• By Age and Category
• By fleet for Standard All Ages & Radial Apprentice (AM) and Masters (M)
• By fleet for Radial Grand Masters (GM), Great Grand Masters (GM) and Legend (GGGM)

The Radial fleet saw a really close contest which was only decided in the last race. Youth Joshua Bull convincingly took out race 7 to secure the title by a single point from Master Richard Blakey, who was 2 points ahead of Apprentice Phil Wild with first GM Kevin Welsh in 4th. Kevin was unlucky not to take out the Masters title after getting a UFD when he had won race 3 on the water. Last weeks Radial winner at the Auckland Masters Werner Hennig was a close 5th followed by first women, Michelle Bain in 6th. Sueellen Davis kept Michelle honest in 7th overall, a great performance as she has only just got back into the Laser ahead of the WMG.

The Standard fleet was dominated by three sailors. Top youth sailor Josh Armit gave all the masters sailors a true lesson in lake sailing, with 5 wins and 2 seconds, and showing an amazing ability to read the conditions and either dominate from the start or work his way to the front of the fleet on the rare occasion he got buried and gave the rest of us a chance. Almost as impressive were Masters Rohan Lord and Giles Grigg. Rohan won the two races Josh when "stumbled" and was consistently in the top 5 in all the other races, as was Giles. While Josh and Rowan were able to break away from the rest of the front bunch to win their races there was incredibly close racing in the rest of the fleet, with the top half of the fleet regularly bow to stern at every mark throughout the races. This made consistency incredibly difficult to achieve and all the rest of the fleet ended up carrying a couple of higher scoring races. Third Master and 4th overall was local lake sailor Tony Nicholson, who had a great run of pin end starts and just pipped top GM Mark Oliver in 5th overall. Past multiple NZ Masters National Champion, Apprentice Kris Decke struggled for consistency and ended up first Apprentice but 7th overall.

Pupuke provided the usual generous selection of prizes to finish a very enjoyable weekend. The last formal warmup regatta before the WMG is at Takapuna Friday/Saturday next weekend then it is on to the big Masters' event of the NZ season, the World Masters Games at Torbay, with 10 races over 5 days certain to provide top quality racing for the 170 Laser Masters entered.

- Nick Page

Standard
 

Radial

• Smart Marine
• The Water Shed - thanks Dan Slater
• nzsailing.net - thanks Mike Pasco

• Results
• Photos

Download PDF

We were back at the Lake Taupo Yacht Club for the 2017 NZ National Laser Champs.

• Final Results
• Photos
• Final day 4 report (racing cancelled)
• Day 3 Report
• Day 2 Report
• Day 1 Report

The final day of the 2017 Laser Nationals at Lake Taupo dawned with strong Northerly winds and heavy rain from the weather system that affected most of NZ today. Contrary to the forecast the wind moderated a bit and the skies cleared as the morning progressed and the PRO and his team were out on the course looking to get the races started on time. Alas it was not to be and with a 30 knot squall coming through the course just before the D flag was due to go up, gale warnings in place and the wind forecast to rise even further during the afternoon the decision was made to abandon racing for the day and declare yesterdays results as final for the contest.

So after 3 days quality racing in fresh conditions defending champion Andrew McKenzie was crowned NZ Laser champion again in the Open fleet but we have new champions in the other 3 fleets. Outstanding youth sailor Josh Armit was victorious in the Open Radial fleet while apprentices Phil Wild in the Masters Radial and Anthony Merrington in the Masters Standard both won their respective titles by just a single point.

Other division winners included last years Radial champion George Gautrey, who picked up the Under 21 cube in the Standard fleet and Open Women's champion Susannah Pyatt and Youth Women's champion Olivia Christie in the Radials. In the Standard Masters Giles Grigg was second overall and the leading Master, Peter Kempkers the leading GM and John Pitman from New Plymouth the first Great Grand Master. In the Radial Masters Richard Blakey was only 1 point behind Phil to be leading Master, Hamish Atkinson from Naval Point in Christchurch, host for next years Nationals, was the leading GM and Gus Fry from last years hosts Muritai the leading GGM.

So an extremely successful and well run contest is concluded with many sailors looking to meet again in only a couple of weeks at the Oceanbridge NZL regatta at Murrays Bay. Special thanks to LTYC for hosting the contest so well and Bayleys Taupo for their support of the regatta.

• Final Results
• Photos

- Nick Page
 

Fresh snow overnight on the mountains at the southern end of Lake Taupo and a moderate SW breeze meant that sailors arriving at the yacht club this morning were greeted by bracing temperatures which resulted in most sailors wearing enough layers of clothing when going on the water to qualify for Michellin man ads. However the clouds mostly cleared, the sun came out and the breeze moderated to provide a challenging but beautiful days sailing with all races completed to schedule. While breeze had a little more South in it than yesterday and was much lighter it was again challenging for all with strength varying from almost nothing to 15 knots and 20 degrees shifts, all every few minutes, combing to significantly shake up the results in several divisions and make consistency hard to achieve.

Day 2 Results
 

In the Open there is a fantastic contest developing between the NZL and Chinese teams. New Zealand sailors are 1,3, 5 and 7 at the end of day 2 with the Chinese team 2, 4, 6 and 8th. Still leading is defending champion Andrew Mckenzie, but only by a single point from Jianan Wu who had a really strong day and was the model of consistency with two first and a second. Tom Saunders is only 4 points back in 3rd overall with recent youth graduate George Gautrey scoring a bullet in the last race to move up to 5th overall.

In the Radial another fantastic contest is developing. After 5 races top youths Alastair Gifford and Josh Armit are tied on points with a good break on third place Susannah Pyatt. Josh won one of todays 3 races while the other were won by master Scott Leith and youth Albert Stanley, both of who's overall ranking should benefit tomorrow once a discard comes in as both are currently carrying an OCS. Both Alastair and Josh have been super consistent so far so it may be a case of who blinks first in deciding the ultimate winner. Another notable feature is that there a 3 women in the top 6 with Stephanie Devaux Lovell in 4th and Youth Worlds rep Olivia Christie in 6th joining Susannah to keep the guys honest.

In the Masters race 3 was completely dominated by Nick Brewer from Tamaki. He picked the right hander on the first beat and was never threatened after that.  Race 4 was a completely different affair with the lead changing several times and was finally decided only as the fleet neared the finish line when Giles Grigg found some pressure in the left corner and sailed around the leading bunch to record the win. Mark Oliver and Anthony Merrington also featured at the top of the fleet in both races to consolidate top 3 spots overall with Giles. Defending champion Andrew Dellabarca and past champion Kris Decke both suffered from ending up on the wrong side of the first beat in both races to give themselves a challenge for the rest of the series.

In the Masters Radial overnight leader Phil Wild found the day more challenging, like Andrew and Kris in the Standards getting on the wrong side on the first beat to make life difficult for himself but still managed to lead overall at the end of the day. Race 1 was won by Werner Hennig from Hamilton, who managed to hold onto an early break while in race 2 Richard Blakey just scraped in on the line over GM past World Champ Mike Keeton, who enjoyed the lighter conditions today. Richard had a tough first race today and is another who will be looking forward to a discard coming into play. Leading Grand Master is Hamish Atkinson from Christchurch who has again shown super consistency to sit second overall while defending champion Ed Tam sits 4th after a tough second race.

With tomorrows forecast for completely different condition, light Northeasterlies, and half the series still to come there are sure to be opportunities and plenty of further challenges for all.

- Nick Page