2017 Northshore Freshwater Laser Champs Report & Results

Another stellar Laser regatta as the local Laser Masters fleet warms up for the World Masters Games, which kicks off in two weeks. Following last week's Auckland Masters at Tamaki, which attracted a record fleet of 66, this weekend 45 Masters and a few younger guys turned up for two days of light to moderate E/NE racing at Pupuke.

The lake provided typically challenging gusty and shifty conditions for the 31 Standard and 16 Radial sailors, not to mention challenges for race officer Garth Briden. Saturday was the lighter of the two-day, with 4 races completed in a 5 to 10 knot breeze that started in the E and moved around to NE during the day while on Sunday there was a bit more pressure with the early NNE gusting up to 15 knots before moderating and turning Easterly for the 3rd and last race of the day.

The Radial fleet saw a really close contest which was only decided in the last race. Youth Joshua Bull convincingly took out race 7 to secure the title by a single point from Master Richard Blakey, who was 2 points ahead of Apprentice Phil Wild with first GM Kevin Welsh in 4th. Kevin was unlucky not to take out the Masters title after getting a UFD when he had won race 3 on the water. Last weeks Radial winner at the Auckland Masters Werner Hennig was a close 5th followed by first women, Michelle Bain in 6th. Sueellen Davis kept Michelle honest in 7th overall, a great performance as she has only just got back into the Laser ahead of the WMG.

The Standard fleet was dominated by three sailors. Top youth sailor Josh Armit gave all the masters sailors a true lesson in lake sailing, with 5 wins and 2 seconds, and showing an amazing ability to read the conditions and either dominate from the start or work his way to the front of the fleet on the rare occasion he got buried and gave the rest of us a chance. Almost as impressive were Masters Rohan Lord and Giles Grigg. Rohan won the two races Josh when "stumbled" and was consistently in the top 5 in all the other races, as was Giles. While Josh and Rowan were able to break away from the rest of the front bunch to win their races there was incredibly close racing in the rest of the fleet, with the top half of the fleet regularly bow to stern at every mark throughout the races. This made consistency incredibly difficult to achieve and all the rest of the fleet ended up carrying a couple of higher scoring races. Third Master and 4th overall was local lake sailor Tony Nicholson, who had a great run of pin end starts and just pipped top GM Mark Oliver in 5th overall. Past multiple NZ Masters National Champion, Apprentice Kris Decke struggled for consistency and ended up first Apprentice but 7th overall.

Pupuke provided the usual generous selection of prizes to finish a very enjoyable weekend. The last formal warmup regatta before the WMG is at Takapuna Friday/Saturday next weekend then it is on to the big Masters' event of the NZ season, the World Masters Games at Torbay, with 10 races over 5 days certain to provide top quality racing for the 170 Laser Masters entered.

- Nick Page

Standard

pos	class.div.sail	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	dis	net	name	club
1	Laser O 7250	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	2	7	ARMIT Josh	MBSC
2	Laser M 10	7	5	3	4	1	1	3	7	17	LORD Rohan	PBC
3	Laser M 8808	3	4	2	3	4	5	5	5	21	GRIGG Giles	TYC
4	Laser M 5549	2	7	8	11	6	9	4	11	36	NICHOLSON Tony	PBC
5	Laser G 7127	4	8	4	8	7	7	10	10	38	OLIVER Mark	HSC
6	Laser M 4323	6	2	13	13	10	4	7	13	42	BRODIE Cris	BYC
7	Laser A 9238	8	3	15	12	5	3	15	15	46	DECKE Kris	OYC
8	Laser M 0151	5	9	6	14	3	ufd	11	30	48	DRUMMOND Dean	PBC
9	Laser G 8520	9	6	12	7	11	11	8	12	52	SHOWELL John	PBC
10	Laser G 8107	14	10	5	2	20	ufd	2	30	53	KEETON Mike	PBC
11	Laser G 1519	10	14	7	10	9	6	14	14	56	PAGE Nick	PBC
12	Laser G 6909	16	12	10	6	13	15	9	16	65	LOCK Garry	PBC
13	Laser G 0009	13	13	14	5	17	12	16	17	73	BORRMANN Thomas	PBC
14	Laser M 8881	12	17	18	15	14	13	18	18	89	ANDERSON Rob	KYC
15	Laser A 2705	19	18	9	dns	16	23	6	32	91	ATCHISON Ken	HYC
16	Laser M 2872	17	11	ufd	18	15	18	13	24	92	NICHOLSON Karl	WBC
17	Laser G 2259	18	19	11	9	18	19	21	21	94	DOWSETT John	PBC
18	Laser S 1512	15	16	ufd	19	12	14	19	24	95	PITMAN John	NPYC
19	Laser M 6528	11	15	17	17	19	17	dns	32	96	BATENBURG Luuk	PBC
20	Laser M 0537	21	20	19	20	23	24	22	24	125	CAMILLERI John	PBC
21	Laser G 0213	20	21	20	22	26	22	23	26	128	WADDELL Rob	PBC
22	Laser G 4689	22	22	21	21	24	25	24	25	134	SANDERS Dave	PBC
23	Laser G 3125	dns	dns	dns	dns	8	16	17	32	137	LOWE David	PBC
24	Laser G 3947	dns	dns	dns	dns	25	10	12	32	143	HURSTHOUSE Mark	PBC
25	Laser M 6871	dns	dns	dns	dns	22	8	20	32	146	CANECELLO Marco	PLSC
26	Laser G 0545	dns	dns	16	16	dns	dns	dns	32	160	ABICHT Grant	TYC
27	Laser G 2226	1	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	dns	32	161	IRWIN Murray	PBC
28	Laser M 6876	dns	dns	dns	dns	28	20	25	32	169	BERRY John	PBC
29	Laser G 1878	dns	dns	dns	dns	21	21	dns	32	170	FERGUSON Wayne	PBC
30	Laser S 2123	dns	dns	dns	dns	27	27	26	32	176	WESTMORELAND Mickey	PBC
31	Laser M 7862	dns	dns	dns	dns	29	26	27	32	178	BERRY David

Radial

pos	class.div.sail	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	dis	net	name	club
1	Radial O 6381	3	4	4	1	2	6	1	6	15	BULL Joshua	MBSC
2	Radial M 5886	4	3	2	6	1	3	3	6	16	BLAKEY Richard	TYC
3	Radial A 5538	8	2	6	4	3	1	2	8	18	WILD Phil	MSC
4	Radial G 6029	2	5	ufd	2	5	2	4	17	20	WELSH Kevin	PLSC
5	Radial M 7892	1	1	5	7	4	5	6	7	22	HENNIG Werner	HYC
6	Radial wM 6406	5	9	ufd	3	6	4	12	17	39	BAIN Michelle	TSC
7	Radial wA 1	9	7	7	dns	7	10	5	17	45	DAVIES Suellen	RAYC
8	Radial M 7775	12	15	8	5	9	8	9	15	51	COFFIN Jeff	PLSC
9	Radial S 2968	10	14	3	9	10	11	11	14	54	KNOTT Barrie	PBC
10	Radial M 9384	11	10	10	ufd	8	7	8	16	54	YANKOV Georgi	PBC
11	Radial M 4468	6	6	1	8	dns	dns	dns	17	55	WOOLDRIDGE Neil	WBC
12	Radial A 8891	13	11	11	12	12	9	10	13	65	MINKOV Vlad	PBC
13	Radial O 2441	7	8	9	10	dns	dns	dns	17	68	DRUMMOND Finn	MBSC
14	Radial S 5806	15	12	12	ufd	11	12	7	16	69	SHEARMAN Geoff	TSC
15	Radial wO 9211	14	13	ufd	11	14	14	13	17	79	BOYD Isabella	BOI
16	Radial wM 7146	16	16	13	13	13	13	14	16	82	McKEE Shaaron	PLSC