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Three young sailors from three different yacht clubs in New South Wales and Tasmania today combined to gain an impressive early lead on day one of the prestigious Hardy Cup Under 25 ISAF Grade 3 match racing regatta on Sydney Harbour.
Helmsman David Chapman, representing the host club, the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, mainsheet and spinnaker trimmer Ollie Nicholas from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, and bowman Daniel Nixon from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Sydney won seven of their eight matches in the first round-robin.
“We had never sailed together until today, but we clicked well in a day of very aggressive racing,” said Chapman who recently raced against Nicholas in the Farr 40 Tasmanian championship.
After crewing together this week they will be on opposing yachts again in the Farr Australian championship later this month, Chapman as tactician on Voodoo Chile and Nicholas as bowman on POW, both Tasmanian entrants for the nationals.
Sydney turned on a perfect day for match racing, a 12-16 knot south-east to easterly breeze that enabled race officers to complete the first round-robin.
“It is certainly one of the best line-ups of talented sailors we have had in recent years,” Chapman added, underling the fact that all but seven of the 36 flights were decided by less than 30 seconds. The bigger margins were the result of penalties.
Chapman’s only loss today was to Australian youth and open match-racing champion Ashlen Rooklyn and his crew of Jack Dawson and Jeronimo Harrison from the Cruising Yacht Club, who had six wins to be second overall.
Third in standings is New Zealander Chris Steele from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron with five wins, while in fourth place is West Australian David Gilmour, winner of last week’s Warren Jones International Youth Match Racing Regatta on Perth’s Swan River. He and his crew had four wins and four losses.
Rooklyn defeated Chapman in Flight 1 by 32 seconds after the RSYS crew incurred a double penalty, but Chapman scored double penalties in his wins over New Zealanders Chris Steele and Adam Nicholson.
Chapman’s other wins were close, beating David Gilmour by 13 seconds and fellow RSYS member Jordan Reece by just 2 seconds. “We came back from a double penalty to just win that flight,” Chapman added.
Placings after round-robin 1:
- David Chapman (RSYS, NSW) 7 wins, 1 loss
- Ashlen Rooklyn (CYCA, NSW) 6 wins, 2 losses
- Chris Steele (RNZYS, NZ) 5 wins, 3 losses
- David Gilmour (RFBYC, WA) 5 wins, 3 losses
- Jordan Reece (Estate Master Sailing Team, NSW) 4 wins, 4 losses
- Jay Griffin (CYCA, NSW), 4 wins, 4 losses
- Sam Gilmour (RFBYC, WA) 3 wins, 5 losses
- Adam Middleton (RPNYC, NZ) 2 wins, 6 losses
- Nick Howe (RSYS, NSW) 0 wins, 8 losses
From Peter Campbell
Photos by Mitch Watkins
