RPAYC Runners Up in the MUSTO
Harry Price ( CYCA ) and his team of Harry Morton , Sam Ellis and Jack Hubbard win the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship , defeating longterm rival Will Dargaville ( RPAYC ) 3-1 in the finals . George Anyon ( RNZYS ) took third place after winning the Petit Final against Will Boulden ( RFBYC ). The semi-finals racing continued on Friday morning , after finishing two flights the afternoon before , in a 5-9 knot shifty south-westerly breeze on Sydney Harbour . Wind strategy played a big part in the racing during the day , Anyon demonstrating a near perfect race in flight 3 by using the first shift to stay in phase and be almost a leg in front of Dargaville by the finish . Flight 4 however went the other way , to allow Dargaville to win the semi-final 3-1 . Price was trailing Boulden for the first half of the race , but a big left shift levelled the playing field after the final top mark . Price took starboard advantage rights down the run , which paid off for him , giving a penalty to Boulden to lock down the match and progress to the Final 3-0 . The Petit Final was a hard fought series ,
Boulden took the win by a minute in the first match , however Anyon won the second match by a comfortable margin . The third match was lost at the start for Boulden , as Anyon pushed him over the line early to take a 3 length lead which he managed to the finish , to win the series 2-1 . Price and Dargaville are no strangers to each other ’ s racing , and their pre starts at the Musto Youth 2016 showed how well they know each other ’ s style . They started at opposite ends of the line in Match 1 also spending the second work on opposite sides , both showing confidence in their wind strategy in the now 12-15 knot breeze . Yet it was Price who transferred a 1 length lead into a race win by 20 seconds . In Match 2 , in yet another tight pre start , Price forced Dargaville below the pin lay line to start ahead , but Dargaville clawed his way back to a tight cross before the top mark , before having to follow Price in on the lay line . Price didn ’ t let his opponent breathe for the remainder of the race and won by over a minute . In Match 3 , Dargaville misjudged the pin lay line again to luff and start slow off the line . Price controlled the race until a sharp right shift for Dargaville meant that he took the lead , which he held to the finish line to take the series into another match , with scores 2-1 to Price . Eager to beat each other , Price and Dargaville attacked each other hard in the pre start , however a slight misjudgement by Dargaville at the start caused him to hit Price ’ s stern and receive a penalty . “ In Match 4 , once we knew he had a penalty , we played it safe and never let Dargaville breathe . It was a hard fought regatta , today especially in the shiftier southerly breeze ,” commented Price after the racing . “ I want to thank my crew for this regatta , we were a tight knit team throughout . I also want to thank all the competitors , umpires , Race Committee and volunteers , my coach Jordan Reece , CYCA ’ s Pam Scrivenor and of course Musto for the regatta , and for supporting our team .”
Credit : CYCA Media Photo : Andrea Francolini