There was great competition, sun, and fun on this glorious Spring day at the Inaugural Auckland Women Laser Regatta at Panmure Lagoon Sailing Club (PLSC). 11 participants from as far as Port Ohope came to take part in this keenly contested regatta which even “old Hughie” smiled on, delivering a stunning day graced with tricky trade winds from the South West / East wafting over the Lagoon at 5 to 11 Knots which caused some havoc at times with its fickle nature. Five challenging races were held back to back with the ladies giving no quarter at the starts or for that matter throughout the days racing as battles continually developed around “the track”.

The penultimate days racing had weather pretty much as forecast. We had an Easterly not quite as strong as expected and a bit patchy at times but on average a good 15 knot breeze with waves, very similar to the last few days.

More of the same… really nice +/-15 knot on shore breeze with big waves. More pressure on the Southern Standard course that the Radials to the North and a bit more in the early races on both courses than the later.

Conditions today were similar to yesterday but a wee bit lighter for the Standards. 15 knot Easterly with quite big waves were the order of the day, think Takapuna in a solid sea breeze but with bigger waves.

Finally some breeze. Fleet launching was held until midday with the first starts on both courses at 1pm.

Another long day which finally yielded one race for most divisions. A very light southerly prevented any action until very late in the day, with launching delayed until well after 4pm for all fleets.

Well it did not quite start with a hiss and a roar……………absolute flat calm at the designated start time.

All 2014 ISAF Sailing World Champs Results

A mixed bag for NZ Lasers at the ISAF Sailing World Champs in Santander, Spain.

This regatta was the first stage in qualifying national spots for the Rio Olympics. The NZ Yachting team were fortunate to qualify us for all classes we entered.

In the Mens Laser;

• Sam Meech came out top NZL - making the gold fleet and 9th overall.
• Andy Maloney was on target with one bullet but had his worst result in the 7th race, keeping him just out of the gold fleet for the first time in a while. See Andys blog.
• Thomas Saunders 20th - a great result
• Mike Bullot finished in 30th despite two top 5 results.

In the Womens Radial;

• Sara Winther had a heartbreaker, finishing 11th, just outside the crucial top 10 benchmark.
• Susannah Pyatt 51st
• Ali Nightingale was 108th

NZL results in the other classes;

• Peter Burling and Blair Tuke having an outstanding regatta in the 49er to have won before the medal race was sailed.
• Polly Powrie and Joh Aleh with silver in the 470. Top spot slipped away when they were caught on the wrong side of the course in the medal race.
• Alex Maloney and Molly Meech fisnishing 12th in the 49erFX - a sign of how competitive the other crews have become in the last year.
• Josh Junior and Andrew Murdoch 5 and 6 in the Finn. The NZ Finn spot for the Olympics is being very closely fought.
• Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders 5th in the relatively new Nacra 17 class.
• Jon-Paul Tobin 16th on the RS:X windsurfer.
• And Natalia Kosinska 21st in the womens RS:X.

So some great results, but plenty of work to do. It sounded like pretty touch conditions to be consistent in.

The 2014 Laser Radial Youth World Championship has wound up in Dziwnow Poland.
Team NZL gaining a lot of valuable international experience in the large fleets. Trent Rippey and Alexandra Nightingale had standout performances finishing just outside the top 10.

Very good and varied sailing and very competitive. I think all the Kiwi sailors would agree it was a tough event, a small mistake would lose you 10 or 20 places very quickly. That's big fleet sailing and that's why the experience is so important for them.
- Don Christie

YNZ coaches report

NZL Results

• 12th Trent Rippey
• 57th Cullen Le roy
• 113th James Jennings
• all mens results

• 14th Alexandra Nightingale
• 64th Olivia Christie
• all womens results

Under Dario Motta's coaching guidance, 3 ladies from Point Chevalier and 6 from PLSC sailed the gusty waters on Saturday 2nd August at Panmure. There were certainly capsizes, everybody had a turn, some more acrobatic then the others but then the fleet took Dario's learnings into practice and sailed the course with more confidence. Sailors will be certainly practicing the rabbit drill starts for the big inaugural regatta in October. It was great day, the sun was even out. Thanks so much Dario for all your tips and Andrew for the rescues.

Photos of the day

https://www.flickr.com/photos/plsc/sets/72157646143165955/

Next Women event

The Inaugural Auckland Laser Women Regatta will be on 11th October at Panmure Lagoon Sailing Club. Please make sure this date is all in your calendars, we have some great sponsors, an amazing new trophy up for grabs, it will be a great day. For those coming outside Auckland, some members have offered accommodation, so please let us know if you are interested. More info to come.

Chantal Grass
www.plsc.org.nz