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A handful of top regattas have been held in recent times, including the RS Feva and Moth national championships and Auckland Laser championships.
RS Feva National Championships
A big fleet of 29 boats raced on the 'back paddock' course made famous by the last America's Cup, with teams travelling to the Maraetai Sailing Club from as far afield as Whanganui and the Bay of Islands.
Race officers squeezed in five races in nice sailing conditions on the Saturday, mostly due to the fact the forecast for Sunday looked unpromising. Unfortunately, the forecast proved accurate and no sailing was possible on the Sunday due to light winds.
The Cooke family went home with the spoils, with Ashton Cooke teaming up with former world champion Oskar Masfen to win the youth and national title and dad Simon taking out the open division with Nicholas Wong.
Kate Rasmussen and Madison Russell won the female division and also took out the RS Feva Traveller Series. The pair have their sights on July's RS Feva world championships in Weymouth, where they could be joined by a couple more Kiwi teams.
The Maraetai Sailing Club, led by commodore Geoff Rasmussen, did a fantastic job organising the event and made the sailors and families feel very welcome. Thanks also to the team of sponsors including Burnsco, Amazon Surf, Harken Fosters and NZ Sailcraft.
Youth and national championships: Ashton Cooke and Oskar Masfen (Royal Akarana Yacht Club)
Open division: Simon Cooke and Nicholas Wong (RAYC)
Female division: Kate Rasmussen and Madison Russell (Maraetai Sailing Club)
Junior division: Orlando Botha and Ewan Brazle (Manly Sailing Club)
Images by Adam Mustill Photography
Moth national championships
Seb Menzies put on a masterclass to dominate the Moth national championships held at the Sandspit Yacht Club, winning all five races.
The event was supposed to be held over three days, but light winds on two of the three days severely curtailed the programme.
Menzies, who in July will be competing in the 29er with George Lee Rush at the youth sailing world championships, finished ahead of Mattia Coutts in second with Jake Pye third.
Jo Aleh, who was second at last year's moth world championships in Italy, won the women's title and was fifth overall.
Auckland Laser Championships
Close to 45 boats contested the Auckland Laser Championships at the Tamaki Yacht Club at the weekend, with one competitor even making the trek north from Christchurch.
Thomas Mulcahy dominated the ILCA 7 fleet, winning five of the seven races to finish ahead of Eroni Leilua and Chris Brodie.
Caleb Armit and Sophia Morgan took out the ILCA 6 titles - the pair also finished level on points overall - with Morgan finishing ahead of Greta Pilkington and Teaghan Denney in the female fleet. George Lane and George Pilkington rounded out the first three males.
All of the competitors enjoyed beautiful 8-12 knot sailing conditions on the first day of racing, when four races were held, and the race committee did a great job to get in two more races on the Sunday despite light and shifty winds.
A feature of both fleets was the number of grand masters and grand grand masters competing in both fleets.
