RPAYC Wins the Nespresso Youth Match Racing Cup
Yacht Racing
RPAYC Wins the Nespresso Youth Match Racing Cup
For the first time since James Spithill in 1999 the Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup belongs to the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club after the Youth Development team of Malcolm Parker , Evelyn Forster , Harley Walters and Nic Andersen took the win from the Royal Freshwater Bay Team skippered by Will Boulden . The final day of the 2017 Nespresso Youth Match Racing Cup saw lead changes , upsets and the pressure got to some more than others . For those in the RNZYS members bar or listening from home they would have been treated to Cruising Yacht Club of Australia coach Jordan Reece and 7th placed skipper Thomas Grimes provided live commentary and insights to the day ’ s proceedings . We started the day with semi-finals . Top placed from the round robin was Will Boulden who picked Will Eastman in the semifinals . In the battle of the Will ’ s , Eastman ( RPNYC ) took the first match against Boulden ( RFBYC ) after winning the prestart , but Boulden took the following three matches to earn his place in the finals . The second set of trans-Tasman semi-finals saw Matt Hughes ( RNZYS ) competing against Malcolm Parker ( RPAYC ). While Hughes won all of the starts , Parker sailed well around the track and went on to win the semi-final 3 – 0 . Petit-finals saw Eastman ( RPNYC ) and Hughes ( RNZYS ) battling it out for third place . In the first race Hughes took an early lead , but after trouble with his gennaker Eastman snuck through to take the win . Eastman went on to claim the petit 2 nil to secure 3rd place . RNZYS skipper Matthew Hughes finished 4th . It was an all Australian final between Will Boulden ( RFBYC ) and Malcolm Parker ( RPAYC ). In what turned out to be an incredibly tight final . Will Boulden took the first race with Malcolm Parker taking the next two “ He definitely had his skates on in those final two races .” Said Boulden at prizegiving 2017 champion Parker , thanked his competitors and crew for the close regatta . “ It was a tough final day , thanks to all my crew for getting me out of a few tricky situations ” - Parker . Race Officer Colin Lucas commented that the regatta “ was a tough regatta to run . It was great to have the breeze that we had today and to be able to get through the semi-finals and finals .” Lucas and his team have put in a huge amount of effort this week and we ’ re very thankful to them for all their hard work . Ben Fels , chief umpire for the week , was also “ extremely pleased with the week . It was a great regatta , lots of tight racing . Some of these teams have a lot of potential and I ’ m very excited to see them at future events ”. We had a great regatta this year with lots of close races , excitement , entertainment and competition . Thank you to all the competitors , teams , coaches and umpires for making this regatta such a great event . Finally , a big thank you to all our sponsors , Nespresso , Yachting Developments , Gurit , Bensemann Marine and Store Pro . We look forward
to another awesome event in 2018 .