Josh Junior Wins The 2014 New Zealand Match Racing Championships

Josh Junior has taken out the 2014 NZ Match Racing Championships in an awesome display of speed and tenacity, winning 8 matches from 10 in a gruelling day on the Waitemata Harbour.

Josh and his crew of Jason Saunders, Daniel Willcox, Gemma Jones and Caleb Armit had a day of close races with barely seconds between opponents in most matches. In the finals a fluffed gennaker hoist nearly cost him the regatta giving a huge one minute lead to runner up Chris Steele.

Josh’s comments on today’s racing were, “Stoked to win. It was a long day and we were penalised in the first race of the Semis meaning we had to regain the point we lost at the protest. David Chapman was hard to beat; we had heaps of close races against him. Overall it has been a great learning week for a crew of dinghy sailors.” At Prizegiving Junior was proud of his crew and has lined up 9 year old Caleb Armit to sail with them again. Caleb had the role of counting down the starts and looking after the Protest flag, the Umpires and Race Management were impressed with Caleb’s efforts!

Steele who had managed a clean sweep of the round robin never lost a race until he and his crew of Graeme Sutherland, Garth Ellingham and Harry Hull came up against Junior. During the Quarter and Semi-final stages their margins were convincing leaving no room for doubt that they wanted the trophy. And then with the one minute win against Junior this experienced crew must have felt the regatta was theirs, however in flight 2 Junior sneaked past Steele right on the finish line winning by a tiny 4 seconds. Steele said, “we were looking really strong. Then we had a couple of incidents in the finals, the gennaker in match 2 and then gaining a penalty against Junior in the final match pre-start which we just couldn’t clear Junior enough to complete our turn. Good work by the crew, we couldn’t have asked for better.” Due to the Junior/Chapman protest meaning the second semi-final series went to all five flights Steele and crew spent a bit of time waiting, going off the boil during the day.

Chapman and his crew of Ross Vickers, Jaiden Stevens and Matt Stenta had a cracking day winning the Quarters convincingly, then taking Junior to the last race in the Semis. The slimmest of margins – 1 second in match three gave them a glimmer before Junior snatched it away. It was a long nine flights today for Chapman. The highlight being in the top three of a full-on regatta with tough competition and beating Dickson in the Petite finals in two very close matches. “It was a good regatta and our crew have only sailed this regatta together, so three days! Full credit to Josh. He deserved the win.”

Scott Dickson’s crew were happy to have a day without huge gusts and rain. “What a difference a day makes! This is a really well run regatta and we had some really challenging conditions. Hats off to my team. We didn’t finish worse than we started and we made it to the top four.” said Dickson. With Guy Pilkington, Michael Boucher and today Jamie Dawson substituted for Samantha Osborne the crew worked hard but some mistakes cost them races. Dickson was happy though to be in good company and is looking forward to his return in 2015.

For Mackay, Chatonnier, Pyatt and Brasell a promising forecast on the water today couldn’t change their placing’s. Such talented sailors couldn’t get past the brutal scoring of Match Racing, meaning although they improved, raced fantastic races and gave it their all, they just couldn’t get past the top four during the Quarter Finals. And for Alan Quere and crew from New Caledonia and Peter Waring with crew from Napier Sailing Club and Murrays Bay. It was a disappointing regatta. The weather was not kind and Saturday’s cancellation of racing due to a 35-50 knot gale meant there was no chance to redeem themselves after only gaining one point each in Round Robin One.

Despite the wind and rain during this regatta which forced a change in racing schedule, the Orcas on Friday and the awesome heavy air breeze still gave the sailors a great ride and we hope they will return to give it a go again in 2015.

Results for the 2014 NZ Match Racing Championship are:
Overall Results
1. Josh Junior – Worser Bay Boating Club
2. Chris Steele – RNZYS
3. – David Chapman – RSYS
4. – Scott Dickson – LBYC
5. – Sam Mackay – RPNYC
6. – Lucas Chatonnier – RNZYS YTP
7. – Susannah Pyatt – MBSC / RNZYS
8. – George Brasell – RNZYS YTP
9. – Alan Quere – CNC
10. – Peter Waring – NSC