Harken International Youth Match Racing

10:23 AM Sat 8 Nov 2008 GMT

'Harken International Youth Match Racing Championship 2006' Damian Devine

Event organisers at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club have announced a cracking field of local, interstate and International competitors for the 2008 ISAF Grade 3 HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championships to be held on Pittwater from the 19th to the 23rd November 2008.

The event will be sailed in the Club's fleet of Force 24' yachts which are purpose built for match racing and extremely popular with competitors due to their lively performance.

The 2008 HARKEN youth teams and skippers are:

Skipper

1 Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club (NZ) - Josh Junior

2 Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (NSW) - Will Ryan

3 Royal Perth Yacht Club (WA) - Robert Gibbs

4 Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (NZ) - James Williamson

5 Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (NSW)- David Chapman

6 Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (NZ) - Adrian Short

7 Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (NSW) - Tom Spithill

8 Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (NSW)- Keiran Searle

9 Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (NSW) - Amy Lee

10 Bucklands Beach Yacht Club (NZ) - Hayden Cockburn

11 Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (WA) - Tristan Brown

12 Royal Perth Yacht Club (WA)- Kinley Fowler

'The Harken' as it is known in youth sailing circles worldwide stands out as one of the premier events for youth on the International match racing calendar and has during its 16 year history served as a launch pad for a number of local yachting stars including dual Harken winning skippers James Spithill, Michael Dunstan, Seve Jarvin and more recently Torvar Mirsky who won the event in 2006 and has since become a rising star on the World Circuit.

This years event, the 16 th running and 11th consecutively with sponsors Harken will see twelve teams of four to five crew (under 21yrs) with up to 350Kgs of muscle compete in a single round robin followed by a number of repechage stages concluding with a finals round on the Sunday providing a feast of exciting racing for spectators.

Last year's winner RNZYS's James Williamson will be back to defend his title whilst RPAYC's Tom Spithill, a veteran of this event having first competed as a very young crew back in 2000, will be out to challenge for the crown in what will be his final chance to get his name on the 'Rockin Robin Trophy' alongside his brother and sister. Tom commented, ' This is going to be a great year, this is a very experienced field with more than half of them having challenged previously, three of them are ranked in the world's top 100 open.'

PRO for the event will be Ted Anderson whose experience goes back to the Olympic match racing in 2000 and Chief Umpire will be Phil Mostyn who leads an international cast of umpires, many with Americas Cup experience.

International and interstate teams will be billeted with Club members, a custom that has forged many longstanding friendships in past years.

www.rpayc.com.au/

by Sailsportz

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