REGATTA ROUND-UP
Bay of Islands Sailing Week 2010 – 87 boats raced in just about perfect weather conditions with winds averaging 10-25 knots. They worked hard with the 9-10 races over three days. Passage Divisions enjoyed their one long race daily, back at North Sails Tent before the balance of hungry thirsty sailors’ voices filled the air with noisy exuberance.
Chris Dickson (Limit) enjoyed an opportunity to show off the bay: “Special racing for me and nine races over 3 days is pretty tough racing.” (And from Chris’s wife Sue) “A treat for us to just drive to a Regatta rather than fly all over the world – thank you Bay Regatta”
Adrian McHardy on Open Country “This is our fourth year here; we won our division in 2005. We sail up from Tauranga and take a two week cruising holiday. Graham Clouston and I are partners with Open Country and we both really enjoy coming up to race at Bay of Islands Sailing week. See you again next year”
It all came to an end on Friday night at North Sails Tent, with prizes presented by Murray Walbran of CRC.
Australia was well represented this year by Alan Brierly’s Reichel Pugh 65, Limit, returning home in triumph with stunning Romeyn Woodcraft trophies in hand. Mr Brierly stated ‘loud and clear’ that they will be back in 2011.
The Roberton Island Beach Party was a real social event; racing finished at Roberton with crews ferried to and from the beach by volunteer boats and crew. A great job guys – thank you.
Prize Information is here on our site, but Front Page format for easy reading.
Division A. In IRC, Limit finished on 10 points, three ahead of Georgia with Wired (30) in third. On general handicap the two 52s were nowhere to be seen. Limit again triumphed ahead of the Andy Ball's Sunfast 52 Sea Harmony and Boyd Smith's Robinson 56 Bare Essentials. On PHRF Limit completed the clean sweep ahead of Wired and Sababa, David Nathan's Farr 50.
Division B was won by Geoff Martlew's Ross 12m Pretty Boy Floyd on general handicap, followed by Rob Shaw's Shaw 9m Karma Police and Bullrush, the Elliott 12 of Anthony Robinson. Jive Talkin, the Davidson 10.5m chartered by Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club members Richard Hudson and Rob McClelland was sixth in the nine boat fleet.
In PHRF, the finish order was Karma Police, Deep Throttle (Justin Ferris) and Bobby's Girl and in IRC it was Bobby's Girl, Revs (Chris Hornell) and Jive Talkin’ (Richard Hudson).
There were 11 boats in Division C, which was won on general handicap by Paul Collins' Elliott 1050 High Voltage on 21 points, ahead of Stephen Miller's Farr 1020 Hicky Burr (23) and sister ship Hard Labour (Cameron Thorpe) on 31. High Voltage also won PHRF, with the Young 99 Mr Wolf second and Hicky Burr third.
Division D was the biggest division with 14 boats. Winner under general handicap was Max Newport's Loomes 10.8m Rock n Roll, ahead of Andrew Reid's First 34.7 First By Farr and the Young 88 Heartlight owned by Roger Sims. In PHRF First By Farr took the honours, ahead of Andrew Walker's SR 26 Mercenary and Heartlight
Division E comprised seven little boats, which also enjoyed some close tussles. General handicap was won by Mike Sherwood's 7.55m Dale Sunday Special, followed by Chris Browne's Davidson 28 Top Knot and the Whiting 29s Candela (James Duke) and Nexus (Cees Romeyn). Only four boats contested under PHRF, with Marara (Terry Dunn, S&S 10.23) first, Screw Loose (Martin Clark, Ross 780) second, Nexus third and Frivolous Fish (David Krebs, Elliott 5.9) fourth.
Premier Passage and Passage divisions had just one race each day. As the name would suggest they sailed around islands instead of doing windward/leewards.
John Graham's beautiful Warwick 50 Fez and Murray Walbran's Beale 42 Cruise Control were the fastest in Premier Passage, with Fez taking two races and Cruise Control one. Third was John Faire's Elliott 12.1 Terminator with three thirds. On general handicap, it was Nev Campbell's Atkinson 12.2 Kantime on six points, ahead of Cruise Control (8) and Fez (13) while Kantime also took PHRF with four points ahead of Cruise Control (6) and Kelvin Mulcare's modified Mt Gay 30 Fun-n-Games (8).
The Passage division had a healthy 12 entries and honours were shared. Dale Fenton's Farr 1020 Mesmerise took line honours with two firsts and a third, ahead of Kerry Mair's Ganley 17m Vision and Roy Goodwin's Elan 40 Royale both on nine. General handicap was won by Vision, with Royale second and Blue Newport's Lotus 10.6 Valentine third. In PHRF, the Farr 10.6 Charisma of Nelson, owned by Ian Wood, was first ahead of Mesmerise and Gambler. It was also great to see the graceful old Nicholson 45 Weatherly still racing well in this division.
With only five entries, the Sports Boat division was small but competitive. The Shaw 7 Orange Peeler (Grant McInnes), was able to clean-sweep line honours despite several capsizes. On handicap, it was Monkey Business, the Shaw 6.5 of Mathew Goddard that took the trophy on 22 points, two ahead of Orange Peeler and three ahead of third-placed Team Sex, the Magic 25 helmed by Anne Hirst.
The Multi Hull Division (General) with 10 competing: G3 showed the way in first place, followed by Putiki Express. - third place was Exodus. Taeping and Timberwolf showed their skills with Line Honours in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
We’ll see you back here in 2011
