The North Island Sprint Champs were held on Lake Rotorua by the Rotorua Yacht Club over the weekend (Sat & Sun, 17th & 18th October).
Brief Report from Hamish
Wow! what a reminder of how lethargic my winter has been. Very short courses in trying conditions (gusty, shifty strong 20-30knot winds) made for some super intense sailing. Saturday they only managed to get one race away before having to abandon racing due to the combination of carnage and strong winds (various boats losing rigs). Despite capsizing on the start line with less than 3 minutes before our start, Antje and I managed to get Thumper around the course to take the win from Ben and Colin on Bax Contractors. Keeping the boat up right gave us that one. The afternoon saw some of the fleet lying around like seals on the hot paving stones with a beverage in hand until we go the call to go out and give it another go. Unfortunately they didn’t get another race in and abandoned sailing for the day. Give how shall the lake it this meant we also got a second session of aqua jogging in and definitively required another beverage.
Sunday the day started a bit more softly and with everyone in a light cheery mood after the Rugby. Boy that was short lived, after a couple of races / few laps of the short course I’d been reacquainted with my heart & lungs wanting to leap from my chest. Tack, Tack, Tack, Launch, Gybe, & Retrieve, all with little time to get settled between maneuvers. Antje’s and I’s lack of sailing together was becoming apparent. So we swapped over to try and save me a bit. Although she did want my gloves (who sails a Jav without gloves). The the conditions didn’t let up, and built up to a similar level as Saturday and after numerous swimming lessons we were poached. We’d managed to pull off another 1st, and at least 1 2nd. I’m not sure how many races we had but I do know we knocked out 3 races in the first hour. TrailBlazer were in the mix too, but unfortunately had the squeeze put on them during one of the starts by the 12s, resulting in one of them running over their mainsail and damaging it.
It was magic to see some locals out racing with Bad Blood, and to have Mat McMillan there with Black Bart, and to see Flying Cirrus (Mark and Andrew) make it down from Auckland.
Next event is Auckland 7th & 8th November for South Pacifics Training.
Thanks Antje for proving to be one of the very few people I would sail with in those conditions, and thank you shore crew Erica Newlands for all your effort.
2015 North Island Sprints
Ben and Colin discuss there aqua jogging in the shallows
2015 North Island Sprints
2015 North Island Sprints
2015 North Island Sprints
2015 North Island Sprints
Cider, Chips, and some fat chewing after a full on day on the water
2015 North Island Sprints
2015 North Island Sprints
2015 North Island Sprints
2015 North Island Sprints
Thumper (Jav 523) Antje and Hamish
2015 North Island Sprints
2015 North Island Sprints
TrailBlazer (Jav 524) with David and David
Results
Sail# |
Boat |
Crew |
R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
R5 |
R6 |
Points |
522 |
Bax Contractors |
Ben Bax & Colin Shanks |
2 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
523 |
Thumper |
Antje Muller & Hamish Norton |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
524 |
Trailblazer |
David Brown & David Feek |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
7 |
16 |
38 |
Bad Blood |
Wayne Bigwood |
7 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
7 |
7 |
26 |
318 |
Black Bart |
Mat MacMillan & Kez Cameron |
7 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
35 |
374 |
Flying Circus |
Andrew Howden & Mark Getty |
7 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
35 |