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It was another great edition of the Jack Tar Auckland Regatta over the weekend, with a good mixture of light and heavy wind conditions giving competitors a bit of everything and not making it easy for anyone out on the water.
After three days of competitive tit-for-tat racing across 12 races in the Pacific Keelboat Challenge, defending Champion Chris Way secured himself back-to-back titles after a solid display in breezy conditions yesterday. Way, from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Australia, claimed trans-Tasman bragging rights and managed to claim four race wins out of five yesterday, propelling him to an unassailable 10-point lead over the next best team.
Local Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron skipper Matt Bouzaid had five second-placed finishes yesterday to claim second overall – a great reward for some very consistent MRX sailing. Fellow RNZYS skipper Tom Macky started the day well, winning the first race, but four subsequent third-placed finishes weren’t quite enough for him to cement second, slipping back to third overall for the regatta. Perth’s Paul King was fourth, with Euan Little (RNZYS), Meridy Boyd-Clarke (RNZYS) and Queensland’s Chris Morgan rounding out the fleet in that order.
If you were out on the course on Sunday, it would have been hard to take your eye off the Division A TP52s battling it out off Browns Island, with the supreme conditions ensuring these guys were sending it up and down the course in spectacular fashion.
As opposed to last year, when Beau Geste was dominant (not racing this year), multiple teams claimed race wins to set up an intriguing and unpredictable contest. In the PHRF standings it was Ran Tan II who had the measure of the fleet, taking four race wins out of seven.
David Nathan's V5, a stalwart of the RNZYS racing fleet, was second, with Harry Dodson's Mayhem third overall. Mayhem was the fastest on the water, claiming the gun in four of the seven races, to take out line honours by one point over Viento 2.
It was an all RNZYS top three in the B division PHRF handicap stakes, with the impressive Young Guns, sailed by Bruce Herbert, who won the division on PHRF and second on line honours. Ice Breaker also had a good regatta, claiming four wins to comfortably take out the line honours and second on PHRF.
The open multi hull division’s two entries, Frank Racing and Boat 2, shared the spoils in their division with Frank Racing winning the battle on line and Boat 2 taking out the handicap honours. They revelled in the stronger wind yesterday, with Frank Racing getting up on the foils and reportedly hitting 32 knots.
Dirty Deeds, sailed by Clive Wright, is the 8.5 open multihull national class champions after four superb race wins yesterday. Dean Williamson's Hurts like Heaven was second overall, with Ed Ayres’ Attitude rounding out the top three. The top three on general handicap were Tigre, Freedom and Sledge.
The 12 entries in the Sports Boat division made the most of the breezy conditions, although there were also some impressive wipeouts. Mike Hindrup's W8-Up go away with handicap honours after finishing within the top five in all of yesterday's races. Royce Hawkins and Smoke Wagon unfortunately smoked out a bit yesterday after being on fire on Saturday but still did enough to claim second on handicap.
The big improver was Nick Egnot-Johnson's Just Fast who had three race wins and two seconds on the final day to climb right up the leaderboard and round out the podium on handicap. Helter Skelter took out the line honours, ahead of Faster and Just Fast.
For a full roundup of results, see here
