Yachting Australia

Warren Jones International Youth Regatta

It has been a fruitful year for the young Western Australian, who has climbed from 48th on the world ranking ladder this time last year, to 11th at the last count, one step down from his best in October last year.

Mirsky is under no illusion as to the task ahead of him if he wants his name on the trophy for the second time. “I’d say it’s going to be one of the toughest Warren Jones Regattas to win,” he commented recently.

His caution regarding his chances of a second win in the Warren Jones Regatta is based on the unforgiving format of the series.  “There’s no semi-final or quarter-final, if you have a bad round robin you’re out.  Lose a few races at the start and your regatta could be over,” he said.

The young Fremantle sailor is the highest ranked skipper ever to contest the Warren Jones Regatta, and owes his climb up the ladder to successes in Europe on the senior match racing tour, with the highlight a win at the French grade 1 event.

This has helped him and his team to greatly widen their experience, and mature as match racers, “we were racing an older generation of match racer in Europe than we will at the Warren Jones,” he explained.

More recently he finished a very creditable fifth in Malaysia’s Monsoon Cup, about which he commented, “it’s definitely the biggest match racing event there is, and to be fifth in it is a big deal for us.”

The line-up of talent for this, the 6th Warren Jones Youth Regatta, includes another past winner, New Zealand’s Adam Minoprio, who put his name on the trophy in 2006, and South of Perth’s Keith Swinton, who lost last year’s event on a finishing line penalty.

Overseas skippers from New Zealand, Sweden and Italy will face Australians from Sydney, Adelaide and three locals, on the Swan River’s Freshwater Bay for the event that runs from 2nd to 7th February, and is organised by the Western Australian Yachting Foundation.

It is 25 years ago this year that Australia II won the America’s Cup from the New York Yacht Club, in an historic campaign that was masterminded by Warren Jones.

This regatta in his memory is suitably a match racing event, with skippers going head to head in a series that will hopefully help them onto the international circuit.

COMPETITORS:
Name                           Country                        Club                 Ranking
Torvar  Mirsky             AUS                            RPYC              11
Keith Swinton               AUS                            SoPYC            34
Adam Minoprio            NZL                             RNZYS           46
Laurie Jury                   NZL                             RNZYS           49
Evan Walker                AUS                            CYCA             55
Simone Ferrarese         ITA                              CVB                58
Phil Robertson              NZL                             RNZYS           64
Robert Gibbs                AUS                            RPYC              73
Stuart Pollard               AUS                            RSYS              107
John Back                    SWE                            GSYS              117
Tom Spithill                  AUS                            RPAYS            201
Nick Deussen               AUS                            CYCoSA         1334

Other Links
	Event Website