Grimes off to a perfect start at the Youth Match Racing World Championship

Australia’s Tom Grimes got off to a perfect start on the first racing day of the 2019 Youth Match Racing World Championship, winning five races out of five.

They are followed by the British team who lost one race out of seven and the Polish crew who lost one of their five races.

“It was a good racing day,” said Anna Deyanova, Course representative. “The wind started from six knots and up to seventeen knots, so we were able to complete twelve flights (3 matches each) & two matches of the thirteen flight. All teams behaved professionally, so we can say that they are really strong.”

Tom Grimes, skipper of the Australian team commented, “Today it’s been really challenging and really shifty and a lot of teams have been struggling to find the shift in every race but we’ve just been trying to keep it really simple. I think we are doing our best, however all teams at the World Championship are really strong, just exactly as we expected. None of the races were easy. I just really enjoyed racing today, although usually we are sailing in Sydney harbor which is really choppy and we sail different boats. By the way, the boats here are much better than they look in photos, they are very good and well balanced.”

Matt Whitfield, skipper of the British added, “The day was really good. We won all the races except the last one. We just kept it simple, we made sure that we were coming in to the line with full speed, were looking where the wind was going to come from and just sailing fast. It is too early to say which team is the strongest, because all of them are doing their best. I’m really enjoying this competition, sailing is good, plenty of races done, nice wind. And I’m really impressed that Russia differs from what I know. So I’m really enjoying it.”

Of the leading teams, Mateusz Go?aszewski of Poland concluded, “It was pretty nice weather conditions. I hope, we will take a good place in the Round-Robin after the first day. I think we should just keep pushing and be focused simply to sail on like we did today.”

Summary of the first racing day:
Nick Egnot-Johnson, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron / Team KNOTS (NZL) – 3 wins of 6 races
Matt Whitfield, Penarth YC / Dragon Racing Team (GBR) – 6 of 7
Måns Holmberg, Holmberg Racing Team (SWE) – 3 of 7
Tom Grimes, Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Team (AUS) – 5 of 5
Aurelien Pierroz, Société des Régates du Havre Team (FRA) – 4 of 6
Rocco Attili, RBYS Racing Team (ITA) – 4 of 7
Jeppe Borch, Borch Racing Team (DEN) – 4 of 6
Jack Parkin, Riverside Yacht Club, Stanford Sailing Team (USA) – 4 of 7
Mark Abdrakipov, MyWind Team (RUS) – 1 of 7
Igor Tarasiuk, HRM Racing Youth Team (POL) – 4 of 5
Kodai Mutsuda, Kobe University Team (JPN) – 0 of 6
Jakub Halouzka, Team CZE Zdenek Dybal (CZE) – 0 of 7
 
The Youth Match Racing World Championship is held in Gubernskiy Yacht Club KOMATEK, Ekaterinburg from 12-17 August 2019.

Participants are from New Zealand, Great Britain, Sweden, Australia, France, Italy, Denmark, USA, Poland, Japan, Czech Republic and Russia.

Event website – http://2019ymrwc.komatek-club.ru/