Sunday 13th November saw the the 25th edition of the North Harbour Masters held on Lake Pupuke.

• Results

The first Laser Masters regatta of the 2016/17 season saw a strong turnout of 35 sailors starting their work up to next years World Masters at Torbay in April 2017. There was a healthy mix of the old guard, returning names of old and some new faces resulting in strong fleets in both the Standard and Radial. 

Conditions were pretty much ideal for an early season regatta, with 12 to 18 knot westerlies, gusty and shifty as usual on the lake which resulted in opportunities for all but a few thrills and spills when unexpected gusts or shifts caught out the unwary. It also allowed the scheduled 5 races to be completed easily, even allowing the luxury of a lunch break ashore between races 3 and 4. Starts and finishes right off the car park minimised organisational challenges for PRO Garth Briden and allowed spectators, including the usual tranche of masters not sailing due to age related excuses, a grandstand view of the racing.

In the Standards expat Australian, now from Cambridge, Anthony Merrington (A) was victorious with a strong performance, counting a 1,1,1,2. Racing at the front of the fleet was close at all times but Anthony dominated with consistently strong starts and clever reading of the shifty breeze to prevail from a trio of local Masters; Mark Oliver, who was a close second overall counting 1,2,2,3, followed by Rohan Lord and Dean Drummond. They were closely followed by leading GM Nick Page in 5th and Tony Nicholson (M) in 6th.

In the Radial current World Apprentice Radial Champion Scott Leith (A) was dominant, counting 4 bullets, but tripping up in the last race to let former World Masters champ Mark Orams (M) get one back after Scott had managed to pull out some impressive margins in the early races. Mark was second overall followed by Phil Wild (A), recently back in his Laser after a break of several years, Werner Hennig from Hamilton and then leading GM Pete Thomas in 5th. Pete strong post lunch results, a 3rd and 4th, allowed him to just pip GM Kevin Welsh who ended up 6th overall after a couple of tough afternoon races. Clearly Pete's lunch was faster than Kevin's! Michelle Bain was the first Women's master in 10th overall.

The usual generous Pupuke range of prizes, entertainingly presented as usual by commodore John Dowsett, capped off a successful day for sailors and spectators alike. The strong turnout for this regatta bodes well for the full program of regattas this season, culminating with the World Masters Games in April where entry numbers are already strong. Next up for NI sailors is the NI champs in Napier in a fortnight, followed by The Sir Peter Blake regatta at Torbay the first weekend of December and then the Nationals at Taupo in January.