Youth Scheme team reports in after day two at RPAYC in Sydney

Hi All,

At the end of day one Mike, Anita, Josh and I were all fortunate to sail on 'Dark Star', a Mcconaghy 38, which is a high performance racing yacht. There are 5 in Australia and three of which are here in Pittwater. Mike Cook took care of the bow, Anita Trudgen on jib trim, Josh Junior tactician, and I was fortunate to helm the entire race. Surrounded by carbon fibre, and with a massive square top main, it was effectively an 18 foot skiff in the form of a yacht!

http://www.mcconaghyboats.com/mc38/ - Imagine one of these flying down Wellington harbour!

Day two ended with the completion of round robin one. We finished on a high with two strong wins that we led from start to finish. We were very happy to put plenty of new moves into practice. In both races we won the starts convincingly and kept the racing clean. The breeze was very shifty so we did well to keep between the breeze and our opposition.

Unfortunately due to drafting of the sailing instructions, the race officier needed to seek permission from the top four teams to allow a second round robin. Three of the teams were strongly against the sailing of a second round robin which is a real shame from our perspective but understandable form theirs.

This means that it is now semi finals time as the top four teams advance. We have finished 5th in the first round robin, which now leads into a new round robin between places 5-10.

Although we are very disappointed not to make the semi's we're looking forward to the round robin between places 5-10 in hope to establish ourselves in fifth position. We're all looking forward to racing today and continuing to learn a lot.

Thank you for all the messages of support.

Cheers,
RPNYC Harken Team, Pittwater
Mike Cook, Anita Trudgen, Kate Johnson-Lee, Sam McKenzie