Whoo hoo!
After a slower start early in the regatta Sara Winther found her form in the middle races to win the Laser Radials at 42nd princess Sofia Regatta in Palma, Mallorca. A most impressive result against some big names including Evi Van Acker, Paige Riley and Marit Bouwmeester.

Sara's perspective at www.sarawinther.com

Sam Meech must be elated with a 4th in the mens Lasers. He had only Paul Goodison (GBR), Tom Slingsby (AUS) and Nick Thomson (GBR) in front of him. The strength of the NZ squad was on show again with Andrew Murdoch and Andy Maloney 6th and 7th and Mike Bullot 8th.

In other fleets Jo Aleh and Biacha Barbarich-Bacher had a stunning regatta to win gold a full 10 points (net) ahead of silver. And Dan Slater was 4th in the Finn.

Reports and full results at www.trofeoprincesasofia-mapfre.org

The South Island Laser Champs were held at Nelson Yacht Club on the 11 and 12 December . The races were held approx 2 miles off the  harbour entrance.  Saturday was very light and shifty but Sunday produced a 13 – 15 knot steady NW wind.

Alex Morris once again took line honours in the Laser full rig.  George Lane from Auckland won the Radial and Ben Whiteside beat Daniel Smith by one point to win the 4.7 fleet. Ben was presented with a new trophy donated by the Mellor family from NYC for the 1^st youth in the 4.7 class.

Read More for results ..

Sarah Powrie, our former NZLA secretary and till active committee member, received a service award from Yachting New Zealand. Sarah and her husband Sefton both received the recognition for 'exemplary and selfless service to yachting'. Something the NZLA has definitely benefited from for many years.

In recognition of his gold medal in the Laser at this years Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF Champs, Thomas Saunders from Tauranga Y&PBC won YNZ's Young Sailor of the year.

Other Laser sailors who received performance awards Andrew Murdoch, Sara Winther and Scott Leith.

More at:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/new-zealand/news/article.cfm?l_id=71&objectid=...
www.yachtingnz.org.nz

In August Nic Croft (Manly SC) dominated the Radial class at the 2010 Cork International Regatta in Kingston Canada with a 1,3,2,2,1,1 scoreline. The Radial fleet in this ISAF grade 1 event comprised 140 sailors, mostly from Canada and the USA.
A week later at he ame venue Nic placed 6th in the Olympic Classes regatta won by American EJ. O'Mara. In the light air regatta Nics scoreline of 17,1,3,2,BFD,32,14,1 in the 84 boat fleet showed he was at times equally competitive.
http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/Young-New-Zealand-Laser-sailor-wins-at-CORK-Regatta/73576
http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/CORK-OCR-(Olympic-Classes-Regatta)-2010---Close-competition/73842
http://www.cork.org/results_2010.html

The 2010 Laser Worlds at Hayling Island was a tricky regatta with tide, big shifts and light and strong breezes playing a factor. So it was experience and a relatively consistent score line, with a final race bullet, that got Andrew Murdoch into 3rd place overall. And a fantastic regatta from Josh Junior to finish 6th.
The first of the 6 final races on the penutimate day was decisive for some with a knot of tide helping to carry 9 competitors over for a black flag. This brought previous drops back into play and shuffled the leader board.
At the close of the regatta we had 4 NZ sialors in the top 16 and 5 in the top 26. At the mid way mark we had 4 in the top 8.
The NZL team has to be pleased with such a strong results and all 7 sailors in the Gold fleet.

Race reports: http://www.laserworlds2010.co.uk/standard
NZL writeup: http://www.sail-world.com/Asia/index.cfm?SEID=0&Nid=74332&SRCID=0&ntid=118&tickeruid=0&tickerCID=0
Comment from the top 3: http://www.sail-world.com/Asia/index.cfm?SEID=0&Nid=74327&SRCID=0&ntid=118&tickeruid=0&tickerCID=0

1st Tom Slingsby (AUS)
2nd Nick Thompson (GBR)
3rd Andrew Murdoch (NZL)
6th Josh Junior (NZL)
14th Mike Bullot (NZL)
16th Andy Maloney (NZL)
25th Sam Meech (NZL)
41st Max Andrew (NZL)
50th James Sandall (NZL)

Wellingtonian, Josh Junior had an awesome day 2 to move into 2nd overall, 1 ahead of Mike Bullot (pictured), leading 4 NZ sailors in the top 12.

“I’m stoked. It’s awesome,” said Junior after racing. “With the 1,2 it all seemed to go my way, the best day ever. I seemed to manage to really work the right hand side and got the shifts right and stayed in front.”    “We have seven sailors here all looking for Olympic qualification so it’s going to be tough.”    “There was probably eight knots dropping to four at times and usually pressure on one side and not the other and I got early into the right pressure well. Another day like that would be awesome.”

Andrew Murdoch remains in the top ten holding onto ninth place overall after an 11th and a 2nd on day two, and Andy Maloney takes a giant leap up the board into 12th place sailing solidly last night with a 4th and a 10th.

But in these conditions consistency is needed if the current discards come back into play.

More reports at http://www.laserworlds2010.co.uk/standard .

2nd Josh Junior (3, 22, 1, 2)
3rd Mike Bullot (1, 2, 5, 13)
9th Andrew Murdoch (6, 4, 11, 2)
12th Andy Maloney (2, 22, 4, 10)
21st James Sandall  (42, 7, 6, 14)
27th Sam Meech (10, 46, 5, 14)
42nd Max Andrews (12, 41, 19, 7)

Mike Bullot mastered a first day of the light to medium breezes, big shifts and tide on the Hayling Island course at the 2011 Open Laser World Champs. His 1st and 2nd places put him just ahead of Paul Goodison (GBR) and Karl-Martin Rammo (EST). Mikes previous career best was sliver at last years worlds in Nova Scotia.
Andrew Murdoch had a good consistent day with 6th and 4th to sit 9th overall out of 159 boats in 2 fleets. Andy Malony and Josh Junior are in the early 20s after each having one great race and one not too bad. James Sandall, Max Andrews and Sam Meech each had a good race and one further back to leave them in the middle of the results. But it's early days and the tricky conditions are likely to result in big changes across the board.

Reports at sailworld.com
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=74097&refre=y&ntid=118
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=74097&refre=y&ntid=118

1st Mike Bullot (1, 2)
9th Andrew Murdoch (6, 4)
22nd Andy Maloney (2, 22)
24th Josh Junior (3, 22)
72nd James Sandall (42, 7)
78th Max Andrews (12, 41)
81st Sam Meech (10, 46)