MYC’s James Hodgson wins Youth Match Racing World Championship
Mooloolaba Yacht Club’s (MYC) James Hodgson teamed up with fellow Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Youth Sailing Academy sailors, Tom Grimes, Harry Hall and Jess Grimes to bring back gold for Australia at the 2019 Youth Match Racing World Championship in Russia this week.
James and skipper Tom Grimes are normally rivals, holding the current Australian Open and Youth Match Racing titles between them. However, they teamed up for the World Championship to form a “AUS Dream Team’ to challenge a strong field from NZ, USA, Great Britain, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Japan and host nation Russia.
Light, shifty winds made sailing conditions testing and variable the whole week, and the Australian team managed the tough conditions best, taking the lead on Day 1 and maintaining it through the regatta with 14 wins from 16 matches. Unfortunately, no wind on the final day left the teams waiting onshore and the knockout finals could not be raced, so the Aussies won on countback to the Round Robin results.
James now heads to the UK for J70 Worlds, then the Australian Match Racing Open (Hobart) and Youth Nationals (Sydney) in September. He will be back on the Sunshine Coast in October to help prepare the MYC’s Womens teams for the Australian Women’s Match Racing Championships being held at Mooloolaba from 10th to 13th October.
