RYA Youth Match Racing underway

12 teams commence battle

The Volvo RYA National Youth Match Racing Championships 2004 that started today, 28 August, lived up to all expectations of intense racing as young teams went head to head in a bid to become the new national champion.

A building breeze from 6 knots in the morning to 12 in the afternoon provided the perfect arena for teams new to match racing, some competing for their first time, and others already known.

Match racing in the RYA’s brand new fleet of J80s for the first time, the twelve teams lined up in two round robin leagues. With perfect conditions for match racing the day threw up some unexpected surprises.

Defending champion Nick Cherry had a shock in his first race when Ed Powys and crew beat Cherry off the start and went on to win the race. His defeat kick-started Cherry into action- he went on to win all his remaining races.

The only all girl team, helmed by Lucy MacGregor showed the boys how it was done and with her experience and excellent boat speed won 4 of her 5 races.

Another helm with match racing prowess was Ed Males and he started the event with a perfect score winning all his races, however the showdown with Cherry is yet to come.

Phillip White’s team, Richard Mason’s team and Ed Powys’s team all managed 3 wins out of 5, whilst Olly Dix, Tom Makey and Guy Breary’s teams won 2 races learning a lot about match racing along the way. Nevertheless they will all set sail tomorrow hoping to improve their tallies.

With the winner of the event being selected to represent Great Britain at the World Youth Match Race Championships in New Zealand, the sailors need to finish in the top 6 after the round robin to progress to the next round so tomorrow’s racing is going to be tense.