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2019 Harken Young 88 Nationals Preview


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2019-Y88-Nationals-Facebook-v2-1024x396.

 

Eighteen Entries for this Weekend’s Harken Young 88 National Championship

The Young 88 continues to prove its popularity with high levels of participation and building fleets in the North Island, South Island and West Island (New South Wales).

 

The 2019 Harken Nationals take place on 16-17 March.  Entries include the current champ Zane Gifford’s Raging Hormones to be skippered by Andrew Wills, and previous Nationals winner and current sprint racing leader Mark Bond’s Slipstream.  

 

It’s fantastic to see former top race boats returning to the fleet like Stephen Bettesworth’s Split Decision, Jacko van Deventer’s Sailor Moon being skippered by new boat partner Michael Naulls and Dave Stanton’s Sister Moonshine skippered by son Campbell.  Undercover has recently changed hands with new owner Akaroa based Jonny Bell and skipper former Emirates Team NZ sailor Harry Thurston setting the Auckland scene alight by finishing at the top of the first couple of nights of sprint racing. The fleet is also welcoming for the first time Jim Young’s daughter, Wendy Muir campaigning Young Blood with Jim’s granddaughter Kelsey aboard.

 

PredictWind’s long range forecast models for the race area North of Rangitoto are already well aligned showing a perfect 10-15kts from East on Saturday and a bit more 15-20 from the East on Sunday with very little or no rain.

The Young 88 Association has been testing out the MySail www.mysail.team boat and crew management app and has been using it successfully to help the owners fill crew gaps. To view crew available and sign up go to the MySail event page at this link www.app.mysail.team/series/68/harken-young-88-nationals

 

The weekend’ off water plan at The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron plan is as busy as ever with a skipper’s briefing 1800 Friday night including the slightly different procedures for an umpired fleet. 

 

There will be  a full on “after match” Saturday in the Dinghy Locker bar featuring an inter crew Harken Winching competition (check this vid out https://youtu.be/0AmTT5K0iuQ?t=6) with loads of great prizes and spot prizes.  

 

The Nationals will be capped off with the Prize Giving Sunday night in the Quarterdeck restaurant with special guests including designer Jim and his wife Anne Young.

 

Check out LiveSailDie’s off the wall video preview here www.facebook.com/YoungEightyEight/videos/226048711559562/

 

The racing and results can be followed on the RNZYS event page:

http://www.rnzys.org.nz/sailing-events/harken-young-88-national-championships/

 

and also, on the Young 88 Facebook page:

 https://www.facebook.com/YoungEightyEight.

 

2019 Harken Young 88 Nationals Entries:

BOAT NAME

SAIL NO

SKIPPER

ABRCADABRA II

8365

Julian Bishop

BABE

6832

Gavin Haslip

FLASH GORDON

473

James Corbett

HEARTLIGHT

8202

Roger Sims

LEGLESS

6188

Karen/Grant Reid & Crawford

MEDIUM DRY

6284

Philip Rzepecky

RAGING HORMONES

9105

Andrew Wills

SAILORMOON

6398

Michael Naulls

SIMPLE MINDS

6488

Bruce Scott

SISTER MOONSHINE

5088

Campbell Stanton

SKITZO

884

Rick Hackett

SLIPSTREAM

325

Mark Bond

SPLIT DECISION

6150

Stephen Bettesworth

UNDERCOVER

6668

Harry Thurston

VOODOO

188

Leigh Miller

WAKA HUIA

8022

Nick Gillies

WAR MACHINE

4881

Chris Macindoe

YOUNG BLOOD

6430

Wendy Muir

 

 

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RAGING HORMONES TAKES OUT 2019 HARKEN YOUNG 88 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

 

Posted March 20, 2019

 

 

 

 

Winning-Raging-Hormones-Crew-Image-c-Rac

Andrew Wills and his team on board Raging Hormones have risen above a bumper sixteen boat fleet to win the 2019 Harken Young 88 National Championships in Auckland over the weekend.

It was challenging regatta to get going with very light 5-7 knot winds throughout the day on Saturday, meaning it was a tricky day of sailing in the Young 88’s which are known to thrive off a decent breeze – but the Race Management team managed to get three races in the books. Sunday was even lighter, with only two races sailed, but this took the overall total to the required five races needed for the event.

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However this didn’t stop the fleet from having some great light wind battles and tight one design racing out on the water off northern leading buoy –“It’s a very close fleet up and down the spectrum, it doesn’t matter what the skill level is there’s always a battle going on somewhere on the course – whether it’s between first and second, fourth and fifth or tenth and twelfth, so it’s all the way up there is plenty of good racing to be had.” – Mark Bond Slipstream.

Young 88 royalty was also on the water to witness the 2019 edition of the event, in the form of Young 88 designer Jim Young – “Somebody said to me the other day – and I chose to believe them of course – that it is [the Young 88} the best all-purpose boat that they know, and I couldn’t help but agree with them.”

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In comparison to how they finished the regatta – it was a slightly slow start to the weekend for Wills and Raging Hormones, starting with a fourth place in the first race. The team then came good pretty quickly, going on to win three of the four remaining races as well as adding a second place finish to their total, allowing them to blitz the fleet on the overall standings.

Mark Bond’s Slipstream came home in second place overall, a whopping nine points behind the winners – with Harry Thurston and his team on Undercover rounding out the podium in third.

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This is the second year in a row that Raging Hormones has taken the victory – and the third time since 2015. In fact only Raging Hormones and Slipstream have taken home the Tanaka Cup in the last five events.

Wills was happy to come away with the win, even though there wasn’t as much racing as he would have liked – “Yeah we’re pretty happy, we had a great team on board this weekend and even though we wish had got a bit more breeze and a few more races in – we’re pretty pleased to come away with the win. I’m really stoked with the great job that the Young 88 Class Association did behind the scenes to put this event on, it’s the most entries we’ve had in a long time. A big thanks to Harken for sponsoring the event and to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron for putting it on.”

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Full results can be found HERE

Photos + Video on the Young 88 Facebook page HERE  and HERE

By Andrew Delves RNZYS PR & Communications Manager

Images © Rachel von Zalinski – Live Sail Die 

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