Subtropical Christchurch greets the Laser fleet

Results Day 1

 

A fantastic first day for the Laser Nationals with clear skies, 30-degree temperatures and a lovely 10-knot breeze. Every wind forecast site anyone could find agreed, 10 -15 knot NE sea breezes would be it for the day. The only dissenter was the wind itself which decided to come in from the South so with trepidation the race committee set a course up into Charteris Bay and sure enough the southerly settled in for the afternoon and gave us two interesting races. Pressure variations, tide, a shifty breeze and a small slop provided challenging conditions for all with a few tide-induced early starters and a few swimmers proving that the challenges of the day were real, even if the water felt like we were sailing off a tropical island.

 

The Standard Open and Standard Masters started together, with several of the Masters competitive upwind, but then the top Open sailors provided a masterclass in downwind sailing to put the Master's pretenders well in their place. In the Open there was very close racing between reigning champion and favourite Andrew McKenzie, George Gautrey from Muritai and Alistair Gifford from Tauranga. The three of them had a real tussle for the top spot in both races with Andrew just managing to get home first both times but only getting through on the last short beat to the finish in race 2. Unfortunately, George was OCS in race 2 to leave him some work to do to get back to the top of the table giving the third spot in race 2 to Rohan Lord, who had suffered an OCS in race 1.

 

In the Masters Standard fleet, the lead changed several times in both races with very close racing among the top group as well as the Masters mixing it with a few of the Open fleet. In Race 1 Andrew Dellabarca (M) from Worser Bay managed to prevail from GM Chris Sadler (Tamaki) showing exemplary masters downwind technique to secure 2nd spot followed by Cris Brodie from Pupuke. In race 2 it was a similar story with Andrew holding out Cris Brodie while GM Nick Page managed to capture third place.

 

In the Open Radials superior downwind speed saw reigning champion and 2017 World U17 Laser champion Josh Armit take both races convincingly. Behind Josh last years Youth Worlds rep Annabel Rennie-Younger had a very solid day with a 4/3 to sit 2nd and lead the World Masters Radial champion Scott Leith, who is tied on points with Albert Stanley from Worser Bay for 3rd. Women's favourite Susannah Pyatt was unfortunate to be OCS in the first race but made amends with a 2nd in race 2 while in the Youth Women Samantha Stock has a solid lead over the other Women's youth contenders.

 

In the Radial Masters, local knowledge must surely have helped with GM Hamish Atkinson having a blinder with two bullets. Pre-contest favourite Ed Tam (M, Worser Bay) is tied on points for second with GM Werner Hennig from Hamilton. Kevin Welsh (GM) from Panmure scored a strong second in race 2 to sit 4th overall.

 

So with 30-degree temperatures and a sea breeze again forecast for tomorrow it is anybody's guess what we will actually get but we will hopefully see 3 quality races for all fleets.

 

Nick Page

NZLA