Performance Programme Report

ANDREW AITKEN ANDY ANDERSON BEACON MARINE COLIN & PATRICA CARRAN COLOURWORX ROY DICKSON DODSON JAPANESE PARTSWORLD DOYLE SAILS GRAEME EDWARDS GERALD FLYNN MATTHEW FLYNN GALBRAITH FAMILY DON GRAYSON HARKEN NZ PHILLIP HART HOPMAN FAMILY ICEFIRE LTD KZ RACE FURLERS LIGHTHOUSE MARINE EQUIPMENT LUCAS FAMILY MIKE MAHONEY STEVE MAIR MCKEOGH FAMILY MULCAHY ENGINEERING DAVID NATHAN NEW WORLD BIRKENHEAD PAGANI PORK CHOP RACING ANDREW REID SAVINGS WORKS JOHN & KATHRYN SINCLAIR SOUTHERN SPARS/ RIGPRO WASHTECH WESTHAVEN ROTARY WINDOWMAKERS HUGH L WRIGHT YACHTING DEVELOPMENTS ZHIK

SUPPORTERS Egnot-Johnson’s Knot Racing crew celebrate their win.

Our RNZYS Performance Programme teams were back into proper competition this month at the 2021 Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup held at the RNZYS. Nick Egnot-Johnson’s Knots Racing, Jordan Stevenson’s Vento Racing, Celia Willison’s Edge Women’s Match, and Megan Thomson’s 2.0 Racing were all on board an Elliott 7 for what was this year a purely Kiwi-only team regatta.

Racing was incredibly tight throughout the regatta despite light winds slowing things down and even causing a postponement of racing for all of day two. The round robin stage was settled on day three, with Egnot-Johnson and Stevenson facing off in the final match of the flight to decide who would be the top seed heading into the quarterfinals. It was a true classic between these two rivals, but EgnotJohnson came out on top.

We were now straight into the quarterfinals, with all four of our PP teams securing a spot. Top seed Egnot-Johnson made light work of Mastercard Youth Training Programme skipper Max McLachlan with a 3-0 victory. Stevenson and Willison were up against each and it was evenly poised at 1-1. Stevenson then hit back to take a 2-1 lead heading into the final day. Thomson and her mainly female team (with the exception of Oakley Marsh) also managed to get a win on the board against Wellingtonian Albert Stanley, but was also down 2-1 heading into Sunday.

Finals Day on Sunday was again extremely light and as time went on, the RM team had to make a call to end the two remaining quarterfinals as they were, meaning Stevenson and Stanley went through, with Thomson and Willison missing out. By 1420, a light breeze finally arrived on the course, but with time running out, the decision was made to make both the semi-finals and finals sudden death matches.

Stevenson had a cracking semi-final against Mastercard YTP skipper Robbie McCutcheon, with the young skipper leading for the majority of the race before the experienced Stevenson sailed around him on the final downwind leg. Egnot-Johnson’s semi-final was a contrast, with the Knots Racing team caning Stanley by a large margin.

The sudden death final was now set, with our two rival RNZYS PP teams going at it yet again. Stevenson got away to a brilliant start, leading for the first two legs with what looked like an unassailable margin. However, on the second upwind leg, he sailed into a big hole. Egnot-Johnson hadn’t given up, with his KNOTS Racing team finding some decent puff on the right-hand side to sail right back into contention. That little bit of puff was all EgnotJohnson needed, carrying his speed and sailing in front to lead at the top mark and then all the way down the final leg to finish just ahead of Stevenson by two boat lengths.

This is Egnot-Johnson’s second Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup title, and it will also be his last, with the now not-soyoung skipper ageing out of the youth scene.

“We were looking a bit on the rocks at the start to be honest. They had about a half a leg lead on us, but the wind really shut down and we were able to sail around the outside, which we were pretty relieved about. It’s an awesome feeling to win my last ever youth regatta – really cool to go out with a bang,” he said. By Andrew Delves