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- 8-9 March - ILCA North Island Freshwater Champs - Lake Taupo YC
Nice sea breezes and a particularly strong youth Radial fleet were the features of the 2018 Auckland Laser Champs held at Torbay on 17th and 18th February.
Saturday saw the sea breeze fill in early, with 10-15 knots for the 3 races and a decent chop. Sunday was overcast and the breeze never really got above about 8 knots but still provided good racing.
In the 30 boat Radial fleet, Luke Cashmore had an excellent weekend, winning 4 of the 6 races to take out the championship. Behind him Torbay local Harrison Baker had was also exceptionally consistent, particularly on the Sunday with 3-second places. Third overall was Master Phil Wild, keeping the youth fleet honest, as did Susannah Pyatt who had two good wins on Saturday but was not able to sail Sunday. The Torbay youth squad stood out overall with Jayden Abbott, Ryan Harden and Logan Beckman in 4th, 5th and 6th all having a good weekend on the water.
In the Standards there was a repeat of the contest from the recent Nationals in Christchurch with National Masters Champ Andrew Dellabarca making the trip up from Wellington worthwhile, taking out the contest from local Ian Baker with Cris Brodie third. GGM John Pitman from New Plymouth had an exceptional Sunday, winning two of the races to come in 4th overall, clearly preferring Sundays lighter condition.
Results at the end of the final day 4 - Sunday 21st Jan 2018.
A great regatta with excellent sailing conditions, expertly run by Naval Point Club Lyttelton.
We were generously supported by Sheffield - sourcing, selecting and shaping leaders - sheffield.co.nz
Andrew McKenzie
Susannah Pyatt
George Gautrey & Rohan Lord
The Sheffield South Island Laser Championships were held at NPCL on the 25/26 November.
Entries were from as far afield as Dunedin, Picton and Nelson. There were 22 Radials and 7 Full Rigs competing. Race 1 on Saturday started in a light SW and had to be abandoned as the wind died away and the good old NE arrived. This meant a beat up the harbour to a different race course area. Racing got away again about 12-30 in a building Easterly and 3 races were completed in 14-21 knots.
Alistair Gifford, fresh from his 2nd place in the youth trials, dominated the Full Rigs with local hopefuls Tim Pitcaithly 2nd and Master Chris Shannon 3rd in each race.
In the Radials, previous winner Peter Graham from Dunedin had a 1,2,1 and female Master Jenny Armstrong (previous Olympic Gold 470 medallist) also from Dunedin was in a tied position with local Hamish Atkinson with 2,3,4 scorecards. Charles Corston won race 2 convincingly and then in race 3 dislocated his shoulder again so, unfortunately, had to painfully retire from the series.
On Sunday, we sailed a little further up the harbour with another 3 races in champagne 14-20 knot Lyttelton Easterly conditions.
For the Full Rigs, it was much of the same with Alistair getting 3 deserving bullets, followed by Tim with 3 seconds and Sean Thomson 3 thirds.
In the Radials, Peter also had 3 bullets, and Jenny and Hamish continued their 2,3,4 placings. Simon Wilson had blistering pace for a 2nd in Race 4 and 3rd in Race 5. Simon finished 4th overall and had some good capsize practice and may consider bringing his snorkel and mask up for the Nationals!
Full Rig prizes went to Alistair for 1st Youth, Tim for 1st Open and Sean for 1st Master. Radial prizes went to Peter for 1st Open, Jenny for 1st Female and 1st Master and Harry Corston for 1st Youth, and unofficially Greg Corston for the most UFD’s.
Thanks very much to Ross May the Race Officer, Phil Foulter race management, and the race boat helpers. Looking forward to some more of the same hopefully in January at the Sheffield Nationals.
See you all there!
- Hamish Atkinson