Gilmour chooses competition for quarter finals at Warren Jones

David Gilmour, and his crew from Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, went undefeated through the third day of the Warren Jones International Youth Regatta, to win the round robin stage of the event.

Gilmour finished with a 16 win, 2 loss score line, which gives him the privilege of choosing his opponent for the quarter finals, and he had no hesitation in selecting eighth placed Jay Griffin from Sydney’s Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

It was the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s Jordan Reece who made second place, ahead of Perth skipper, Peter Nicholas with New Zealand’s Josh Junior fourth.

Racing on the third day was delayed for several hours as a glassy calm pervaded the Swan River, with the north westerly breezes spinning off cyclone Iggy being blocked by the south easterlies produced by a high in the Bight.

Eventually it was the south easterly that won, and produced robust conditions, with gusts of up to 25 knots putting the crews through their paces.

While Gilmour has dominated the event since the second day, the rising star of the regatta has been Josh Junior from Wellington’s Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club, who has climbed from seventh place at the end of the first day to fourth.

The young Kiwi came into this regatta ranked 252 in the world, though in the past he has been as high as 40^th on the ladder.

He explained that he has been concentrating on a campaign for a place at the Olympics for the past two years, and therefore off the match racing scene, but having failed to gain selection he has returned to match racing.

The Warren Jones International Youth Regatta is managed by Swan River Sailing, and hosted this year by Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, the final will be sailed on Friday 3^rd February.

Leaderboard

Skipper                        Country                                 Score

1.  David Gilmour            AUS                                    16 – 2

2. Jordan Reece              AUS                                    13 - 5

3. Peter Nicholas             AUS                                    12 – 6

4. Josh Junior                  NZL                                    12 – 6

5. David Chapman           AUS                                    10 – 8

6.  Tristan Brown             AUS                                     9 – 9

7.  Sam Gilmour              AUS                                     7 – 11

8.  Jay Griffin                  AUS                                     6 – 12

9.  Tim Coltman              NZL                                      5 – 13

10. Naoki Ichino              JPN                                      0 – 18

- John Roberson