The best youth match racing teams in the country competed at the 2024 New Zealand Youth Match Racing Championship this weekend 14th-15th September at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Eleven teams from Auckland, Wellington & Nelson raced in the RNZYS’ new fleet of Elliott 7’s donated to the Squadron by Emirates Team New Zealand earlier this year. Saturday’s round robin saw a mixture of conditions across the race course with light winds in the morning preceding squally conditions from midday. While Sunday looked more like spring with sunshine and a fresh 15-20knt south-westerly.
RNZYS Performance Programme sailors Josh Hyde and his Waitemata racing team showed a strong performance in the round robins with 9 wins from 10 races. However, it was Nelson Yacht Club’s Noah Malpot who took the first win of the finals. Malpot chalked up another win in race four pushing Hyde to sudden death in race five. The final start between Malpot and Hyde was close. Hyde took an early lead at mark one and continued to stretch the lead downwind securing the win and their spot as New Zealand Youth Match Racing Champions.
Hyde continues to go from strength to strength in 2024 with a win at the RSYS’ Hardy Cup in February and a back-to-back win at the RNZYS’ Youth International Match Racing Cup in March. Their latest win this weekend secures their spot to represent New Zealand at the 2024 Youth Match Racing World Championship hosted by Jeddah Yacht Club from 29th November to 2nd December.
RNZYS Performance Coach Zak Merton was pleased with the tight racing between the teams remarking “the closeness of the matches across the fleet really highlights the calibre of teams we have competing, it’s great to see the work these sailors are putting in paying off. I’m very excited for the season ahead.”
67 races were completed over two days, RNZYS wishes to thank our race management volunteers and umpires who worked tirelessly to execute a fantastic match racing programme. Thankyou also to Royal Akarana Yacht Club, Ponsonby Cruising Club and Zephyrus Racing for lending RHIBs for the event.
The top three skippers also gained entry into the 2024 NZ Match Racing Championships to be sailed at the RNZYS from 15-17 November 2024.
