New Zealand Laser Association

Another great North Island laser Champs was held at the Napier Sailing Club as part of their annual Summer Regatta.

Laser Results

There were 149 entrants in the various classes of the regatta. Naturally, the biggest fleet was Lasers with 31 x Radials, 17 x Standards and 2 x 4.7's. But also good numbers of Opti's, Open Bic's, OK's and Piper Tigers - a real old school regatta atmosphere.

With the rain lashing the rest of the upper North Island, we probably had the best spot. Cloudy but warm, a few sprinkles on Saturday, but the worst of the forecast rain for Sunday held off till we were off the water and packed up.

The excellent Napier SC race committee got all 7 races, 4 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. The Lasers shared the outer Triangle+Windward-Leeward course with the OK's and Paper Tigers. That made for some challenging bottom mark roundings - those Paper Tigers arrive from nowhere and can leave a big hole in the wind.

Saturday was light to medium breeze. One big right-hand shift caught some (well me) on the first beat of the standard fleet in the third race, but otherwise, it generally oscillated and was fair racing.

We were delayed 30 minutes at the start on Sunday when the wind died as we got out to the course. But were entertained by a decent school of dolphins (or maybe porpoises) who paralleled the boats as we warmed up in the filling breeze. We then go a medium strength breeze and busier sea state over the groundswell - making for some energetic sailing.

Josh Armit dominated the standard fleet winning every race. He was generally (but not always) in the front few sailors from the start. But really put distance on the chasers on each reach.

Dave Ridley was the next most consistent standard and leading master. He was followed by Luke Deegan who is recently back in the country and a great addition sailing at Lake Pupuke.

The Radials had a much tighter battle with master Scott Leith getting 4 bullets to Luke Cashmore's 3 bullets. They ended on equal total points, and Scott only one point clear to win after the drops. They were followed by Caleb Armit and Albert Stanley finishing on equal points, Caleb taking 3rd on countback.

Only one point shy of the boys was Annabelle Rennie-Younger as leading female and 5th overall. Second female and first youth female was Samantha Stock in 9th after having to drop a DSQ (there must be a story there).

Two 4.7's were mixing it up with the Radials. Jacob Goodall came out on top in all but one race over Charlotte Gray.

Thanks again to Napier SC and all the volunteers who put on such a slick event each year. And all the local and travelling sailors who made it such a great event.

Patience was the name of the game at Sundays North Harbour Masters regatta.

5 races were scheduled and the fleet got on the water on time but the breeze refused to cooperate, boxing the compass and then fading out completely before a course could be set. After a nice chat and lunch ashore a light 5 to 8-knot Easterly breeze arrived, allowing the fleet back on the water for two races before the 3pm start close-off time . The breeze remained unstable all afternoon, with frequent large shifts and pressure variations challenging everyone.

 

Two sailors however mastered the conditions, GM's Dave Lowe in the Standards and Werner Hennig in the Radials. Both scored two convincing bullets in their respective fleets, showing that it was possible to master the tricky conditions. In the Standards Mark Hursthouse (GM) pipped Tony Nicholson (M) for second on countback while in the Radials Hamilton visitor Helen Spencer(WM) and local GGM Barrie Knott were tied in second place. Leading GGM in the Standards was Commodore John Dowsett, who finished the day with the usual entertaining prize giving.

With the new season approaching there are a lot of young sailors looking to move into the Lasers and a real shortage of suitable second-hand boats available. 

 

So if you have an unused, reasonable race quality Laser sitting around why not put it on the market and let a new sailor start using it for the new season.

 

If you do have a boat can you please either;

 

1. email NZ Laser Assoc (webmaster@nzlaser.org) and we will list it on our website.

2. Pop in and see Dan at The Watershed, who has a list of potential buyers

3. Just list it in Trade Me