EGNOT-JOHNSON WINS MATCH RACING CUP
Nick Egnot-Johnson and his KNOTS Racing crew of Niall Malone, Alastair Gifford and Ollie Gilmour survived a tricky sudden-death final to win the 2021 Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup.
Going back to the Round Robin stage, the top seeding came down to a battle between the eventual finalists, with Nick EgnotJohnson and Jordan Stevenson racing off in the final match.
As is always the case with these two the race was a tight one, but it was Egnot-Johnson who claimed a narrow victory. Both finished with an eight-one record, but Egnot-Johnson snatched the top spot on a countback with the vital, final race win.
This is Egnot-Johnson’s second Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup title, and it will also be his last, with the now notso-young skipper ageing out of the youth scene.
EGNOT-JOHNSON WINS MATCH RACING CUP
Nick Egnot-Johnson and his RNZYS Performance Programme KNOTS Racing Team – Zak Merton, Sam Barnett & Alistair Gifford – notched up another victory, taking out the 2019 Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Cup in February.
Egnot-Johnson eased through his semi-final 3-0 against Callum Radford’s Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club team from Wellington to cement his spot in the final.
He was made to wait for an opponent though, with the semi-final between Jordan Stevenson’s RNZYS Youth Training Programme Vento Racing team and Tom Grimes’ team from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia going right down to the wire.
It was Grimes who was sitting in the box seat, taking the first two matches and leaving himself needing only one more victory to meet Egnot-Johnson in the final. Stevenson wasn’t going to have a bar of that though, and as he has done before, pulled up his socks and pulled off an amazing comeback – winning the next three matches to send Grimes reeling into the petite final and himself into the big dance.
The all-Squadron final also did not disappoint, with some incredibly tight racing, tacking duels and speedy downwind sailing. Both teams traded close wins to send the final into an epic fifth match to decide who would be champion.
But after what was a very exciting pre-start, and in what was Stevenson’s 10th match of the day, him and his team made a costly mistake and were ruled to be over the start line before the horn. This gave Egnot-Johnson a decisive lead that he would not relinquish, allowing him to sail his Knots racing team to the overall victory.
