Australian Young Guns Enjoy Great Weekend Of Melges 24 Racing
For the second year running the Melges 24 Young Guns Regatta hosted by Royal Price Alfred Yacht Club in association with Yachting NSW and many volunteers brought together young competitors aged sixteen to thirty years old from many classes for some hard racing and a chance to socialise.
This unique event and concept in the Australian calendar is an annual initiative designed to be a fundamental element in youth sailing retention and participation strategies, introducing youth sailors to international high performance sports boat racing with a particular emphasis on female participation in sailing the boats and running, managing and planning the regatta.
Over the weekend on sunny Pittwater eight races were conducted with alternating male and female skippers pushing the Melges 24 donated fleet to the limit in some exciting and close racing. The winds on Saturday were a real test for competitors in the gusty sou’westerlies that dominated the best part of the day with many wind shifts of 90deg resulting in crews transforming from roosters one minute to feather-dusters the next.
Sunday’s racing was a good deal more user-friendly with a steady 10-12kts delivering up far more consistent conditions enabling the crews to race at close quarters over the remaining three races with many lead changes at each crossing and winners at the finish line.
Ultimately Jester skippered by Dave O’Connor and Sophie Turner and crew stole the show from the Amigos’ Petr Fiala and Millie Bennett’s crew with Harry Price and Georgia Clancy’s crew on Matilda winning the bronze after a strong comeback performance from start to finish in the series.
Of special note was Yachting NSW’s Andrew Cribb introducing a new and relatively younger crew on Sunday during their first two races where his mentoring obviously paid dividends for these somewhat younger guns. For once he had left the boat and gave them their head, they out-performed the whole fleet for most of the final three lap race leading all the way around the course until the last leg. Of course there were a few qualifying remarks directed towards Cribby who was watching the newly found success of his crew without him on board on the committee vessel. All were very impressed at their improvement.
The Melges Young Guns Regatta concluded with all crews tired but happy and looking forward to next year’s opportunity to meet up and cross swords again.
David Price