Phill Robertson Reports on his win at the Youth International

Arriving back from Wellington on Friday, our training day for the ‘coke cup’, ment no time for rest. We had to get focused and fired up for the next regatta.

Having the regatta on our home waters was a handy advantage and it defiantly payed off. We started the regatta with some really good and exciting racing. One was against Tom Spittal from RPAYC which ended with us having a to do a penalty the finish line and only winning by centremeters (one second). Light winds made it hard for the race committee once again, but it was quite good for us being rather worn out and having sailed in the light the previous week. At the end of the first round robin we had 6wins and only 1 loss.

After another 7 races, some being closer than others, we finished both round robins with only 2 loses. Both were to Robert Gibbs from CYCA but we knew what we did wrong and were confidant we could beat him next time. We top qualified for the semi finals which gave us the choice of who we race.

We chose Michael Thorpe the other RNZYS team as we knew how he sailed and he had had a lot less experience than the other two teams, both from CYCA, Robert Gibbs and Evan Walker. With the trickiest conditions of the regatta, 10 knots and shifts up to

45degrees made it hard. After the first two races nothing seemed to be going our way, Thorpy was sailing out of his skin and we were once again 0-2 down in a best of 5 semi. Now being sudden death we could not lose. We managed to get a penalty on him at the start but

once again we couldn’t put ourselves on the right side of the course. He kept his lead the whole race and we managed to pass him as he was doing his penalty on the finishline. Score 1-2. The next race was better with a few shifts going our way. We were behind him at the last top mark and managed to roll him on

the last leg to the finish. Score now 2-2. With Thorpy throwing everything at us in the last race made it exciting and we ended up finishing only a few seconds ahead. The heart beat was up and I couldn’t believe we made the finals.

Robert Gibbs was our opponent in the final and having lost to him twice in the round robin, we knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. The wind had dropped and was shifting, tide going in making the beats take twice as long. We knew if we could get to the top mark first we could hold him off downwind as we were running with the tide. The winds were once again 2-6 knots. We started race 1 well with picking the first shift and getting a handy lead which then turned into about a 3min lead by the finish. The second race was a lot closer and we managed to stay ahead the whole race and win by a few boat lengths. A great start in the 3^rd race gave us a comfortable lead but with the light and shifty breezes he got back in the race. We were neck and neck the whole race and we held him out on the last downwind to win the regatta.

Big thank you to the coach, Guy Pilkington for all the time and effort he has put into the team and has put into the team and I. The Lion Foundation, RNZYS, Sara, Bex, Laurie, Graham and the youth training programme members who gave up there time to train against us. Also a big thanks to my crew James Williamson, who did a great job on bow and William Tiller on main for the great effort they put in for two pretty tough regattas. Thanks guys!

Phil Robertson