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The wind turned on in Auckland this weekend and the NZ Kite Racing Nationals was a great two day event. There was a late change of venue and racing was held off Lansdowne street in Shoal Bay to make the most of the midday high tide and south westerly forecast.
© LiveSailDie.com / Brad Davies
Sixteen kiters from all over New Zealand made up the fleet including some international female competitors. Nuria Goma, Spain's top ranked female rider added some class to the fleet along with New Zealand's Justina Kitchen and Australia's Gina Hewson. The fleet also had a solid Masters contingent which made for some tight racing throughout the pack.
Six races were completed on day one in 12-15 knots with NZ talents Dave Robertson and Torrin Bright taking two and four bullets respectively to put Torrin in first overall. Dave and Torrin were battling all day, and on more than one occasion it was a photo finish. Ben Turner was third overall after some solid performances in the 16 strong fleet that was tightly contested
Justine Kitchen in action © LiveSailDie.com / Brad Davies
Day two was a little lighter with the wind only building to 10 knots in the afternoon. After a short delay racing started at 2pm. Flat water and challenging shifty conditions made for some great close racing with Torrin remaining consistent winning both races with Dave and Brad Walker each taking a second place.
It was great to see the fleet building on last year's nationals and the event atmosphere was chilled out kite-styles despite the fast paced close racing.
© LiveSailDie.com / Brad Davies
A big thank you to Murray's Bay Sailing Club and Michael Pepper for organising the event, race officer Ian Clouston - who did an awesome job as always and all of the volunteers for making the event possible.
On a personal note, Chris and I got married last weekend and it was an awesome way to start married life, sending it on our kite boards and showing my new husband who is boss on the race course.
1st Torrin Bright 10 point
2nd Dave Robertson 13 points
3rd Craig Roberts 26.6 points (1st Master)
4th Ben Turner 28 points
5th Brad Walker 39 points
6th Justina Kitchen 41 points (1st female)
7th Leslie Bore 50 points
8th Bradley Nixon 52 points
9th Glenn Bright 62 points
10th Chris Kitchen 65 points
11th Richard Bates 68 points
12th Nuria Goma 70 points
13th Michael Pepper 85 points
14th Gina Hewson 96 points
15th Josh McCormack 102 points
Dave Robertson in action © LiveSailDie.com / Brad Davies
