Souter defeats Spithill

In finale of the Austalian Women's Match Racing

Nicky Souter today won her fourth successive Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship in a dramatic final against Katie Spithill on Sydney Harbour, with the result decided on the fifth and final race.

Souter won 3-2 in a final that saw one of Spithill’s crew injured and taken to hospital, a protest over who should substitute her, and some spectacular sailing in the freshening southerly winds.

The injured crew, Ange Farrell, this afternoon was undergoing emergency dental treatment for a broken front tooth, but was otherwise uninjured.

The two skippers and their crews from Pittwater’s Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club outsailed six other teams in the demanding match racing series conducted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron over three days in excellent sailing conditions.

Souter, 22, who lives with her parents on Pittwater’s Scotland Island, has been a sailor since quite young, sailing in Manly Juniors and Flying 11s, the only girl to ever win a National Championship in this class. She began match racing only four years and has won an unprecedented four Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship, also representing Australia at the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Nation’s Cup earlier this month in which she reached the semi-finals.

In between small-boat racing, she has been a regular crew in ocean racing aboard Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats. She was in the winning Admiral’s Cup crew of Wild Oats IX when aged only 19 and last December was aboard Oatley’s super maxi Wild Oats XI in its record breaking line and handicap win in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht race.

“I’m the caddy on Wild Oats XI - doing all the running around,” Souter explained after her toughly fought victory today against Spithill, who recently rose to seventh in the ISAF world women’s match racing rankings.

In this week’s series she had to fight back from third in standings to win her semi-final against Olympian Nicky Bethwaite, representing the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, and the final against fellow ‘Alfreds’ club member Katie Spithill.

“With match racing, the key is to reach the semi-finals and peak on the last day,” Souter added. Her experienced winning crew comprised Kylie McKillop, Lily Taylor and Rayshele Martin.

Souter won the first race of the best-of-five final after winning two penalties against Spithill. When Spithill incurred her second penalty she had take it straight away, giving Souter an easy win.

However, Spithill’s tactics of taking Souter right to the layline on the first windward leg of race two paid dividends and she levelled at 1-all. Another penalty in race three saw Souter score her second win, but Spithill finished with Ange Farrell bleeding from the mouth, apparently after being hit in the teeth by the spinnaker boom.

Farrell was rushed ashore at the RSYS and taken by ambulance to hospital.

In the meantime, Spithill requested a substitute crew, inviting Nicky Bethwaite to join her. (Bethwaite had earlier won the petit final 2-1 against the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Samantha Boyd.)

However, Souter protested on the grounds that the substitute should be not be a skipper, but rather only a crew person. An on-the-water protest hearing upheld the Umpires’ decision and Bethwaite took over the mainsheet role with Spithill.

With the southerly wind freshening to 18-20 knots, Spithill levelled the scores 2-all in race four as she surfed to the lead when Souter’s boat performed, as she put it, “an unnecessary gybe!”

The fifth and deciding race saw both crews start equally, with Souter able to sail higher and faster on both windward legs. Spithill was faster downwind but was not able to gain the lead, with Souter winning by three boat lengths to end a dramatic final to the 2006 Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship.

Results:

Final:
Nicky Souter (skipper), Kylie McKillop, Lily Taylor, Rayshele Martin (RPAYC) def Katie Spithill (skipper), Stacey Jackson, Ange Farrell, Nina Curtis (RPAYC) 3-2

Petit Final:
Nicky Bethwaite (RSYS) def Samantha Boyd (CYCA) 2-1