The Yachtsman 2017-2018 RPAYC Yachtsman 2016-2017 | Page 66

MUSTO YOUTH
MATCH RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS – CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR!
W
ill Dargaville and his team of Josh
Dawson, Sarah Parker, Hannah
Lanz and James Farquharson
represented the RPAYC at the
Musto Youth International Match
Racing Regatta hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club
of Australia.
Dargaville finished off the round robin in 4th place,
qualifying him for the quarter finals. He then went onto
win the quarters 2-0 against Will Eastman from Royal
Port Nicholson Yacht Club. In the semifinals, Dargaville
was against the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s
George Anyon. The racing that followed was close, with
Dargaville coming back from match point to win two
races in a row and take the win. He then proceeded to
the finals to verse Harry Price from the Cruising Yacht
Club of Australia.
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 and spent
the second work on opposite sides of the course, both
showing confidence in their wind strategy in 12-15 knots
of breeze. Price transferred a one length lead into a win
by 20 seconds. In Match 2, another close pre-start forced
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Dargaville below the pin lay line but he was able to claw
his way back to a tight cross before the top mark, but
then followed Price in on the lay line. Price didn’t let
Dargaville get his foot back in the door, keeping a close
cover to take Race 2.
In Match 3, Dargaville won the pin end of the line,
but was slow after misjudging the lay line. Dargaville
managed to pick a right hand shift and maintain his lead
to the finish line to take the series into another match,
with scores 2-1 to Price. Match 4 saw Price and Dargaville
go hard in the pre-start eager for the win. However, a
slight misjudgement by Dargaville caused him to hit
Price’s stern and receive a penalty. “I thought we were
clear to swing… Maybe I need to get a tape measure
and double check the length of the Elliott” commented
a cheeky Dargaville.
From there Price sailed a clean race, with both boats
showing excellent boat handling skills and speed. Price
stayed between the mark and his opposition performing
textbook match racing tactics and took the finals win 3-1.
A humble Dargaville commented “Full credit to
Price and his team Harry got the upper hand with the
pre-starts today. I want to thank my crew for not giving
up and giving it their all in these tricky conditions.”