Teenager Sophie Harrison, whose yacht racing hopes have been curtailed in recent years because of a back injury, failed narrowly to win Crouch Yacht Club's first-ever match-racing event on Saturday.

Sailing her father's boat, Jiminy Cricket, she lost 2-1 to Robert Leggett and Monkey Business (Haven Ports Yacht Club) in the final of the Impala Match Racing Bowl for the Eastern Region Malcolm Hutchings, in Reaction, who is at present leading the Class 4 fleet of SailEAST Championship, finished third, with Ron Williams, in YPass, fourth

The event, which Crouch hope will become an annual one, was decided over a round-robin format in the first round, during which Leggett finished undefeated and inflicted upon 18-year-old Sophie her only defeat

In the best-of-three final, Leggett took a 1-0 lead, but Sophie won the second race to level matters before losing the closely-fought decider

Though she crewed for her father in the Crouch round of the SailEAST Championship week earlier, this was a rare opportunity for Sophie to helm Jiminy Cricket and to come so close to beating Leggett, who has dominated Impala sailing on the East Coast over the past couple of years was a remarkable performance

Four years ago Sophie finished fourth in the Cadet dinghy European Championships and won the under-15 B nationals, but then back trouble cut short her hopes of success after she switched to the International 420 class

She has now given up dinghy sailing but hopes to get involved in more match racing sailing at university

The event's organisers operated an on-water penalty system rather than the time-consuming "protest" system normally used in yacht racing and it proved highly successful under the watchful eyes of umpires Bernard Kinchin, of Royal Thames Yacht Club, and Frank Curtis, a national judge, from Crouch Yacht Club.

Published Thursday, June 26, 2003

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