New Zealand Laser Association

Woodridge Homes was generously supporting the 2016 NZ National Laser Champs. Hosted by Muritai Yacht Club - Eastbourne, Wellington.

• Full Results

• Racing Friday to Monday 22nd - 25th January 2016

Fantastic results at the 2015 Youth Worlds in Malaysia for NZL Lasers.

George Gautrey finished 2nd behind Australian Alistar Young in a 66 boat fleet - with a consistent performance including a 1st and 6 of 9 races in the top 10.

And Ali Nightingale finished 12th of 54 boats - including a 1st in the first race.

All results

Laser Radial
Susannah Pyatt 2nd.
Ali Nightingale 9th
Julia Francis 20th

Laser
Thomas Saunders 2nd
Andrew McKenzie 12th
Matt Blakey 16th
Matt Kempkers 20th

All Results

Napier again hosted the contest as part of their Summer regatta, with competitors welcomed by 27degree temperatures causing many of the Wellington contingent to remark on the contrast with spring in Wellington! There was a fantastic turnout with over 50 Lasers entered and it was great to see a strong youth contingent and competitors from as far afield as Picton, Christchurch and Whangarei.

Results for all classes

Saturday started with a nice 10 knot breeze and all fleets started on time at 11am. However half way through the first race things changed dramatically, with a 35 to 40 knot pressure line coming down from the shore causing some exciting moments for all and causing a fair degree of carnage with bent and broken yachts scattered around the bay. This resulted in the races being abandoned after the leaders finished and all boats being sent ashore. Unfortunately the winds did not moderate until late in the day so there was no more racing possible on Saturday.

Sunday however delivered fantastic conditions with a light sea breeze slowly building through the day and 4 quality races being completed.
 
In the 36 strong Radial fleet youth trumped experience with Josh Armit showing real class in winning two races in dominant style and backing that up with a 2^nd and 5^th to take the trophy ahead of Albert Stanley from Worser Bay and Alistair Gifford from QCYC who each managed a race win. There was a great turnout for the Youth girls fleet with strong top 10 performances from Ali Nightingale in 5^thand Libby Porter in 8^th the standouts. Leading Master was Ed Tam in 7^th with GM Roger Winton sneaking into the top 10 to provide some balance to the youth domination.
 
In the Standards it was again a contest of youth vs experience with Master Andrew Dellabarca repeating last years victory in spite of a strong challenge from last years Radial winner, youth James Jennings who finished 2^nd.  Third was Greg Wiltshire from Howick, holding up the Auckland masters end of the contest in what is becoming an annual North vs South challenge. It was interesting to see 3 of the new standard sails being used but all we could conclude from the results was that they seem very close in performance to the old model and there did not seem to be any consistent speed advantage in the conditions we experienced.
 
The strong turnout at this regatta bodes well for the Nationals at Muratai in January so we are looking forward to strong Youth and Masters fleets being joined by Open and overseas sailors in what should again provide a quality contest.
 
Nick Page

• 1^st Peter Graham  O(7 pts)
• 2^nd Hamish Atkinson M (11 pts)
• 3^rd  Neil Morris GM (12 pts)
• 4^th  Samuel Rushton Y (18pts)
• 5^th  Alex Morris O(19 pts),
• 6^th Lola Adams W (27pts)
• 7^th Layton Hern
• 8^th Durham Throp
• 9^th Bas Hart
• 10^th Ross Shipman
• 11^th Anna Breen

Full Rigs:

• 1^st Chris Shannon AM (6pts)
• 2nd Daryl Parkes (8pts)

2015 North Shore  Freshwater Champs

• Full Results
• Photos care of John Adair

A 30 knot forecast plus a number of sailors over in Brisbane for the South Pacific Masters resulted in a slightly smaller than usual entry for the NSFWC at Pupuke on 16/17 May. However quality was there with 2 of our Open Worlds squad, defending NSFWC champion Andrew McKenzie and world top 10 ranked Mike Bullot fronting to give the locals something to aspire to in the Standards and World GM champion Mike Keeton and World cube winner Richard Blakey the form sailors in the Radial for the youth sailors to knock over. 

In spite of the forecast Saturday dawned with a nice Pupuke SW breeze, never really getting much over 12 knots but with shifts and pressure variations providing ample challenges for all. Sunday was again a SW breeze but lighter, around 5 to 8 knots all day. These conditions provided plenty of opportunity for all and no place was ever secure with some major shifts and gusts reshuffling both fleets in several races. 

As usual though the cream rose to the top. In the Standard fleet Mike showed his class with 5 wins from the 6 races, the sequence broken by Andrew who was deservedly victorious in race 3 and was right on Mikes heels in the other races, with the exception of the last where a major wind shift combined with a mainsheet that decided to come unkotted at a critical moment seeing him join the mortals in the bunch. There was a tight contest in the Masters, with GM Peter Kempkers victorious by 1 point from GM Nick Page after a very close series. Leading Master was Dean Drummond, who was still hoping for the forecast 30 knots even at the prize giving, in 5th, first Apprentice Rob Bland in 8th and GGM Ray Beale capping a consistent series with a 4th in the last race for 10th overall.

In the Radials Youth beat experience with Tim Adair putting together a great series to take out the overall win from newcomer and current Starling champion youth Josh Armit, who’s speed and consistency showed he will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. Third overall and first Master was Mike Keeton, who despite an ever increasing list of old age ailments seems to just keep pulling out the results on the water. He was followed by GM Kevin Welsh who managed a win in race 2 and was consistent all weekend. First women was Youth Libby Porter in 6th, who also showed flashes of brilliance in the challenging conditions with her best result a 2nd in race 2. 1st Master was Richard Blakey, who after a very challenging weekend was heard to comment on his love of the lake, while leading Women’s Master Georgina Wooldridge was happy to be on the water while husband Neil looked after the kids for the weekend rather than being able to demonstrate his prowess in the Standard fleet.

The contest was followed by the usual Pupuke prize giving, with an awesome range of prizes overshadowed only by commodore John Dowsett’s presentation skills (not matched this weekend by sailing skills we note). A great weekend and thanks to Pupuke and PRO Garth Briden for yet another quality regatta.

Nick Page

The 2^nd edition of the Auckland Women Laser Cup held at French Bay Yacht Club was a huge success. Eleven women sailors from French Bay, Kohimarama, Panmure, Point Chevalier, Pupuke and even as far as Worser Bay came to participate in this great event. A glorious autumn sun glistened on the Manukau harbour setting the stage for a great regatta with winds ranging from 5 to 15 knots and some racing tidal currents towards the end challenging all sailors.

There was some very close racing in the A fleet for 1^st place between Libby Porter from Kohimarama and Megan Thomson from French Bay. Libby finally won the day by winning the last race and coming back for the second time in a row with the impressive Auckland Women Laser Cup donated by Jim Quinn. Megan came a very close second and Georgina Wooldridge from Pupuke came third and first Master Women. First Junior was Aleisha Ferguson from Panmure.

The B division was won by Annika Greve from Worser Bay, second place and first Master went to Annie Mills from Panmure and third place to Ngaio Balfour from French Bay. This was a fantastic effort for this group as this was for many their very first regatta.

A special thanks needs to go to French Bay Yacht Club for hosting a great regatta, we all enjoyed the friendly welcome, the help with the trailors, the yummy baking and a good burger after a day racing and some great prizes.

Next year the regatta will be hosted at Point Chevalier Yacht Club, so if you missed this one make sure you are all there!

• All Results
• More Photo's

Cheers
Chantal Grass

Full Rig:
1st Rob Woodward (and 1st Masters)
2nd Owen Anderson
3rd Rodney Studd

Radial
1st  Edmund Tam (and 1st Masters)
2nd Olivia Christie (1st Youth and 1st Female)
3rd Bruce Jones

The Laser Champs were held as part of the Evans Bay Regatta.

Full Results for the Evans Bay Regatta

The 2015 Auckland Masters Championships, held at Tamaki on Saturday 21st March, attracted almost 40 entries with 25 Standards and a good group of Radials. 5 races were completed for both fleets in tricky E to NE breezes between about 5 and 12 knots. Seas were typically lumpy Tamaki sea breeze conditions with the heavy harbour traffic adding to the wind against an outgoing king tide for 4 of the 5 races.

In the Radial there was a very tight contest with current World GM champion Mike Keeton eventually prevailing by one point with a 1,1,1,2,3 scoreline over Richard Blakey, who made the podium in Hyeres in the Masters division, with a 1,1,2,2,3 scoreline. Third was Whangarei visitor Roger Winton who managed to get between Mike and Richard a couple of times and was unlucky not to pull off a win in one race. Shaaron Mckee was the leading Women’s Masters Radial sailor.

In the Standards reigning National Masters champion AM Kris Decke from Whangarei ended up winning convincingly with 4 bullets after starting slowly, having got caught on the wrong side of the beat in the first race. Second was expat Kiwi GM Gavin Dagley, now resident in Melbourne, who managed to show consistent form in all 5 races to convincingly win the GM division from third placed Nick Page (Pupuke), who was fortunate to be able to discard a meltdown in the 4th race. Leading Master was local Tamaki sailor Nick Brewer, back in the Laser after focussing on sailing the Mistral with his kids in recent times. Leading GGM was Bob Blakey, who showed he is still a force to be reckoned with a 2nd in one race in spite of turning 70 in the next few days. It was great to see 5 GGM’s in the Standard fleet, with Bob, Sandy Grigg, Jack Hansen, Dave Almond and Derek Bond all mixing it up during the day.

Nick Page

Results

• Standard
• Radial

Panmure Lagoon Sailing Club has had yet another successful Regatta that saw 39 Laser sailors & their steeds from all over the World – Canada, Austria, Switzerland–as well as the North Island, Taipa, Onerahi, Hamilton and Lake Ngaroto come & do battle on this challenging spot of water in Auckland. The winds defied all predictions coming in at 8 t0 11 knots from the South West giving our illustrious race officer Garth Briden something to work with. He managed to fire off 4 races even though those errant jockeys pushed their valiant steeds across the line three times in false starts. Garth got the measure of those miscreants by black flagging the starts which brought those fiery steeds back under control. The fleets were very tight with even the top end being continuously hounded by the hoards doggedly nibbling away at their heels.

The day closed with a BBQ & lamb on the spit followed by Prize giving with Daniel Barry from Canada taking out the RSA trophy & some other great goodies, which included a top section, 2nd place went to Andrew Childs from Taipa with our own Paul Page taking out 3rd. The Radial fleet was taken out by Loïc Eisenring of PLSC with 2nd place going to Kailash Clearwater of Taipa & Kevin Welsh PLSC taking 3rd place. Jana Senn from Nautic Club Austria won the First Women trophy. This was followed by spot prizes. We have to thank to our invaluable army of helpers who kept the whole day running like clockwork and our Sponsors who donated an impressive list of prizes.

So we thank our generous Regatta sponsors: RSA, Waipuna Hotel and Conference Centre, CRC, PredictWind, Auckland Seaplanes, the Water Shed, Survitec Group, Auckland Marine Centre, Red Carpet Tours, Boating NZ, Sugarcraft, Joy Adams Sails, Flyajet, Mortgage Express, YMCA and New Zealand Maritime Museum.

Results  http://www.plsc.org.nz/raceresults_files/RSARegatta2015.htm

Photos  https://www.flickr.com/photos/plsc/sets/72157648641055393/