Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

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Jeffrey Petersen at the 2019 Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship

Posted Nov 12, 2019

Sailors: Jeffrey Petersen | Jasper Freedman | Max Brennan | Will Birch-Tomlinson

Recently this past month I had the epic opportunity to compete on Sydney Harbor in Australia, for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship. This event otherwise know as “The Musto” is a world renound youth match race that draws the best under 23 competitors from around the world. Better yet this regatta was designated a World Sailing grade 1 regatta, which is the highest ranking they can give to a match race regatta for its intense competition, outstanding umpires, prize money, and global diversity. It was a great event. My team of Jasper Freedman (Bow), Max Brennan (Trim), and Will Birch-Tomlinson (main), had a solid event finishing 7th after a very close semi finals against World ranked #2 Nick Egnot-Johnson. We had an interesting start to the round robin only completing 3 races on the first day due to extreme weather conditions. The second day was what we call champagne conditions, with a beautiful 18-20 knots and flat water, it was perfect sailing. Unfortunately we did not have the greatest day but, managed to go 6-5 in the round robin. This put us outside the top four and forced us to compete in the repacharge round robin for a spot in the quarter finals. Day three, was one our our best days of sailing as we went 5-2 out of the repacharge losing a close tie breaker for 6th place, but we securing our spot in the quarters. Later that day, Nick Egnot-Johnson the 1st place seed chose us to race against in the quarters. Needless to say, we were pretty pumped. It didn’t matter to us that he was the favorite going into the event or the fact that he was the second best in the world, we were just happy to race a solid competitor. Our quarter finals were an absolute dog fight with penalties all over the place, shrimped kites, collisions, and planing conditions. It was absolutely amazing. We managed to take the first race off them after he earned himself a double penalty within 30 seconds of the first gun. The second race was the closest one with several lead changes, but unfortunately Nick took the win. The final race was a bit rough for the boys and I. We had been sailing all day and were coming up on our 10th race of the day after sailing in a consistent 18 knots of breeze, we were getting a bit tired. Nick on the other hand had done two races since he did not have to sail in the repacharge, so with no surprise, he was able to outwork us and took the second win, but it was ok he still had to get to three wins to move on and would force us to finish the quarterfinals on the morning of day four, or so we thought. Day four started with complete glass conditions, there was genuinely no breeze for the first hour. This put the regatta behind schedule and forced the race committee to shortern the quarters to first to two wins, allowing nick to move on without a final race. We were devastated, we had lost our shot for the semis after a hard fought battle, but we were proud of how we sailed, we gave Nick and team a great battle that they definitely had to work for. We would like to congratulate Jordan Stevenson from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Club for a great regatta.

We would also like to thank all those who provided support for my team and I. Without their help, we would not have been able to attend this event.

2019 Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship
Jeffrey Petersen | Jasper Freedman | Max Brennan | Will Birch-Tomlinson