Day 1: Club Marine NSW Youth Match Racing State Championships

It was a tricky day on the water with light and very shifty conditions. We had a bit of trouble getting out in morning after having realized that the halyard lock on our boat didn't work just as we were about to launch. So we had to rig a new boat and rush onto the water and missed some vital training time. This showed in our first race which was our only loss of the day.

After a quick regrouping and chat with our coach, we settled down into our roles and got back into our groove. The other competitors kept us on our toes, but the rest of the day was a success with 7 wins in a row. This put us on the top of the leader board after day 1.

 

Day 2: Club Marine NSW Youth Match Racing State Championships

We had a tricky start to the day with only 2 wins in the second round robin. Our boat handling was out and a few silly mistakes in the pre-starts had us playing catch up in a lot of the races. However, we made the petite finals in equal second place with Parker (RPAYC) and Hartas (CYCA), with Jones (CYCA) 2 points ahead in first place.

In the petite finals we raced against Oliver Hartas in a best of 3. After losing the first race, we got back into focusing on our own race and keeping our onboard communication calm and clear. We then won the next 2 races putting us into the finals against Murray Jones (CYCA).

The wind picked up for the finals to about 15 knots and we were thankful that we had our Rocktape on supporting us as we were hiking our hardest and for longer periods of time. However, not having sailed the Elliot 7’s before in these conditions led to a few critical errors in the prestart. Despite this we ended up with an equal start and had a close race, finishing just behind Jones.

In race 2 we were both over on the start line and it took us a bit longer to get back to the line than Jones so we were behind for the entire race. However, the wind kept building during the race and we didn’t give up heart! On our last downwind we pushed the boat to its limits and got it up on the plane leading to a fantastic finish.

After a hard weekend sailing in mixed conditions we were lucky to be able to have Rocksauce to help our muscle recovery and Rocktape to reduce muscle fatigue race after race! We all noticed a considerable improvement in our stamina levels throughout the regatta on account of wearing Rocktape and recovering with Rocksauce and we can’t wait to see how it can continue to support our performance in the future.

We are extremely happy and proud of our 2nd place result and congratulate Murray Jones and his team for their win and for being such great competition.

 

Thanks again to our coaches Tom and Katie Spithill, CYC for hosting the event, the other teams for such a great regatta and some tough matches and RockTape for their support and fantastic products.

 

Thank you from the MAKS Racing girls,

 Milly, Alice, Kajsa, Jess and Seldon