Kiwi Women in Australian Match Racing Upset

The only all-women and only New Zealand crew in the Hardy’s Australian Match Racing Championship (open) have finished top team going into tomorrow’s finals on Hobart’s River Derwent in Tasmania, Australia.

In a day of upsets, Stephanie Hazard (NZL) and her crew of Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt and Nichola Trudget won five straight match races in the second round-robin to finish with a total of seven wins over the two knock-out round-robins.

“They sailed faultless match-racing with smart tactics, excellent boat handling and perfect spinnaker work in the Elliott 5.9s,” said principal race officer Murray Jones from the host club, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Sailing conditions were ideal for match racing – a sunny day with a 6-8 knot breeze enabling all races to be sailed with spinnakers, unlike on Monday when strong winds forced officials to decree ‘no kites’ for some matches.

The women are all members of the New Zealand Sailing Team, each of them coming from a successful dinghy background with Stephanie and Susannah placing in the top ten in the world championship for the International 420 class.

The other finalists for tomorrow’s finals are Evan Walker from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, David Chapman from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Nick Rogers from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

The Kiwi women have the right to choose their semi-final opponent, which they will not announce until tomorrow morning. The semi-finals will be best of three matches, with the final a best of five match encounter. Senior skipper in the fleet, champion International Dragon champion and Sayonara Cup match-racing winner Nick Rogers won his way into the finals with a determined effort today.

After failing to win a race on Sunday, then two on Monday, Rogers scored two significant wins in today’s second round-robin, the first against overnight leader Will MacKenzie, the second, in his final match, against fellow RYCT representative, 18-year-old Elliott Noye.

He ousted Mackenzie from the final four on a countback the result also hinging on a tightly fought encounter with Noye which saw the young helmsman penalised for entering the starting area incorrectly, but recovering the position when Rogers was called a premature starter.

The two Tasmanians closed up at the bottom mark, but Rogers extricated himself with a smart double gybe while Noye received a race-losing penalty.

The scores at the end of the two round robins were:
Stephanie Hazard (NZL) 7 wins
Evan Walker (NSW, AUS) 6 wins
David Chapman (NSW, AUS) 6 wins
Nick Rogers (Tasmania, AUS) 4 wins
Will Mackenzie (NSW, AUS) 4 wins
Elliott Noye (Tasmania, AUS) 3 wins

By Peter Campbell (Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania)