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The OKI 24-hour Race 2016 lived up to its’ reputation as the toughest race on the sailing calendar as 76 sailors from around the country battled it out to complete the highest number of laps non-stop for 24 hours.
This year, in stark comparison with last year’s 20+ knots, the fleet experienced flukey changeable conditions with the course having to be reset a number of times during the race. This proved a mental as well as physical challenge for all the sailors as they were pushed to maintain concentration for the entire 24 hours.
The Open Fleet and Overall Winners for 2016 were Jason and Tom Saunders from Tauranga (Lautrec), who lived up to their reputation as hot favourites, crossing the finish line having completed 66 laps.
After gaining an early lead from the first mark, they settled into their work but handed over the lead to the Smales Farm boat, no thanks to a broken mast fitting that cost the brothers a third of a lap to fix.
But in champion style they got back to business to overtake the Masters as night settled in and never looked back, managing to stay alert throughout the night and skilfully negotiate the light and tricky wind.
Winners of the Masters Fleet were Scott Leith, Dean Drummond and Tony Nicholson (Smales Farm), back-to-back winners after taking it out the previous year. Despite the obvious age difference they were only ¾ of a lap behind the Saunders brothers and ¼ of a lap back to third place James Jennings & Taua Henry (Lancer).
The Legends race on Saturday evening was a showcase event of Olympic hopefuls Sam Meech and Dan Willcox along with Susannah Pyatt, Matt Coutts and Ray Davies from Emirates Team NZ. With some serious reputations on the line they fought it out around Lake Pupuke for 2 hours, with Sam Meech (OKI) winning by a comfortable margin ahead of second placed Matt Coutts (RPM).
The Opti OKI 6-hour race attracted a fleet of 61 up-and-coming under 15 year old sailors, with the eventual winners being Seb Menzies and Thomas Mulcahy in the Open fleet and Cam McGlashan, Valentino Kayrouz and Ethan Fong in the Green Fleet
As always the OKI 24-hour delivered, with challenging sailing conditions, friendly rivalries and amazing community atmosphere. It’s no wonder sailors keep coming back year after year to be part of this iconic event. Scott Leith, MBSC Commodore
For a full list of winners check out www.murraysbay.org
