11 March, 2007 – written by Lisa Ratcliff CYCA
With rarely more than one boat length between the defending champion Souter and her worthy opponent, Jessica Smyth from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron who was unrelenting heading into today’s semis finals, the finals were spectacularly close.
“I never gave up,” said Souter this afternoon referring to her rollercoaster ride over the past four days. After leading the ISAF grade 2 regatta on day one, Souter slipped back to third on day two before clawing her way back up to second at the end of day three.
Souter beat RPAYC club mate Nina Curtis 2-0 in the semi finals while Smyth knocked CYCA’s Meghan Andrew out of the second semi with the same result, thereby setting up the final showdown between the two top ranked skippers.
Souter took race one after holding Smyth out against the start boat which forced her to tack where she didn’t have room, resulting in a penalty against Smyth.
In race two Smyth won the start and never looked back which gave the finalists one race apiece.
The start of race three was even but Souter gained an edge and hung on to take the win and set herself up for the decider which she won by two boat lengths thereby sealing her second win in as many years.
“We are really proud of how we sailed and of how far we’ve come in the last 12 months,” said Smyth at this evening’s trophy presentation hosted by CYCA Rear Commodore Garry Linacre.
“Nicky deserved to win…the racing was really close but at the end of the day, she out-sailed us," Smyth added.
The start of racing was delayed again today while the ten teams waited for the nor’easter to fill in, which it eventually did just before 1pm, building to a pleasant 10-12 knot sea breeze before dropping back to 8-10 knots by late this afternoon.
Now in its third year, the RPAYC in Pittwater on Sydney’s northern beaches has a clean sweep of the Harken International Women’s Match Racing Regatta trophies with Katie Spithill winning the inaugural regatta and Souter, sponsored by Musto, following up with back to back wins.
Jason Greenaway, sales manager for regatta sponsor Harken, was on the water watching today’s semi finals and finals action and he was delighted with the standard of competition.
“Particularly in the finals but right across the regatta the standard has been exceptional.
“With the profile of the event growing, it’s very exciting for Harken to be involved and pending the event’s acceptance as a grade one event next year, it’s great that we are at the grass roots level of a potentially world event,” said Greenaway this afternoon.
Places 5-10 were also decided today, the most thrilling of the day the sail off for fifth and sixth place between Samantha Osborne (RNZYS) and the CYCA’s Amanda Scrivenor.
“All sail offs went to the maximum three races showing how little there was between the teams,” said regatta organiser Jenni Bonnitcha.
All but one of Souter’s “relieved, excited and exhausted” crew plan to celebrate their win tonight. Lilly Taylor was able to postpone her year 12 mid year exam until tomorrow to fit in with her sailing commitments but tonight has to return to her books – teacher’s orders.
The next regatta on the women’s match racing circuit is the New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Championship from 19-22 April when Souter and her crew will head to Auckland where they will again come up against Jess Smyth, this time on her home turf
Full results are available at http://www.cyca.com.au/sysfile/downloads/HARKEN_finals_07.xls
Harken Australia www.harken.com.au
