Issue date
Sixteen sailors took part in this regatta at Evans Bay Yacht & Motorboat Club on 13 November. The conditions were a light North to Nor-east winds with lots of blank spots making it a very challenging course for all competitors. The wind moved around to the North-west in the afternoon thus meaning that we had a full 90 degree shift! This not only provided difficulty for the sailors but for the race officer and the course laying team!
Hansa liberty's in action at Evans Bay
The 303 sailors took part in three races in the morning and were spectators for the afternoon finals of the Liberty regatta. Monica Thompson with Eleonore van der Reyden came 1st with one first & two second places. In 2nd place was Matthew Henderson with Dean Apps as crew. True to form, Genevieve McLachlan with Remy Thomassen got better ‘race on race’ to finish first in the last race and gain 3rd overall.
In the main event, the Liberty Regatta, six sailors entered. They included Michael Jones, Darrell Smith, Alexander O’Connor, Alice Leslie, Kelvin Smith and of course Sarah Dunckley. All of them showed they had the ability to remain close to the leaders, with many position changes in each race. Alice, Kelvin and Alexander were eliminated after the first two rounds to leave Sarah, Darrell and Michael pitted against one another in the final.
Sarah and Darrell won a race each and in the remaining encounter, Sarah got caught in a lull just before the finish line, enabling Darrell to sneak through to claim the trophy. As he said at the prize-giving, “I was very lucky!”
This is the first time that a Sailability Wellington Liberty Regatta has been held, but it will now be an annual event alongside the Ability Cup and 303 Single and Double competitions. Sailability Wellington will welcome sailors from other centres to join us.
A big thank you to all who took part and supported this regatta, including Ray Manning, Cheryl Baughen, Ken Cameron, John Andrews, Steve Luckin and many other Sailability Wellington Volunteers.
The last word must be a response from the Club Captain who after the third final of the Liberty races called the Race Office to ask if that was enough racing to give a clear result. The response was “No, we are having far too much fun!”
