CYCA Youth Sailing Academy 25th season celebration

Must Match Race Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Sydney 1 / 12 / 2017 © Andrea Francolini

In 2018, the CYCA Youth Sailing Academy will celebrate their 25th season, and have set out an ambitious sailing calendar for their anniversary year, which will include nine match racing events ranging from local Grade 5 events beginning in June, through to the season finale in November with the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship.

The 2018 regatta season will open with the Shelving Systems Match Cup on Saturday 30 June. This regatta is open to all Australian yacht clubs with 10 teams invited to the one-day event. Expression of Interest applications are available on the CYCA Youth webpage and will close on Friday 8 June at 1700 hrs.

Next up will be the Captain John Piper Regatta over the weekend of 21 - 22 July. This WS Grade 4 event will feature 10 teams with a single round robin followed by semi-finals and finals. Applications will close on Friday 22 June at 1700 hrs with invitations released by Friday 29 June.

For the 15th year running, Club Marine will continue as naming rights sponsor of the New South Wales Youth Match Racing Championship which will be hosted over the weekend of the 4 - 5 August. The CYCA has hosted this event every year since 2001. Ten teams will be invited to compete in the event with applications closing on Friday 6 July with invited teams receiving their invitation by Friday 13 July.

The 2018 Marinassess Women's Match Racing Regatta is scheduled over the weekend of 1-2 September and will be a great lead up event for female teams looking to compete in the Australian Women's Match Racing Championship which will return to the Australian match racing circuit in 2018.

As part of the Youth Sailing Academy's 25th anniversary celebrations, Australian Sailing appointed the CYCA the host of all of Australia's match racing National Championships. This will be the second time the CYCA has hosted all championships in the same year, having previously run the competitions in 2013 as part of the 20th anniversary year.

The Australian Women's Match Racing Championship will return to the Australian match racing calendar having not been contested in 2017. The event will be hosted from Sunday 16 to Wednesday 19 September with 10 entries open for the event.

The Australian Open Match Racing Championship will directly follow the Women's event from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 September. The CYCA will host an alumni celebration event on-board a Rosman ferry (donated to the club by Sean Langman) during the final day of competition at this year's Championship. Ten teams will be invited to compete with applications for invitation closing on Friday 24 July for both the Women's and Open's events.

The Australian Schools Match Racing Championship will be conducted over the weekend of the 6 & 7 October. With expression of interest already shown from Northern Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland, strong competition looks certain for this year's event. The CYCA has also introduced a new Schools Match Racing Program to their winter training schedule with Scots College and Cranbrook signed up for 2018.

This year's Sharp Australian Youth Match Racing Championship will move to October to coincide with the school holiday period with the event taking place from Monday 8 to Friday 12 October. Ten teams will be invited to the event with a double round-robin, semi-finals and finals planned over the four days. Applications for an invitation will close on Friday 17 August with successful teams notified by Friday 24 August.

The final regatta of the season will once again be the Musto International Youth Match Racing Championship which will be held from Monday 26 November to Friday 30 November. This will be the 11th year of Musto's involvement with the event. Applications will close on Friday 24 August for the event which will feature 12 national and international teams.

All Notice of Race documents are currently available online via the CYCA Youth website with online expression of interest periods also open.