James Hodgson wins Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup

Auckland, New Zealand (February 23, 2020) – James Hodgson and his Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Youth Sailing Academy crew of Harry Hall, Louis Schofield, and Nick Rozenauers prevailed in what were very breezy conditions to win the 2020 Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup.

The four semifinalists were greeted by a strong twenty-three to thirty knot South Westerly this morning, which didn’t let up all day, providing a brilliant spectacle for those watching on the water, and challenging but fun conditions for the sailors involved.

The semi-final matchups were set with the French team helmed by Aurélien Pierroz (FRA) racing against Jordan Stevenson (NZL), and Nick Egnot-Johnson (NZL) taking on Hodgson.

The Semi-Finals were very similar to the quarterfinals, with both finishing in the minimum three races, and it was Hodgson and Stevenson who cruised into the finals with easy three – nil victories.

Egnot-Johnson then bounced back to sweep aside Pierroz two-nil in the petite final and claim third, setting the stage for the grand finale.

The first race of the final was a real humdinger, with Stevenson and Hodgson right on each other’s tails throughout, and it wasn’t until the final downwind leg that Stevenson nabbed a penalty on Hodgson and sailed away to take a one-nil lead.

Hodgson then retaliated in the second race, showing immense speed on the downwind legs to punch back and make it one a piece, assisted by a pretty spectacular wipeout from Stevenson. The second race took its toll on the boats though, with a few breakages meaning racing didn’t get back underway for nearly an hour.

When racing did back underway it was Hodgson who had all the momentum, and his slick crew didn’t make any mistakes in the final two races, leading both throughout and handing Stevenson a bit of a beating to sail away with the 2020 HARKEN Youth International Match Racing Cup.

Hodgson was thrilled with his team’s performance, especially seeing he beat both locals Stevenson and Egnot-Johnson on his way to the regatta victory, and is now looking ahead to next week’s World Championship.

“It was breeze on so we were just focusing on getting the boat around the track and doing all the basic stuff right and I think that’s what got us through in the end,” said Hodgson. “It was basically just set, get her up and going, gibe, and drop at the bottom, so there wasn’t really too much to it except keeping your boat under your mast.

“But yeah, we just had a fun day and focused on enjoying ourselves, we weren’t too worried about the results, but it went our way, so we are pretty stoked. I think Jordy {Stevenson} got us last time we raced him and so did EJ {Egnot-Johnson} so we’re pretty stoked to get one up on them in Auckland ahead of the Worlds.”

Racing was from February 20 to 23 in Elliott 7m keelboats.

Focus now turns to the next week where the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron will host the HARKEN 2020 Youth Match Racing World Championship on February 25-March 1 at the same venue.

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: Andrew Delves