephen Collopy
* Robyn Wiltshire presented the club with a perpetual trophy named the ‘Rockin’-Robin Trophy’. Robyn presented the trophy in memory of her husband Grant and son Robert, Andrew Young & Jeff Smith, all club members who tragically lost their lives at sea aboard the yacht ‘Rockin’ Robin’ whilst on passage to Fiji in 1990.
Milly Bennett and her MAXX Team Photo- RPAYC Media
