The Yachtsman 2017-2018 The Yachtsman 2017-2018 | Page 26
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
A N N I V E R S A R Y H A R K E N I N T E R N AT I O N A L
CHAMPIONSHIP
I
Anniversary Harken
International
Championship
to Japanese
representative team
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YA C H T S M A N R PAY C
n a first for a Japanese representative
team, rising match racing talent Leonard
Takahashi and his crew claimed the 25th
anniversary 2017 Harken International
Youth Match Racing Championship
convincingly and in unique style on finals day,
Sunday November 26, 2017.
North-easterly sea breezes 14 gusting to 18
knots on Pittwater paired with bright spring
sunshine capped off four days of similarly
ideal conditions for the 12 competing teams,
eight of them international.
Over the four-day knockout round robin
format Takahashi’s Pacific Racing Team and
their training partners, James Wilson’s Royal
New Zealand Yacht Squadron team, proved
round after round they had the pace, flair and
match racing nous to deserve a finals berth.
The finals were definitely a balancing act
for RNZYS coach Reuben Corbett who trains
both teams, thereby requiring him to carefully
divide his loyalty when two sets of protégés
ended up squaring off.
Overseen by race officer Ted Anderson
and his highly polished race management and
umpire teams, Pacific Racing Team wrapped
up the series 3:1, then added their own unique
and ummeditated post-match celebration.
At the finish Takahashi was wrestled
off the helm by Josh Wijohn and into the
water. Then, in the excitement of their
victory bowman Taylor Balogh repeated the
celebration on Tim Snedden, leaving the
Elliott 7 sailing downwind crew-less until the
boat was recovered without incident.
“It’s my first time helming at the Harken
and my first big international win,” Takahashi
said back at The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht
Club. “James is also in the Royal New
Zealand youth program and today felt like we
were training back in Auckland, except there
were a lot more spectators and umpires. All of
us are mates.”
Similar to New Zealand’s Peter Burling
and Blair Tuke, who went from Rio 2016 gold
medal performances to helping secure the
2017 America’s Cup for Emirates Team New
Zealand to the Volvo Ocean Race, the next
tier of Kiwi youth match racers are shoring
up the country’s sailing future, if the talent
on display at the 25th anniversary Harken
International is anything to go by.
“We definitely all look up to Pete and Blair
as sailors and great guys,” Takahashi added.
“They are a big inspiration and we want to be
like them one day.”
Second place at the 2017 Harken
International
Youth
Match
Racing
Championship went to James Wilson,
Sam Barnett, Zac Merton and Bradley
McLaughlin (RNZYS) and third was Finn
Tapper’s Cruising Yacht Club of Australia
team of Tom and Jess Grimes, Harry West
and Eric Sparkes.
First, second and third place take home
match racing points plus a bundle of cash
each, thanks to the event’s naming rights
sponsor of 20 years, Harken Australia.
“You guys have been written into the
event’s history books and Harken is proud to
be a part of it,” Harken Australia managing
director Grant Pellew said at the trophy
presentation. “There are a lot of top teams
who came from this event but it’s also about
those youth teams who aren’t ranked, but who
get the chance to learn from the others, and
maybe make it to the top one day.”
The Harken’s striking perpetual Rockin’
Robin trophy was originally donated to the
RPAYC by Robyn Wiltshire-Newman. It is
named after a boatload of young Australian
men, including her husband and son plus
other club members, who along with their
boat Rockin’ Robin were tragically lost at sea
back in 1990 en route to Fiji.
Takahashi joins a long list of past Harken
winners engraved on the trophy, some of
whom have gone on to represent their
countries and sailing at the highest levels.
Lisa Ratcliff
Harken International media/OCC
R PAY C YA C H T S M A N
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