Scots College Take Out the 2010 College Sport Wellington Match Racing Champs
The 2010 College Sport Wellington Match Racing Champs were completed on the 19th of September in a perfect 10 to 15 knot breeze. With all racing on Saturday being postponed to Sunday the schedule was tight. The teams were seeded forming two equal groups. The top two teams from each group after a round of qualifying races were to proceed into the top 4 match racing finals.
From group one Scots College went through relatively unchallenged winning all their races clearly followed by Wellington College to advance into finals. In group two Aotea College One were the top qualifiers followed by Hutt Valley High/Paraparaumu team who scraped through ahead of HIBS by one point.
As teams started to tire it became a psychological battle as much as a physical one. In the first semi-final Scots fought back after losing a race to the young Wellington College team to win two races to one. In the second semi final Aotea dispatched Hutt Valley High/Paraparaumu two nil.
This set the stage for a final which was sure to be close. Aotea kept their consistency to win the first in the best of three final. However Scots came back firing showing aggression and a do or die attitude. They inflicted a penalty on Aotea in the pre start and sailed conservatively from then on to take the race. It was now 4.30 pm and it was down to a sudden death race to see who would take the championship. Scots continued to sail a solid race to win the College Sport Wellington Match Racing Championships.
A big thanks to Roger Cook for Running the races with help from Mike Francis and Ross Pritchard. Also to the umpires, Hana Maguire and Phil McDowell for their time.
Final Results:
1st Scots College – James McLean, Stu Williams and Mackenzie Taylor
2nd Aotea 1 – Josh Cook, Michael Cook, Hannah Corke and Amberlee Faint-Rafferty
3rd Hutt Valley High/Paraparaumu – Anita Trudgen, Heather Trudgen and Janey Goaedhart
4th Wellington College – Nick Thyne, Joe Tildesley, Ken Tildesley and Basil Connor
5th HIBS – Dan McDowell, Callum Pritchard, George Gautrey and Jono Francis
6th Aotea 2 – Theo deJong, Tom Rowland, James Moore and Jordan Lawson
7th Wellington High 1 – Vivian Christie-Jones, Michael Ballinger, Tom leslie
8th Rongotai – William McVeagh, Jake Tennant and William Eastman
9th Queen Margaret’s/St Mary’s – Kristen Stewart, Harriet Rowland, Tori Scott and Beth Holzer
10th Wellington High 2 – Chora Carleton, Maddy Mclean, Joel Latimer and Alice Leslie.
This story also appears in the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club website.