Takahashi triumph

Takahashi takes out 2018 Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup.

14 February 2018

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Leonard Takahashi and his RNZYS Performance Programme Pacific Racing Team crew of Josh Wijohn, Taylor Balogh, Ibuki Koizumi and George Lee Rush have taken out the 2018 Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Skippers were greeted by another rainy Auckland day this morning, which was fitting seeing as the majority of the regatta was sailed in wet weather.

With the Semi-finals completed it was Wilson and Takahashi who were ready to race it out in the final, a repeat of the Harken Youth International in Sydney at the end of last year, as well as Tapper taking on Stevenson in the petite final.

In the grand-final it was clear to those watching from the side-lines that Takahashi and his team were here to win, especially when they quickly went two-nil up. Wilson was still sailing well but he couldn’t quite catch up to Takahashi who had excellent boat speed, and even when they got penalties they were able to get rid of them without losing their lead.

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The third match was a similar story, Takahashi picked up a penalty in the pre-start but raced out to a decent lead, got rid of his penalty and charged down the final leg to win the Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup final three-nil.

“Despite the score it was really tight racing, we gave ourselves a few penalties in the starts but good crew work and boat speed from the guys allowed us claw back and get a good enough lead to wipe them out.” commented Takahashi. “I’ve been sailing these boats for about six years now so it feels good to get the win.

I’m really happy at how we were able to take this one out, it’s a big one for us and we’re looking forward to Centerport in Wellington this weekend.”

Wilson wasn’t quite as thrilled with his finals performance “The final was quite tough, we started well and got a few penalties on him [Takahashi] but then our course positioning and upwind speed wasn’t amazing and our tacks weren’t that great so that’s a work on for next time. We will get him eventually.”

This is another big win for Takahashi who is on a rich vein of form at the minute after winning his last four match racing regattas, including the Youth Nationals in Wellington, the Musto and Harken Youth Internationals in Sydney, and can now add the Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup to his collection of titles.

Asked whether the team can make it five in a row in the capital, Takahashi was coy not to get too excited “yeah hopefully, I mean that’s not the end goal but we’re all here to improve and we just want to go out there and have good racing.”

rnzys.org.nz

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