Issue date
The Kerikeri Team training regatta ran from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th. December was blessed with perfect weather a pleasant, cheerful bunch of sailors and a wonderful band of volunteer helpers including many parents.
The attending teams were Westlake Girls, Westlake Boys, Mahurangi, Whangarei Boys, Kerikeri Girls and Kerikeri Blue and Red teams.
Friday started with very light winds but by 11am all teams were on the water practising starts and boat handling on two separate courses. By 1pm the racing bug had kicked in and a series of races were sailed with all teams meeting each other. At 4pm fatigue was setting in and the teams drifted ashore in spite of the very pleasant sailing conditions.
Saturday brought 7 to 10 knots of SE sea breeze and racing started a bit late at 11am and a round robin of 21 races was completed by lunch time. The perfect conditions in the afternoon allowed one and a third round robins to be completed. There was a free sausage sizzle at the club in the early evening to encourage socialising, but not all teams had been given enough notice.
Sunday brought near perfect conditions again the wind even crept up to 12 knots for a while. Racing started at 10.40am and a third round robin was completed before lunch. After a slightly shortened break the teams were back to complete a fourth RR although Whangarei were unlucky to break a mast on race 8 but finished the RR sailing with two boats.
The overall results were:-
Westlake Boys, 1st
Kerikeri Blue 2nd
Kerikeri Red 3rd
Westlake girls 4th
Mahurangi 5th
Whangarei 6th
Kerikeri Girls 7th
Westlake Boys stood out as the team to beat but all the teams won at least some races.
Umpiring was fairly limited but the sailors had an excellent attitude to the rules situation with very few occasions when turns were “earned” but not carried out.
The wonderful volunteers are too numerous to mention all by name but Allan Clark was on mark duty, coaching, umpiring and repairing boats for all three days. Jo Henwood was also on the water for the whole regatta keeping full control of the results. Gary Colebrook was our chief Race Officer supported by Graeme McCarty with his excellent start boat. Reuben Corbett was our top coach.
I must stress again what a wonderful amount of support there was!
