Over the weekend of the 13th 14th February 2016 34 keen Laser sailors headed down to the Mt Pleasant on the Christchurch estuary for 9.00 and 9.30 starts. 

Saturday’s first race was a tricky downwind start in a dying Southerly. 2 ½ hours later we finished in a light Easterly breeze. The Full Rig places seemed to change somewhat as some were becalmed and others bought the new breeze through. All in all a very frustrating race I would say by all!

The second race the light Easterly remained and we just finished with enough water to spare.

Day 2 we managed 4 races a piece in all the fleets in a light Easterly breeze.

Thanks to Mt Pleasant and especially Phil Galloway for hosting the regatta. It was great to see so many Lasers sailing off the one club in Christchurch.

The wind gods were not kind but we did well to get 6 races done and dusted in unusually light weather conditions.

The Standard rigs were won by Richard Ineson  from Cyc, with Nick James 2nd and Haydn James 3rd.

Sam Higginbottom won the 4.7s with Annah Winheld 2nd.

In the Radials Dougal Frame was a convincing winner with Craig Atkinson beating Dad Hamish for 2nd and 3rd.

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Wellington again turned it on for the final day of the 2016 Woodridge Homes NZ Laser Nationals at Muritai Yacht Club in Wellington.

A light breeze greeted the 92 sailors as they arrived at the club and some of us were led to believe that the local Masters “we don’t do Light” was a Wellington myth. However true to Wellington form by start time it had built to 20 knots, again from the NW, and we ended up with the freshest day of the contest with gusts at times touching 30 knots and plenty of shifts and variation in pressure for those smart enough to take advantage. The outgoing tide ensured that conditions were not too rough and all fleets completed 2 races to complete their full complement of races for the contest.

In the Open Standard fleet Andrew McKenzie again took command from the start of each race to record two wins and an emphatic overall victory, winning 8 of the 10 races. Visiting Chinese sailors Ning Zhao and Jinfu Zhou were 2nd and 3rd in both todays races and overall with Matthew Kempkers from Auckland 4th.

The Radial Open contest was only decided in the final race and provided the highlight for the host club with club youth star George Gautrey, fresh from his second in the ISAF worlds youths, scoring a 1/2 today to secure victory over reigning World Apprentice Master champion Scott Leith, who also scored a 1/2 today but ended up 3 points behind George. Third was Chinese visitor Jianan Wu who was extremely  consistent and only 2 points behind Scott. The leading woman was Susannah Pyatt in 6th  and Worser Bay youth sailor Olivia Christie had an exceptionally strong regatta to finish 9th overall and first youth girl, out sailing many more experienced competitors despite the testing conditions.

After a really close contest visiting French sailor Juliette Bone claimed victory in the 4.7 division over Worser Bay sailor Amy Anderson.

Local talent was again to the fore in the Masters Divisions, with many of the sailors using the regatta to start to prepare for the Laser sailing at the 2017 World Masters Games in Auckland.

The Standard Masters division saw local Andrew Dellabarca securing an extremely well deserved victory with a 2/3 scoreline today to defeat the reigning champion, Apprentice Kris Decke from Whangarei by 5 points. Grand Masters Peter Kempkers, who had a great day winning both Masters races, and Murray Thom were 3rd and 4th respectively.

In the Radial Masters Ed Tam from Worser Bay won comfortably overall. He had a 3/1 record today to win clearly from Master Hamish Atkinson from Christchurch. First Grand Master was Roger Winton from Whangarei and after an intense battle of the Grand Masters Eastbourne’s Garth Cheyne took out the division from Bob Blakey and Gus Fry in 6th, 7th and 8th overall.

So we have concluded a wonderfully successful contest with testing conditions and every division well contested. Next year’s contest will be in Taupo which is sure to provide a whole new set of challenges for sailors. The top 5 in each division were;

Regards
Nick Page
NZLA Chairman
 

Top 5 in each fleet at the end of todays racing;

Open Standard
1. Andrew McKenzie, Auckland
2. Ning Zhao, China
3 Jinfu Zhou, China.
4. Matt Kempkers, Auckland
5. James Jennings, Auckland

Open Radial
1. George Gautrey, Eastbourne
2. Scott Leith, Auckland
3. Jianan Wu, China
4. Josh Armit, Auckland
5. Alastair Gifford, Auckland

Standard Masters
1. Andrew Dellabarca, Wellington
2. Kris Decke, Whangarei
3. Peter Kempkers, Auckland
4. Murray Thom, Auckland
5. Rob Woodward, Wellington

Radial Masters
1. Ed Tam, Worser Bay
2. Hamish Atkinson, Christchurch
3. Greg Wilshire, Auckland
4. Roger Winton, Whangarei
5. Mike Knowsley, Auckland

Full Results

Laser Radial Open & Youth

Laser 4.7

Laser Standard Masters

Laser Radial Masters

Woodridge Homes was generously supporting the 2016 NZ National Laser Champs. Hosted by Muritai Yacht Club - Eastbourne, Wellington.

• Full Results

• Racing Friday to Monday 22nd - 25th January 2016

Fantastic results at the 2015 Youth Worlds in Malaysia for NZL Lasers.

George Gautrey finished 2nd behind Australian Alistar Young in a 66 boat fleet - with a consistent performance including a 1st and 6 of 9 races in the top 10.

And Ali Nightingale finished 12th of 54 boats - including a 1st in the first race.

All results

Laser Radial
Susannah Pyatt 2nd.
Ali Nightingale 9th
Julia Francis 20th

Laser
Thomas Saunders 2nd
Andrew McKenzie 12th
Matt Blakey 16th
Matt Kempkers 20th

All Results

Napier again hosted the contest as part of their Summer regatta, with competitors welcomed by 27degree temperatures causing many of the Wellington contingent to remark on the contrast with spring in Wellington! There was a fantastic turnout with over 50 Lasers entered and it was great to see a strong youth contingent and competitors from as far afield as Picton, Christchurch and Whangarei.

Results for all classes

Saturday started with a nice 10 knot breeze and all fleets started on time at 11am. However half way through the first race things changed dramatically, with a 35 to 40 knot pressure line coming down from the shore causing some exciting moments for all and causing a fair degree of carnage with bent and broken yachts scattered around the bay. This resulted in the races being abandoned after the leaders finished and all boats being sent ashore. Unfortunately the winds did not moderate until late in the day so there was no more racing possible on Saturday.

Sunday however delivered fantastic conditions with a light sea breeze slowly building through the day and 4 quality races being completed.
 
In the 36 strong Radial fleet youth trumped experience with Josh Armit showing real class in winning two races in dominant style and backing that up with a 2^nd and 5^th to take the trophy ahead of Albert Stanley from Worser Bay and Alistair Gifford from QCYC who each managed a race win. There was a great turnout for the Youth girls fleet with strong top 10 performances from Ali Nightingale in 5^thand Libby Porter in 8^th the standouts. Leading Master was Ed Tam in 7^th with GM Roger Winton sneaking into the top 10 to provide some balance to the youth domination.
 
In the Standards it was again a contest of youth vs experience with Master Andrew Dellabarca repeating last years victory in spite of a strong challenge from last years Radial winner, youth James Jennings who finished 2^nd.  Third was Greg Wiltshire from Howick, holding up the Auckland masters end of the contest in what is becoming an annual North vs South challenge. It was interesting to see 3 of the new standard sails being used but all we could conclude from the results was that they seem very close in performance to the old model and there did not seem to be any consistent speed advantage in the conditions we experienced.
 
The strong turnout at this regatta bodes well for the Nationals at Muratai in January so we are looking forward to strong Youth and Masters fleets being joined by Open and overseas sailors in what should again provide a quality contest.
 
Nick Page

• 1^st Peter Graham  O(7 pts)
• 2^nd Hamish Atkinson M (11 pts)
• 3^rd  Neil Morris GM (12 pts)
• 4^th  Samuel Rushton Y (18pts)
• 5^th  Alex Morris O(19 pts),
• 6^th Lola Adams W (27pts)
• 7^th Layton Hern
• 8^th Durham Throp
• 9^th Bas Hart
• 10^th Ross Shipman
• 11^th Anna Breen

Full Rigs:

• 1^st Chris Shannon AM (6pts)
• 2nd Daryl Parkes (8pts)

2015 North Shore  Freshwater Champs

• Full Results
• Photos care of John Adair

A 30 knot forecast plus a number of sailors over in Brisbane for the South Pacific Masters resulted in a slightly smaller than usual entry for the NSFWC at Pupuke on 16/17 May. However quality was there with 2 of our Open Worlds squad, defending NSFWC champion Andrew McKenzie and world top 10 ranked Mike Bullot fronting to give the locals something to aspire to in the Standards and World GM champion Mike Keeton and World cube winner Richard Blakey the form sailors in the Radial for the youth sailors to knock over. 

In spite of the forecast Saturday dawned with a nice Pupuke SW breeze, never really getting much over 12 knots but with shifts and pressure variations providing ample challenges for all. Sunday was again a SW breeze but lighter, around 5 to 8 knots all day. These conditions provided plenty of opportunity for all and no place was ever secure with some major shifts and gusts reshuffling both fleets in several races. 

As usual though the cream rose to the top. In the Standard fleet Mike showed his class with 5 wins from the 6 races, the sequence broken by Andrew who was deservedly victorious in race 3 and was right on Mikes heels in the other races, with the exception of the last where a major wind shift combined with a mainsheet that decided to come unkotted at a critical moment seeing him join the mortals in the bunch. There was a tight contest in the Masters, with GM Peter Kempkers victorious by 1 point from GM Nick Page after a very close series. Leading Master was Dean Drummond, who was still hoping for the forecast 30 knots even at the prize giving, in 5th, first Apprentice Rob Bland in 8th and GGM Ray Beale capping a consistent series with a 4th in the last race for 10th overall.

In the Radials Youth beat experience with Tim Adair putting together a great series to take out the overall win from newcomer and current Starling champion youth Josh Armit, who’s speed and consistency showed he will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. Third overall and first Master was Mike Keeton, who despite an ever increasing list of old age ailments seems to just keep pulling out the results on the water. He was followed by GM Kevin Welsh who managed a win in race 2 and was consistent all weekend. First women was Youth Libby Porter in 6th, who also showed flashes of brilliance in the challenging conditions with her best result a 2nd in race 2. 1st Master was Richard Blakey, who after a very challenging weekend was heard to comment on his love of the lake, while leading Women’s Master Georgina Wooldridge was happy to be on the water while husband Neil looked after the kids for the weekend rather than being able to demonstrate his prowess in the Standard fleet.

The contest was followed by the usual Pupuke prize giving, with an awesome range of prizes overshadowed only by commodore John Dowsett’s presentation skills (not matched this weekend by sailing skills we note). A great weekend and thanks to Pupuke and PRO Garth Briden for yet another quality regatta.

Nick Page

The 2^nd edition of the Auckland Women Laser Cup held at French Bay Yacht Club was a huge success. Eleven women sailors from French Bay, Kohimarama, Panmure, Point Chevalier, Pupuke and even as far as Worser Bay came to participate in this great event. A glorious autumn sun glistened on the Manukau harbour setting the stage for a great regatta with winds ranging from 5 to 15 knots and some racing tidal currents towards the end challenging all sailors.

There was some very close racing in the A fleet for 1^st place between Libby Porter from Kohimarama and Megan Thomson from French Bay. Libby finally won the day by winning the last race and coming back for the second time in a row with the impressive Auckland Women Laser Cup donated by Jim Quinn. Megan came a very close second and Georgina Wooldridge from Pupuke came third and first Master Women. First Junior was Aleisha Ferguson from Panmure.

The B division was won by Annika Greve from Worser Bay, second place and first Master went to Annie Mills from Panmure and third place to Ngaio Balfour from French Bay. This was a fantastic effort for this group as this was for many their very first regatta.

A special thanks needs to go to French Bay Yacht Club for hosting a great regatta, we all enjoyed the friendly welcome, the help with the trailors, the yummy baking and a good burger after a day racing and some great prizes.

Next year the regatta will be hosted at Point Chevalier Yacht Club, so if you missed this one make sure you are all there!

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Cheers
Chantal Grass