Australian Youth Match Racing Championships

'CYCA’s Kieran Searle and crew in action - Australian Youth Match Racing Championship 2008' Cruising Yacht Club of Australia &copy

Will Ryan on top after Round One of the Australian Youth Match Racing Championships.

Competitors were greeted by a lack of wind at the start of the first day of the Australian Youth Match Racing Championship 2008 (AYMRC), and PRO Denis Thompson was quick to postpone (AP) ashore, allowing all competitors to have an extra bit of breakfast before a tough day on the water.

Racing eventually got underway at 11:00am, with a cool NE breeze averaging 12 knots. The breeze settled and stayed in the NE for the entire day, keeping course changes to a minimum.

MDSC's Sean O'Rourke produced one of the biggest saves of the day, and nearly pulled off an upset win in his flight two encounter with RFBYC's Tristan Brown. Just after the start siren sounded, O'Rourke lost his balance and fell overboard, only to catch the kite-sheet and pull himself back onto the boat without losing too much ground. Unfortunately this slight error proved costly as Brown won the race by a mere 1 second.

The day belonged to CYCA's Will Ryan and his team, who won all of their six matches, including a thriller against RSYS' David Chapman in the fourth flight. Ryan won the start after forcing Chapman into a penalty, however a solid upwind tacking duel and a strong downwind run saw Chapman take a 3sec lead at the bottom mark, only to see Ryan tack out on the opposite side and pick up a slight windshift. Ryan sailing away with the win by 14 seconds.

In flight six, O'Rourke received a penalty as he was late to the pre-start area. Searle jumped at the chance to keep O'Rourke out, thus forcing a second penalty on O'Rourke.
The two boats looked set to complete their pre-start maneuvering, when inside the final minute of countdown, Searle forced O'Rourke into a Port / Starboard, thus earning O'Rourke a black flag, and disqualification from the match.

All competitors enjoyed an early end to the day's proceedings with an Umpires debriefing and BBQ, and will be heading home early to rest up ahead of tomorrow's sailing, which will see another day of match racing in round robin 2.

Heading into day 2, the leader board looks like this:

1. CYCA / YNSW- Ryan - 6 wins, 0 losses
2. RSYS / YNSW- Chapman - 4 wins, 2 losses
3. RSYS / YNSW - Quartly - 4 wins, 2 losses
4. DSC / YNT - Whitty - 3 wins, 3 losses
5. CYCA / YNSW- Searle - 3 wins, 3 losses
6. RFBYC / YWA - Brown - 1 win, 5 losses
7. MDSC / YQLD - O'Rourke - 0 wins, 6 losses

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