Issue date
This weekend, 10th and 11th of November is the annual 12 and 18ft Skiff Auckland Champs being sailed out of the Auckland Sailing Club, Okahu Bay. The series will comprise of six races, with racing starting each day at 1pm.
The event marks the first major regatta for the 18s since returning from San Francisco in late September with ten boats competing. This is the most New Zealand based 18s racing since the fleets resurgence in Auckland and is a significant step forward for the class as it looks towards the JJ Giltinan’s in Sydney early next year.
Hot from winning the Nespresso International Regatta in San Francisco C-tech (Alex Vaillings, Chris Kitchen, Josh McCormack) will be looking to continue their foot hold on the fleet. However the early favorites will come under plenty of pressure, with Yamaha (Dave MacDiarmid, Hayden Whitburn, Mark Overington) and Events Clothing (Riley Dean, John Little, James Gell) showing good form of late, while 2011/12 National Champions Maersk line (Graham Catley, Chris Dawson, Brad Collins) are always a threat.
There are also several new crew combinations in the fleet, all of whom are looking to start their campaigns on a positive note.
The 12ft skiffs also look set to have a good turn out with 8 boats. For several of the 12s this regatta marks a key stepping stone towards the Inter-Dominions in Brisbane during the New Year. Again the early favorites are C-tech (Chris Reid, Ben de Fluiter) who finished second in last season’s Inter-Dominions, are current national title holders and will be competing in their recently rebuilt boat.
Chasing them for the Auckland title are veterans on Frakenskiff (Tim Bartlett, Adam Millar), Absolute CNC (Russell Davis, Jono Clough), Nice Action Too (Hamish Hey, Tim Sneddon) and Hi Rev (Greg Roak, Travis Dow).
For Clough and Sneddon, who are new to this challenging class, it will be their first championship. After finding his feet as a skiff crew Sneddon joked with skipper Hey, a Yachting NZ Regional Support Officer, that he has “ruined” him, as “after sailing skiffs, sailing anything else is not as much fun anymore”.
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