Laurie Jury wins the 2009 Telecom NZ Match Racing Championships

[Source: Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron] Laurie Jury has won the 2009 Telecom New Zealand Match Racing Championships, beating Reuben Corbett 3 – 1 in the first to win three races finals.

Jury won the first race convincingly by 36s but Corbett bounced back in Race Two to gain a penalty on Jury. Jury was in front of Corbett coming into the finish but had to try and slow his boat down and get overlapped with Corbett to have any chance of clearing his penalty and crossing the finish line ahead. In a fantastic display of boat handling, Corbett and crew slowed their boat down and managed to stay far enough away from Jury so Jury could not attack them. Jury simply ran out of runway and the boats crossed the finish line with Jury still having to complete his turn giving Corbett the win and Jury a DNF (Did not finish).

The next two races were won by Jury and awarded them the 2009 Telecom National Championships.

Jury and his crew have sailed consistently well through the entire series, qualifying for the semi finals in second position and having to face a daunting competitor in Chris Dickson, whom he beat 3 – 0.

Jury’s crew is Mike Edmonds (main), Logan Fraser (trim), Matt Stuart (pit) & Rhys O’Cain (bow). Jury, Edmonds, Fraser & Stuart are all graduates of the RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme.

In the petit finals Chris Dickson and his crew continued on their winning streak taking the first race by 18s seconds after Graeme Sutherland received a Red Flag Penalty just after the start for being over the start line and the windward boat trying to ‘come down’ on top of Dickson. In the second race Dickson won by 29s giving himself and his young Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme crew third overall for the series.

2009 Final Placings

1. Laurie Jury (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
2. Rebuen Corbett (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
3. Chris Dickson (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
4. Graeme Sutherland (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
5. Josh Junior Royal (Port Nicholson Yacht Club)
6. William Tiller (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme)
7. Mark Kroening (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
8. Wataru Sakamoto (Wakayama Sailing Club, Japan)
9. Stephanie Hazard (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
10. Samantha Osborne (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
11. Jessica Smyth (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)