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SYC at the New South Wales Youth Match Racing Championships!

Monday, 14th August 2017

Just recently, one very lucky group of SYC young members were fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney to compete in the New South Wales Youth Match Racing State Championships. This event, despite being a ‘New South Wales Championships,’ saw great interest from the entire East Coast of Australia with a total of ten teams competing. This included one team from Sandringham Yacht Club, Mooloolaba Yacht Club (QLD) and eight local teams from various clubs around the harbour.

The team that travelled from SYC had a mix of both new and experienced members of the SYC Match Racing Program this year. The team consisted of Hayden Brown (skipper), Gemma Burns, Daisy Laing, Mac Bird and Will Fox

Hayden, Gemma and Will were the only members of this crew with prior match racing experience. This was the first interstate regatta for Hayden on the helm as well being the first time that the team would sail as a crew in the Elliot 7. This made for a steep learning curve that showed with losses in the first few races but it didn’t take long for until the team found form finishing the day on four wins from seven races.

The weather conditions were extremely variable with winds from every direction but they were blessed with sunshine. This pushed the team to the limits and tested their skills and patience. The highlight was making finals (top four) which saw the team achieving the goal set out for the regatta, and exceeding expectations for some. Overall, the team finished in fourth place behind a few very experienced and capable teams from Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. The regatta was an incredible experience with lots of fun had on and off the water. All squad members have come away from it with extra passion and drive to continue training hard and to see what they can achieve in the near future.

The team would like to thank Sandringham Yacht Club for the continued support and assistance to help send the team to Sydney and also for the continued assistance throughout the year with the SYC Match Racing Program.

If anyone is interested in getting involved in the SYC Match Racing Program, then please do get in contact with the SYC Boating Office on 9599 0907!

Full results can be found by clicking here

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