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Nick Egnot-Johnson completed his youth match racing career by surviving a tricky sudden death final day to win the 2021 Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup over the weekend.
The 22-year-old, who is third in the world match racing rankings, and his Knots Racing crew of Niall Malone, Alastair Gifford and Ollie Gilmour beat Jordan Stevenson and his Vento Racing team to claim a second Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Light winds yesterday meant both the semifinals and final turned into a winner-take-all race - it's normally a best of five series - and Egnot-Johnson had to come from behind against Stevenson to prevail.
"Coming up against Jordan Stevenson and his Vento Racing team in the final, we’re always up against them in the finals and it’s a pretty big rivalry," Egnot-Johnson said. "It came down to sudden death and it was a really close race at the very end.
"We were looking a bit on the rocks at the start, to be honest. They had about a half a leg lead on us but the wind really shut down and we were able to sail around the outside which we were pretty relieved about. It’s an awesome feeling to win my last ever youth regatta. It’s really cool to go out with a bang.”
Egnot-Johnson and Stevenson were the standout performers across the four days of racing, with both finishing the round robin stage with an eight wins and one loss record. Egnot-Johnson took top spot on countback due to his win over Stevenson in the round robin racing.
Egnot-Johnson then dispatched Max McLachlan 3-0 in his quarter-final but Stevenson was leading Celia Willison 2-1 in his quarter-final going into the final day. Unfortunately, the light breeze meant the race committee were forced to abandon plans to complete the best-of-five series and move straight into the semifinals.
Robbie McCutcheon progressed to take on Stevenson after beating Will Wright 3-0 in his quarter-final and Albert Stanley was paired against Egnot-Johnson after edging Megan Thomson 2-1 in his quarter-final.
The conditions continued to be problematic but by 2.20pm a light breeze finally arrived on the race course. With time running out, and no promises the wind would cooperate, the race committee decided to run the semifinals as sudden death matches.
McCutcheon led Stevenson until the final stages of the last downwind leg but Stevenson pulled off a great gybe to round McCutcheon and sail past him for the win. The other semifinal was fairly one sided, with Egnot-Johnson managing to find the little bit of wind that was on the course to claim a large victory over Stanley.
What little breeze there was in the inner harbour had died again but, after a 30-minute wait, just enough came onto the course for racing to get underway.
Stevenson got away to a brilliant start in the race, leading for the first two legs with what looked like an unassailable margin. However, on the second upwind leg he sailed into a bit of a hole, and Egnot-Johnson found some decent puff on the right-hand side to sail right back into the race.
It was all Egnot-Johnson needed, carrying his speed to lead at the top mark and then all the way down the final leg to finish just two boat lengths ahead of Stevenson.
Final standings from the Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron:
1st – Nick Egnot-Johsnon
2nd – Jordan Stevenson
3rd – Robbie McCutcheon
4th – Albert Stanley
5th – Will Wright
6th – Megan Thomson
7th – Celia Willison
8th – Max McLachlan
9th – Josh Hyde
10th – Ella Wilcox
Full results here.
- Pics: Nick Egnot-Johnson and his Knots Racing crew took out the title. Photos: Andrew Delves / RNZYS
