Racing got underway today in the Barfoot & Thompson NZ Laser Nationals off Takapuna Beach, Auckland. The morning was fine and calm but by scheduled race start time at 1pm the 5 divisions making up the fleet of 153 were on the water and waiting for the sea breeze to settle for racing to get underway.

This never really happened, with the breeze clocking to an unusual due North direction but building sufficiently for racing to get underway by about 2pm. The breeze showed promise of building to a true sea breeze but in the end stayed as an unstable 5 - 8 knots with large shifts and pressure variations. This provided challenging tactical conditions, particularly as the course was set near the main shipping channel which resulted in strong tidal flows across the course to add to the challenges of the unusual breeze. However the conditions allowed all divisions to complete the schedules 2 races and as usual the cream rose to the top in spite of the unusual breeze, although there was a lot of up and down results for sailors further back in the fleets.

In a quality Open fleet of 24, with almost half of these sailors visiting from overseas, the NZ Olympic squad members Sam Meech, Andy Maloney and Tom Saunders fought out close contests in both races with only a single point separating the 3 of them at the end of the day. These 3 have a useful points lead on the next two sailors Jianan Wu from China and Mitchell Kennedy from Australia. Andrew McKenzie had a strong 5th in the second race to be the leading U21 sailor.

In the largest fleet, the Radials with over 50 sailors, the youth sailors have shown the way with George Gautrey, Alastair Gifford and Tim Adair all having two top 4 results to be separated by only 2 points. Susannah Pyatt is the leading female sailor in 4th place with leading female youth sailor the visiting Jia Kim from Korea and George Lane the leading Open Radial sailor in 9th overall.

In the Masters fleets defending champions lead both the full rig and the Radials, with AM Kris Decke holding a single point lead over visiting UK GM Terry Scutcher in the Standards while in the Radials AM Scott Leith dominated the fleet with two decisive victories to lead from AM Tony Evans and M Mike Knowsley. Unluckiest master of the day was probably Mark Patterson, who would have led overall if not for a masters moment, missing the finishing line while in 3rd place in the first race but making amends by winning the second. GGM Bob Blakey proved age was no barrier by leading for much of the second race, only to bemoan the arrogance of youth when he surrendered his lead to Mark!

In the small 4.7 fleet Worser Bays Philip Gouvernale was victorious in both races to stamp his authority on the fleet with Japanese sailor Emiri Koya getting a 2nd in the race 2 to lead the girls.

The forecast for tomorrow is again for a sea breeze so hopefully the fantastic run of weather in Auckland will continue and provide quality conditions for the 3 races scheduled for the Open fleets and 2 for the Masters.

Nick Page

• 29 and 30 Nov 2014
• Napier Sailing Club
• Standard Results
• Radial Results

Generously sponsored by Scott Bremner - Metro Realty.

• 29 and 30 Nov 2014
• Vauxhall YC Dunedin
• Results

Results

• Masters Sandard
• Masters Radial

The Auckland Laser Champs at Tamaki over the weekend provided a full variety of conditions over the two days for the 25 sailors who rolled up on Saturday morning.

The 2014 OKI 24 hour race results at;

www.murraysbay.org/murrays-bay-sailing-club/oki-24hr-race/

Final Results

Stunning Conditions again for the final day

We were fortunate to enjoy another stunning blue sky day with a great sea breeze for the final day of the National Laser Champs in Nelson. Racing again started as soon as the sea breeze filled in just after midday, with 4 races being completed for the Open divisions and 3 for Masters, meaning that all divisions were only one race short of the programmed number despite the loss of races at the beginning of the contest.

The breeze steadily built through the afternoon, topping out at about 15 knots. The slightly lighter breeze, combined with the tide being later than yesterday meant there were considerably smaller waves that we had for yesterday afternoons races. However, the tide again caused some issues on the start line in the later races, with several sailors again suffering OCS’s for premature starts due to the tidal effect on the line.

In the Open Andy Maloney held his lead to win convincingly from Dutch sailor Nicholas Heiner with Tom Saunders in third.  Past champion Mike Bullot was fourth, followed by our other Dutch visitor, Rutger Van Schaardendurg,  who ended up 5th after having to count a DNF in spite of several race wins.

In the Radial leading Women’s sailor Sara Winther won overall from top youth sailors Trent Rippey and Sefton Cole. Susannah Pyatt however had a very strong day including a 1st and two  2nd’s to rise to 4th overall. Leading Women’s Youth sailor was Ali Nightingale in 9th overall.

Lachy Grimwade had a great day with 3 firsts in the 4.7 to take the title from Japanese visitor and top female sailor Emily Koya.

Defending champion, Apprentice Chris Decke, won a very close contest in the full rig Masters to take the title from Master Andrew Dellabarca with Apprentice Kent Copplestone sailing extremely consistently for third overall. He was followed by master Owen Anderson in 4th, with Nick Page taking the Grand Masters title and holding on to 5th overall. Bob Blakey was the leading GGM’s in 11th overall.

In the Masters Radial Apprentice World Champion Scott Leith continued to dominate and took the overall title winning every race. Richard Blakey moved up to second overall , overhauling Ed Tam who held onto 3rd. Mike Keeton was the leading GM in 4th and Jim Quinn the leading GGM in 11th.

Overall the contest was extremely well run by Nelson Yacht Club and delivered wonderful conditions for the final 2 days after a frustrating start. The Open and Radial fleet will now be moving to Sail Auckland, the second NZ team qualifying regatta for the season. Next years contest will be at Takapuna Boating Club in January 2015 and we look forward to a large fleet and more high quality racing.

- Nick Page

Results after the final day.

• Day 1 - light and tricky - only one race
• Day 2 - no racing due to strong winds
• Day 3 - Nelson as advertised - strengthening sea breeze - 4 races for open divisions and 3 for masters
• Day 4 - Another Nelson beauty - strengthening sea breeze - 4 races for open divisions and 3 for masters

Many thanks to the wonderful volunteers at the Nelson Yacht Club. Great sailing the last 2 days. Very forendly and well organised. Awesome lunches. And Tasman Bay scenary people travel around the world to see.

Click for Full Results

Results for the 2013 South Island Laser Champs.
Sailed at Nelson Yacht CLub on the 14th and 15th December 2013.