Sailing News
RPAYC Win Marinassess Match Racing Regatta
Milly Bennett, Alice Tarnawski, Seldon
Coventry, Bryony Gregory & Bonnie
Custance have taken out their second
Marinassess Women’s Match Racing
Regatta in style, winning every race in
a shortened regatta format when the
breeze failed to cooperate for half of the
final day.
The Race Committee managed to complete the rest of the round robin 2 after
a delay over lunch when the breeze died
from the west and shifted to the east
which brought with it champagne sailing
conditions for the final races of the
regatta.
Heading into the day, Bennett and her
team were comfortably ahead on the
leader board, leading the Cruising Yacht
Club of Australia’s Caitlin Tames by 2
points. In another flawless performance
the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club
(RPAYC) team sailed smarter and faster
than their competitors for the entire Day
2, adding another 4 wins to their scorecard to win the regatta by 3 points and
go undefeated over the weekend. Tames
and her team held onto their second
place from Day 1, losing only 3 races of
their 14.
weekend.” Commented Willison at the
presentation.
Kat Stroinovsky (CYCA) and her team also
performed strongly on Day 2, clawing
back the distance to third place but their
slow start to the regatta on Day 1 left
them missing out on a podium spot on
count-back. Instead, 2015 Marinassess
runners-up, Lauren Gallaway (CYCA)
held onto third place having beaten
Stroinovsky in the all-important second
round.
After a spectacular broach on Saturday
afternoon which saw the spinnaker catch
over the top of the mast, Kirsten Norris (CYCA) slipped into 6th overall with
Claudia Thackray (RSYS) and Elyse Guevara-Rattray (CYCA) staying in seventh
and eighth position.
The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s
Celia Willison and her crew finished the
weekend in 5th place. This was Willison’s
first match racing regatta as skipper, and
is a vital step forward ahead of the summers youth match racing events.
“It was great to come over to Sydney to
compete in this event. The competition
was really strong and we learnt a lot
which was the main goal for the weekend. We want to thank the Cruising Yacht
Club of Australia and also Phil Tomkins
& John Messenger who kindly loaned
their yachts to us to stay on over the
Milly Bennett thanked the umpires,
race officials & John Messenger for his
continued support of this regatta which
marked the 21st year John and Marinassess have sponsored the event. CYCA
YSA Administrator Pam Scrivenor commented “It has to be one of the longest
sailing event sponsorships in Australia!
We cannot thank John enough for his
continued support of this event and
the Youth Sailing Academy here at the
CYCA.”
by Lauren Hooper, Photo by CYCA Media