In mid-February, Harrison Vandervort, Jack Martin, Megan Roach, Frankie Dair and I went down to New Zealand for the Harken Youth International Match Race Championships. This was the most significant race any of us have ever attended and it was a great experience. The racing was some of the most challenging and demanding sailing any of us had ever experienced. Our coach, Laurie Jury, was amazing and taught us more about match racing than we had ever learned before in all our years of practice.
We had several days to practice in the new boats, Elliot 7 Meters, and they were very different than we were used to. All the practice days were pretty windy, but not quite as bad as the first race day, which blew upwards of 20 knots. The first day was somewhat disappointing because we rounded the final windward mark in first place four times and only won once. Lucky for us the second day was more of Newport-style at seven knots and we won every race that day by almost an entire leg. And on the third day of racing, which turned out to be our last, we won one and lost two.
We did qualify for the quarter final round, but it was cancelled due to the lack of wind on the final day. Even though that was a somewhat disappointing ending, we still finished 7th out of 14, which was better than we expected.
Overall it was an amazing experience and none of it would’ve been possible without the BYC Maritime Sciences and Seamanship Foundation and all the people who made generous donations to make this trip possible and such a good learning experience.
Christophe Killian