Another great North Island laser Champs was held at the Napier Sailing Club as part of their annual Summer Regatta.

Laser Results

There were 149 entrants in the various classes of the regatta. Naturally, the biggest fleet was Lasers with 31 x Radials, 17 x Standards and 2 x 4.7's. But also good numbers of Opti's, Open Bic's, OK's and Piper Tigers - a real old school regatta atmosphere.

With the rain lashing the rest of the upper North Island, we probably had the best spot. Cloudy but warm, a few sprinkles on Saturday, but the worst of the forecast rain for Sunday held off till we were off the water and packed up.

The excellent Napier SC race committee got all 7 races, 4 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. The Lasers shared the outer Triangle+Windward-Leeward course with the OK's and Paper Tigers. That made for some challenging bottom mark roundings - those Paper Tigers arrive from nowhere and can leave a big hole in the wind.

Saturday was light to medium breeze. One big right-hand shift caught some (well me) on the first beat of the standard fleet in the third race, but otherwise, it generally oscillated and was fair racing.

We were delayed 30 minutes at the start on Sunday when the wind died as we got out to the course. But were entertained by a decent school of dolphins (or maybe porpoises) who paralleled the boats as we warmed up in the filling breeze. We then go a medium strength breeze and busier sea state over the groundswell - making for some energetic sailing.

Josh Armit dominated the standard fleet winning every race. He was generally (but not always) in the front few sailors from the start. But really put distance on the chasers on each reach.

Dave Ridley was the next most consistent standard and leading master. He was followed by Luke Deegan who is recently back in the country and a great addition sailing at Lake Pupuke.

The Radials had a much tighter battle with master Scott Leith getting 4 bullets to Luke Cashmore's 3 bullets. They ended on equal total points, and Scott only one point clear to win after the drops. They were followed by Caleb Armit and Albert Stanley finishing on equal points, Caleb taking 3rd on countback.

Only one point shy of the boys was Annabelle Rennie-Younger as leading female and 5th overall. Second female and first youth female was Samantha Stock in 9th after having to drop a DSQ (there must be a story there).

Two 4.7's were mixing it up with the Radials. Jacob Goodall came out on top in all but one race over Charlotte Gray.

Thanks again to Napier SC and all the volunteers who put on such a slick event each year. And all the local and travelling sailors who made it such a great event.