Sunday, 7 March 2010

LIVESPORT TELECOM New Zealand National Match Racing Championships: Pellew Wins!




The winners: Katie Pellew, Nina Curtis, Lucinda Witty and Stacey Jackson. Image copyright RNZYS.

by Sara Roberts

Australian Katie Pellew (nee Spithill) won the one and only race in the finals against rival and fellow Australian Nicky Souter to win the LIVESPORT TELECOM New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Championships. The Race Committee was unable to complete any further races in the final series in the allocated time.

In the petit-final between the top two Kiwi teams Samantha Osborne beat Stephanie Hazard by 46 seconds and claim 3rd place overall.

Earlier in the semi finals Souter chose to sail Hazard and this left Pellew to race Osborne. Souter won the first, Hazard won the second and Souter the third to take her spot in the semi finals. Pellew beat Osborne two races to nil, to join her Australian counterpart.

This mornings racing began on time at 9.30am and the Race Committee had four flights of Round Robin Two to complete before they could move into Semi Finals and Finals. They achieved this just before 2pm, so it meant a reduced finals series was required.

Souter beat Pellew in flight nine this morning to take a one point advantage and finish top of the table with 17 wins overall and Pellew second on 16 wins. Osborne was the big mover Sunday morning, adding wins over Hazard, Winther & Lehtinen to take her score to 13 points overall, just not enough to overtake Hazard on 14 points, but clear enough ahead to make the top four.

Lehtinen missed out on the top four by three points, after losses this morning to Souter, Pellew & Osborne left her with 10 points overall.


Sam Osborne versus Nicky Souter at the LIVESPORT TELECOM New Zealand National Match Racing Championships. Image copyright RNZYS.

In sixth place overall was Takapuna sailor Sara Winther. Not normally a match racer Winther had some great races ending the regatta on 7 points overall.

Next overall and the first of the youth teams was 19 year old Danielle Bowater, in her first match racing regatta, and just beating her rival and fellow RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme youth team helmed by Katie de Lange, who placed eighth overall.

The youngest skipper in the competition at just 16 years of age Anita Trudgen, representing the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club in Wellington ended on 3 wins and nineth place overall.

Finally American Kim Stuart and her team from Santa Monica had a tough regatta with the tide and range of wind conditions and finished in 10th place overall.

All the competitors commented at prizegiving about the fantastic Race Management and Umpiring during the week and how much fun they had sailing each other in the Elliott 6s.

Most of the teams head over to Australian to compete this week in the Harken Women’s Match Racing Regatta held by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

Sunday’s Results
Round Robin Two
Flight Six

Winther beat Trudgen by 59s
Hazard beat Bowater by 55s
Lehtinen beat Stuart by 44s
Souter beat Osborne by 13s
Pellew beat de Lange by 15s

Flight Seven
Souter beat Lehtinen by 1m17s
Pellew beat Trudgen by 47s
De Lange beat Bowater by 43s
Winther beat Stuart by 3m38s
Osborne beat Hazard by 20s

Flight Eight
Bowater beat Trudgen by 20s
De Lange beat Stuart by 1m11s
Osborne beat Winther by 38s
Pellew beat Lehtinen by 26s
Souter beat Hazard by 5s

Flight Nine
De Lange beat Trudgen by 27s
Bowater beat Winther by 50s
Hazard beat Stuart by 15s
Osborne beat Lehtinen by 2s
Souter beat Pellew by 31s

Semi Finals
Souter beat Hazard DNF
Hazard beat Souter by 18s

Pellew beat Osborne by 26s
Pellew beat Osborne by 3s

Petit Final
Osborne beat Hazard by 1m24s

Finals
Pellew beat Souter by 46s

Final Placings
1st Katie Pellew (AUS)
2nd Nicky Souter (AUS)
3rd Sam Osborne (NZL)
4th Stephanie Hazard (NZL)
5th Silja Lehtinen (FIN)
6th Sara Winther (NZL)
7th Danielle Bowater (NZL)
8th Katie de Lange (NZL)
9th Anita Trudgen (NZL)
10th Kim Stuart (USA)

Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron

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