2018 Auckland Women's Laser Champs
At 5:00 am the weather demons were in full song roaring through the trees with lashings of rain thundering on the roofing iron. By 07:30 am old Huey had relented a tad with streaks of sun brightening the sky. The weather would not have deterred 14 tenacious, gutsy women sailors competing in the 5th Auckland Women Laser Championship. It is a Women Laser sailor tradition after all to have high winds and blustering condition at almost every event. By 10:00 am it was to turn out into a fantastic day for a sail although rather a chilly one.
Out on the water Garth Briden and Jock Bilger, our race officers laid the start line while Ian Wallace dropped off the top mark SSE of the start and the Wing mark down by the gut. The wind was expected to move to the SW as the day progressed which actually happened. First race saw the fleet of wild-eyed determined women sailors prancing out of the starting gate on cue with winds of 14 to 18 knots driving them along.
Third race saw the top mark being moved to the South and still the wind veered more to the West landing up as a SW of 8 to 12 Knots for the 4th and 5th races with the course now being laid directly up & down the length of the Lagoon giving the fleet a really good beat to the top mark. Great to see such a well behaved fleet who did their penalties on cue but were also very competitive seeing some very close racing.
Annabelle Rennie-Younger from Murray Bay, who finished 5th at the 2017 Sailing Youth World Championships last year, dominated most races, except for race 2, where junior sailor Samantha Stock (MBYC) and this years' RSA Radial winner managed to snuffle a race. Third and 2nd junior was Isabella Boyd from Wakatere. There is definitely a wealth of sailing talent with these 3 young women sailors and we see a bright future ahead for them. All three of these sailors have won a well deserved coaching session with Andrew McKenzie.
Raynor Haagh, our local YNZ Regional Support Officer was first Master with Helen Spencer (HYC) hot on her heels (they finished with the same number of points). Lucia Chagas (HYC) in the 4.7, came first in the green fleet, she is definitely one to watch as she was in the midst of the Radial fleet, same as 4.7 Nuria Ferres Rubau from Point Chev who came second. Birthday girl and in her very first regatta Heather Moore from Point Chev, came 3rd sailor.
We would like to thank our army of helpers: Garth Briden, Jock Bilger (start boat); Ian Wallace, Jeff Coffin, Andrew Irving and Daniel Sanz Alonso in the patrol boats and taking photos; Anna Wallace, Jim Quinn and Merlin Caskie in the tower sorting out results and Blair Park, our new PLSC Commodore doing the BBQ and Susannah Pyatt for being our guest speaker.
A big thank you to our generous sponsors: CRC, Burnsco, Baltic, Unichem, ecostore and Onehunga Dental Centre. Thanks so much for supporting women racing.
A Fleet Fleet
| Rank | Tally | Fleet | Division | Boat | Class | SailNo | Club | HelmName | Rating | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Total | Nett |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 13 | A Fleet | Open Woman | LASER RADIAL | 211516 | Murrays Bay Sailing Club | Annabelle Rennie-Younger | 1101 | 1.0 | (2.0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 6.0 | 4.0 | |
| 2nd | 14 | A Fleet | Junior | LASER RADIAL | 210825 | Murrays Bay Sailing Club | Samantha Stock | 1101 | (2.0) | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 9.0 | 7.0 | |
| 3rd | 9 | A Fleet | Junior | LASER RADIAL | 208341 | Wakatere Yacht Club | Isabella Boyd | 1101 | (6.0) | 3.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 21.0 | 15.0 | |
| 4th | 8 | A Fleet | Open Woman | LASER RADIAL | 209279 | Murrays Bay Sailing Club | Courtney Reynolds-Smith | 1101 | 4.0 | (5.0) | 4.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 21.0 | 16.0 | |
| 5th | 7 | A Fleet | Apprentice Master Woman | Club Boat | LASER RADIAL | 92613 | SSANZ | Raynor Haagh | 1101 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 | (9.0) | 27.0 | 18.0 |
| 6th | 4 | A Fleet | Grand Master Woman | LASER RADIAL | 171132 | Hamilton Yacht Club | Helen Spencer | 1101 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | (6.0) | 4.0 | 24.0 | 18.0 | |
| 7th | 3 | A Fleet | Grand Master Woman | Go Hard Go Home | LASER RADIAL | 157146 | PLSC | Shaaron McKee | 1101 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | (11.0) | 8.0 | 41.0 | 30.0 |
| 8th | 2 | A Fleet | Open Woman | LASER RADIAL | no number | PLSC | Taylor Farrell | 1101 | 8.0 | (9.0) | 9.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 40.0 | 31.0 | |
| 9th | 5 | A Fleet | Grand Master Woman | LASER RADIAL | 197252 | Point Chevalier Sailing Club | Kirsty Mac Donald | 1101 | (11.0) | 10.0 | 7.0 | 10.0 | 6.0 | 44.0 | 33.0 | |
| 10th | 12 | A Fleet | Open Woman | Club Boat | LASER RADIAL | 210499 | PLSC | Deborah Killen | 1101 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 10.0 | 9.0 | (11.0) | 47.0 | 36.0 |
| 11th | 1 | A Fleet | Master Woman | Skandalous | LASER RADIAL | 198110 | PLSC | Chantal Grass | 1101 | 10.0 | (12.0 DNF) | 11.0 | 8.0 | 10.0 | 51.0 | 39.0 |
Green Fleet Fleet
| Rank | Tally | Fleet | Division | Boat | Class | SailNo | Club | HelmName | Rating | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Total | Nett |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 11 | Green Fleet | Master Woman | Club Boat | LASER 4.7 | Boat 7 | Hamilton Yacht Club | Lucia Chagas | 1200 | (1.0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| 2nd | 10 | Green Fleet | Open Woman | Club Boat | LASER 4.7 | Boat 5 HMB | Point Chevalier Sailing Club | Núria Ferrés Rubau | 1200 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | (3.0) | 11.0 | 8.0 |
| 3rd | 6 | Green Fleet | Master Woman | LASER RADIAL | 195546 | Point Chevalier Sailing Club | Heather Moore | 1101 | (3.0) | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 14.0 | 11.0 |