Strong start for RNZYS at Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup
At the regatta mid-point, two crews representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron top the leader board with a 100% success rate. The teams helmed by Josh Hyde and Mason Mulcahy respectively are yet to meet in this regatta, so all eyes will be on day three of the Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour where they will face off in the final flights of the round robin competition.
Sailed in the famous New Zealand designed Elliott 7 Keelboats, The Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup is one of the world’s premier youth match racing regattas, this year attracting eleven teams from New Zealand and Australia. Its 30+ year Honours Board includes a long list of accomplished sailors who have gone on to big things in their yachting careers: Jimmy Spithill, Phil Robertson, Josh Junior and more recently, Nick Egnot-Johnson.
Sailing this regatta for his third time, Josh Hyde and his crew of Jack Manning, Zach Fong, Cody Coughlan and Ryder Ellis will be looking to better their podium placing from the Hardy Cup Sydney International Match Racing Regatta earlier this month where they placed third. Mason Mulcahy and his team of Hugo McMullen, Luis Schneider, Harry McMullen and Sam Scott also competed at the same event in Sydney and finished fifth, but don’t have quite the same experience under their belt as Hyde’s crew; the Mulcahy crew have only just finished their first year in the RNZYS’ Mastercard Youth Training Programme.
Also on good form at this early stage of the regatta is RNZYS Performance Programme student Jack Frewin and his crew of Ollie Gilmour, Oliver Loyd and Sophia Higgott – currently having only lost one race to Mulcahy and banking seven wins.
Brand new to match racing and representing Glendowie Boating Club is Lachlan Maker with Marcus Wallace, Morgan Kay, Kaleb Bennett and Oliver Davidson. The team recently rose to success with a win at the RNZYS Mastercard Youth Training Weeks at Kawau Island in December, and placed second at last years Harken Secondary School Keelboat National Championships in a fleet racing format.
Three Australian crews representing the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club were lucky to arrive safely in New Zealand while unfortunately one was affected by weather-related travel disruption. Auckland’s unpredictable winds and strong currents have provided a steep learning curve for the visiting crews who have all experienced a mixed bag of results.
The RNZYS volunteer Race Management team have had their work cut out for them, with unsettled and light wind described “funky” making it difficult to set fair courses for the last two days.
“When we had the wind to race, it was really good racing” says RNZYS Mastercard Youth Training Programme Coach Zak Merton. “But, there were some big shifts that challenged the Race Committee – like 180 degree difference between the top and bottom marks”.
The teams competing in the Harken supported event had a long day on the water in front of the RNZYS Clubhouse today, starting racing at 10am, followed by a few hours sitting waiting for wind to fill in after lunch. Zak continues: “We were playing catch up all day up as we didn’t get through much yesterday – it was a glass off.”
The forecast for the weekend is looking similarly light, with challenging conditions expected for both Saturday and Sunday’s final day of racing.
Full and live results can be viewed online for the final two days of racing: click here
Competing Teams include:
- RSYS – Xavier McLachlan, Massimo Henderson, Annabelle Connery, James Hayhoe, Alex Gibbs
- RSYS – Brooke Wilson, Katrina Casimaty, Issy Payne, Riley Evans, Hayden Smith
- RPAYC – D’arcy Kemp, Daniel Kemp, Hugo Butterworth, Josh Paulson
- GBC – Lachlan Marker, Marcus Wallace, Morgan Lay, Kaleb Bennett, Oliver Davidson
- TYPBC – Braedyn Denney, Crue Ellis, Luc Gladwell, Marin Armstrong-Wills
- RNZYS- Rory Sims, Kelly Su, Tim McCulloch, Jack Shroder, Lydia Zhu
- RNZYS- Josh Hyde, Jack Manning, Zach Fong, Cody Coughlan, Ryder Ellis
- RNZYS – Sophia Fyfe, Henry Angus, Maeve White, Roberta Li Bassi, Tim Cashmore
- RNZYS- Robbie McCutcheon, Drake McGillivray, Matt Newhouse, Scott Leduc, Zac Blomeley
- RNZYS- Mason Mulcahy, Hugo McMullen, Luis Schneider, Harry McMullen Sam Scott
- RNZYS – Jack Frewin, Ollie Gilmour, Oliver Loyd, Sophia Higgott
Follow more information and pictures online the RNZYS’s social media channels: www.facebook.com/RNZYS/ – @rnzys
This event is made possible only with thanks to the support of the RNZYS’ long term partners including Harken.
