Thank you so much Point Chevalier Sailing Club for welcoming us with open arms and organising a successful women sailing event. It was a great day all round, gorgeous weather some nice winds 7 to 12 knots and some friendly competition, finishing off with a yummy spread and some bubbly. What else could you ask for?

Eight women participated in the event, an even split of 4 point Chevalier and 4 Panmure Lagoon ladies. The 3 races were all very close, in the Radial fleet, Shaaron McKee (PLSC) and Susan Town (PCSC) were sailing a tremendous battle on the water. Shaaron won 2 of the races, Susan the other one. They were followed closely by Julie Davies (PCSC), Aleisha Ferguson (PLSC) and Kirsty McDonald (PCSC). In the 4.7 rig, Akemi Izawa (PLSC) and Trish Ware (PCSC) both sailed a great race until Trish realised at the end of the 1st race that she had forgotten the bung and her boat was taking on water. What a pity as that was the end of her racing for the day. Congratulations needs to go to Akemi for sailing her first race at another venue, she did so well! 

Here are some photos of the day.

Thanks so much Kirsty, Julie, Trish and Sue for making this event possible, I definitely had a very enjoyable Sunday on and off the water.

- Chantal Grass

Despite Saturday's terrible forecast for the 24th of May, 17 women sailors from Point Chevalier Sailing Club, French Bay Yacht Club, Panmure Lagoon Sailing Club and even as far as Hamilton Yacht Club braved the elements to participate in the first Women Coaching Day at Panmure Lagoon Sailing Club.
Our coach, Laura Lowther helped boost the sailors self esteem by giving them tips on how to sail in very gusty conditions. There were some capsizes, even a broken mast but everybody came back with a smile on their faces.

The next Women's event is a Women racing start at Point Chevalier Sailing Club on 6th July at 12:00, make sure to be there.

photos of the day

- Chantal Grass

Pupuke Boating Club hosted the 2014 Fresh Water Champs over the weekend of 17 and 18 May.

The regatta was well attended with 40 boats, 26 in the full rig class and 14 in the radials. It was classic autumn conditions on the Saturday with a relatively steady 15-18 knot breeze from the south. With a relatively short start line there was a real emphasis on clear air and having the ability to get on the right side of the first shift in order to stay at the top of the fleet.

Andrew MacKenzie from Kohimarama Yacht Club showed his intensions early in the full rig winning every race on the first day. The competition for the remaining places in the top ten was very tight with many of the sailors exchanging places during the first day.

In the radial fleet Scott Leith continued his dominant form on the first daywith his closest completion coming ftrom James Jennings and Richard Blakey.

Sunday dawned cold, crisp and sunny, had no real breeze to speak of. The race committee was fortunate enough to get away one start late in the day. This was very much a light air affair with thin veins of pressure providing good rewards to those who were able to keep their heads out of the boat.

The final race on the Sunday allowed each sailor to drop one race so in the end it was the results on the Saturday that largely determined the results.

The Pupuke Boating Club again enjoyed very generous sponsorship with a well attended prize giving with great spot prizes up for grabs. All in all it was another great weekend and Pupuke Boating Club is looking forward to hosting the event again in 2015.

- Ben Molloy

Sam Meech has won Gold at the 2014 Delta Lloyd regatta in Medemblik Holland.
And Mike Bullot's bronze vaults him back to the front of the elite Laser sailors after many years away.
But wait there's more;
with Thomas Saunders 5th and Andy Maloney sixth.

Across in the womens fleet Sara Winther was 11th.

A good rundown and video interview with Sam at  www.sail-world.com

Full results at results.deltalloydregatta.org

Andy Maloney has got a Silver medial in the ISAF World Cup in Heyres, France. He had a good chance for gold with a final race battle against Aussie Tom Burton. He comments in the sailworld.com article linked below.
Sam Meech held onto 9th overall. Those top 10 results are important for determinging the support each sailor gets from APRC via Yachting NZ.
Thomas Saunders was 15th and Andrew McKenzie 97th.

Over in the Radials Sara Winther was 18th and Ali Nightingale 64th.

Top results came in other classes

• 470 girls Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie won their 2nd ISAF regatta in a row
• Peter Burling and Blair Tuke another gold in the 49er, with Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski 4th
• 4th for Josh Junior in the Finn and 21st for Andrew Murdoch
• 7th for Natalia Kosinska in the RSX

Great overall result for the NZL team, putting them at the top of the medlas alngside Aussie and Poland

http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=121536&refre=y&ntid=118&rid=6&su...

Congratulations to Lachy Grimwade who has won in the 17 boat Laser 4.7 fleet at Sail Brisbane.
A closely fought battle and nerve racking result, which Lachy won on countback after tying on final points with James Woodhouse and one point back to Noah Taylor.

Full results

Minutes of the NZLA AGM - 17th December 2013

Thanks to all those who attended. Particularly the judges John Bullot and Doug Elder who gave us a very helpful perspective on a number of issues.

After 2 days of 10 knots or less we look like getting a decent breeze today.

Masters Worlds Wrap up

Another blue sky, light wind day completed the Masters Worlds in Oman on Saturday, with a light 5-6 knot sea breeze eventually filling in and allowing one further race on the full rig course and two races to be squeezed in on the Radial Course.

This was unfortunate for Ed Tam, who was holding 2nd, for a cube, after a 2nd in the first race of the day but his Brazilian opponent won the last race, pipping Ed for 2nd place overall by a single point. Others to have a good day were Hamish Atkinson with two top 10 places and Tom Speed with a 6th in the last race on the Radial course and Andrew Dellabarca with a 4th in the Masters Standard. Chip was only one top race from a cube position and was the second to top sailor in his division for the second half of the regatta. The rest of us finished the regatta in generally unchanged positions from day 5.

The contest was notable for a number of reasons, many of them predictable for the venue;

Scott Leith nailing another one! Kiwis in 3rd, 4th and 5th in the AM standard fleet must bode well for the future.

The conditions being very similar every day, 5 to 8 knot shifty Northerlyish breeze with chop, with a few knots more a couple of times but you had to be under about 80kg in the full rig and much less in the Radial to really claim to have hiked out during the regatta. Unusually we could not say, as they did for the Open a couple of weeks previously, "it's never like this". In our case the conditions were pretty much what was predicted, if anything a little lighter than expected.

Every division except the new GGM full rig was won by a "Radial" sailor. Scott in the AM's, Al Clark (CAN) in the Masters and Greg Adams (AUS) in the GM's all stepped up from Radial at Brisbane to full rig for this regatta. All are pretty much full time sailors, as were many of the winners in the Radial divisions and all showed their class consistently through the regatta.

The first ever Standard GGM fleet, dominated by Mark Bethwaite (AUS), who lost 5kg's to ensure he would be competitive for the event, but with Bob Blakey deservedly coming home with a cube after a strong second placing.

The second woman to ever win an open division, with Vanessa Dudley (AUS) triumphant in the Masters Radial against a really high quality fleet.

There was significant depth in every fleet, with pretty much every place hard to achieve and hard to defend in all divisions. Consistency was hardest to achieve, with many having a few good results offset by disasters of one sort or another. Only those with a consistent speed edge such as Scott, or able to get consistent clean start and hold their lane were able to feature consistently at the top of the fleets. It was noticeable that the speed advantage the top sailors enjoyed was eroded through the week as other worked out the optimum settings and techniques for the conditions. There were however many sailors who have achieved top results in previous Masters worlds buried deep in fleets in the final results, particularly those for whom a weight of 80kg (or even 90) or less is but a distant memory.

Talking to the team at the prize giving I think that we all head home having enjoyed the venue and the contest, with great sun tans, having eaten too much  and enjoyed the challenging sailing.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the Nationals in Nelson in a few weeks and to qualifying for next years worlds in Hyeres. That contest is sure to provide different but no less challenging a regatta, with numbers of around 400 expected to attend making it possibly the largest Masters worlds ever. It will be great if we can see a strong Kiwi contingent there.

Nick Page

Fantastic news with Scott Leith securing another World Championship with a day to spare.

Final Results 2014 Laser Masters Worlds

The light but variable conditions have continued. The fourth day, following the lay day, there was again 5 to 10 knots sea breeze which built slowly. The start was delayed 2 hours and again we managed to hike a little late in the day. There was a slight swell under the wind chop but it was still shifty and some tidal currents to add to the challenges. The fifth day today again saw the start delayed 2 hours and we raced in 5 to 8 knot north easterly sea breeze. Choppy but no swell. With the weather being more of the same the racing has followed the pattern of the first 3 days with very tight racing in most fleets and places easy to lose but hard to gain back. As can be seen from the results the fortunes of the Kiwi sailors have continued to vary.

In the Apprentice Masters Scott Leith has secured another World Title with a day to spare. He has dominated the fleet with consistent, percentage sailing. Once he had established his domination over the first 3 days he has sailed conservatively and just continued to build consistent results allowing him to build an unassailable lead, with a 2nd and 3rd as his two worst performances going into the last day. Kris Decke and Alistair Tait have both enjoyed individual race wins in the last 2 days and continue to wage a close battle for third place overall while Alan Coutts is also close in 6th. Kent Copplestone and Rob Woodward have continued to struggle a bit in the light conditions.

In the Masters, Andrew Dellabarca has again had some excellent races, winning race 9 and sitting 7th overall going into the last 2 races tomorrow and still with a realistic chance of a top 5 finish if he has a really good day tomorrow. Arnoud Hummel (NED) and Al Clark (CAN) continue their close battle at the head of the fleet, separated by only 1 point going into the final day.

In the Grand Master I (Nick Page) have continued to be a bit up and down, struggling to hold places in the conditions. We only had one race today, running out of time as being winter here it is dark by 5.30. A strong tide carrying the fleet across the start line resulted in several general recalls and black flags for race 10, a saga that will now continue tomorrow morning, weather permitting. Greg Adams (AUS) continues to dominate this fleet and is now almost assured of the title.

In the GGM full rig Bob Blakey has continued his strong form and holds a clear second behind Mark Bethwaite (AUS), who has an unassailable lead with 3 races to go. While Bob is in line for one of the inaugural GGM standard cubes Sandy Grigg has been a bit less consistent and is now 6th overall. Again the GGM's only managed 1 race today as time for them ran out waiting for the young GM's to try and sort out their starts.

In the Radial Apprentice Edmund Tam has had a tough couple of days, winning race 9 but struggling in the other 3 races to now be third on points, but only one point out of a cube position so with everything to sail for on the final day. Jon Emmett (GBR) has proven extremely consistent after a slow start and leads from Fabio Suyama Ramos (BRA) who moved into second after a 1st and 2nd today.

In the Radial Masters Roger Winton and Hamish Atkinson have continued to improve but are still mid-fleet with Ian Jones (GBR) having won this division with a day to spare.

In the Radial Grand Masters Bruce Jones has had a couple of top 10 finishes which has boosted his overall standing. Vanessa Dudley (AUS) has been extremely consistent at the top of the fleet and has won this division, also with a day to spare.

In the GGM's Tom Speed has continued to finish consistently mid fleet. The fleet continues to be led by Peter Seidenburg. They also have 3 races to try and fit in tomorrow.

So as we go into the last day several fleets have the winners decided but close battles remain for the minor placings in those fleets and for the other titles. The forecast is again 5 to 10 knots North'ish sea breezes but hopefully it will conform with the forecast and fill in earlier than the last 2 days, allowing all races to be completed by the 3pm start time cutoff.

Congratulations to Scott on another well deserved success and best of luck to Ed in his battle tomorrow to secure the AM Radial prize.

Nick Page