The Yachtsman 2017-2018 RPAYC Yachtsman 2016-2017 | Page 69

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2017
F
ollowing the Governor’s cup we were feeling
very prepared for the World Championship,
after sailing in the boats and the conditions
off Newport Beach for a week already. There
were six new competitors from Italy, France,
Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland at Worlds to make
up the 12 teams. It was exciting, yet nerve-racking racing
against all the new European teams. We hadn’t raced
many of them before and it was nice to be up against
new teams as well as the ‘usual suspects’.
The World Championship began in extremely
light wind, with our first match of the day being the
‘grudge match’ against the only other all-female team
at the regatta! The first race was cancelled when the
ocean completely glassed over and we started moving
backwards. This became a common trend of the regatta
with lots of waiting around for wind and racing in
extremely marginal conditions. The weather conditions of
this regatta were extremely different to that of Governor’s
Cup, with many people telling us last week we were
extremely lucky to have such amazing wind and swell!
This week we were racing in a lot lighter breeze, with
racing sometimes as light as a couple of knots, large
breaking waves at times and very strong current! These
conditions were extremely testing and really tested all
of our patience while racing! On the final day of round
robin racing, we were lucky to have enough wind to
complete nearly a whole round robin with short racing.
However, there was not enough time for sail offs, so we
finished in 7th place.
We were extremely lucky to have Don and Doris
Stoughton have us stay at their house for Worlds and take
us all out to watch the finals on their boat. Don and Doris
have hosted teams from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht
Club for numerous years now and are definitely in the
running for the ‘World’s Best Host’ award!
Y O U T H M AT C H R A C I N G
We would like to thank our coach Tom Spithill for his
amazing efforts over the two regattas. Especially in those
testing conditions when it was so wavy we could barely
pull up against the coach rib! Not a day you would ever
want to be a spectator for!
These opportunities would not have been possible
without the ongoing support from the Royal Prince Alfred
Yacht Club and its enormous efforts to support Youth
sailing within the Club! Thank you to the entire yacht
Club. It was an honour to represent such a wonderful
Club on the international stage.
CLARE COSTANZO
YAC H T SMA N
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