What an excellent 3 days sailing Maraetai Beach Boat Club turned on for us.

Congratulations to all the volunteers there that gave their time to provided a well oiled regatta ( Just as they did last year ).

Also a big thankyou to the sponsors that provide the funds & spot prizes, which make these regatta's possible + a lot of fun for all.

We had 8 Races sailed in almost perfect conditions, with the breeze only falling away in the 8th (Final) race.

Wakatere had 5 sailors attend, Chris Colman, Sam Wallis, Louis Mayo, Sean Bull + Marsanne Jordan.

Marsanne has only just started sailing a Starling & sure picked a tuff regatta to cut her teeth on. Good on you Marsanne, it's great to have you in the group.

With 60 Starlings in total, this was a well attended regatta with plenty of depth in experienced sailors from around the country.

Congratulations to George Gautrey from Muritai Club in Wellington for taking out 1st place, a well deserved win with consistent results.

Sam Wallis was Waka's leading sailor finishing in 2nd place overall with some solid races, then Murrays Bay's Jeremy Mitchell in 3rd.

The top 5 sailors started the final day with only 7 points separating them, so it was game on with no time to lose focus.

As it turned out, that race ( 7th race ) would determine the final finishing places, as the 8th race produced the "Drop race" for all 5 sailors.

George Gautrey finished the 7th race 3rd, Sam Wallis 4th, Jeremy Mitchell 6th, Arkady Edmunds 7th + Liam Closey 8th. They all crossed the line within seconds of each other.

Race scores as follows...

Sam Wallis : 5th - 2nd - 7th - 1st - 6th - 6th - 4th - (21st)

Chris Coleman : 18th - 15th - (26th) - 22nd - 22nd - 25th - 24th - 23rd

Sean Bull : 40th - 20th - 17th - (43rd) - 33rd - 42nd - 26th - 40th

Louis Mayo : 34th - 35th - 32nd - 44th - 34th - 31st - (54th) - 32nd

Marsanne Jordan : 60th - then retired from regatta.

Plenty of breeze & a huge turnout of some very talented sailors, meant the 2012 Starling Nationals was going to be a tough + very competitive event. Sailors from around the country that had moved into other classes of yachts, borrowed or found a Starling to give the Nationals another crack. Once again, hard work, commitment & consistent good results was going to be the key. Apart from Jack Simpson + Ellie Copeland, this would be the first Starling Nationals our other sailors had attended. For Levi DeLisle, this was also his very first race in a starling anywhere, talk about throwing yourself in the deep end. Congratulations Levi for finishing every race in conditions, that had even the more experienced sailors struggling at times.

In the Gold Fleet, Jack Simpson sailed well ( nursing a bandaged up broken toe ), sitting well up the leader board early on, then dropping back a few spots in the last couple of days. Jack finished as Wakatere's top finisher in 11th place. Sam Wallis had a great regatta with a couple of top ten finishes + in one race, led the fleet around the top mark & down through the gates on the first run, finishing the race in 5th spot. Rory McCutcheon also had a solid regatta including a 7th place in race 8. Rory & Sam are great to watch when the wind comes up, really getting into their work to get the most out of their boats.

In the Silver Fleet, Chris Coleman, Tom Milne, Louis Mayo & Levi DeLisle, battled it out, each sailor having some good results in varios races. Chris led the fleet down through the gates in the tenth race & headed up the right side of the course, only minutes later, a squall came through shifting the wind way around to the left, just long enough for the guys that went left, to catch up. Chirs sailed really well to finish 6th in that race. Tom Milne sailed a consistent regatta finishing most of his races in the 20's + 30's, but saved his best result for the last race finishing 15th. "Left Hand Louis" had some great Starts ( up the left hand side of course ) + was sailing well, just needs to be less polite to the opposition + dig deep to release a little bit of that mungrel to get him up the leader board. Louis also broken his mast in race 6, so was lucky it was the last race of the day + not the first.

Sarah Fox sailed in the development fleet, finishing 13th out of 20. so well done Sarah + we hope to see you joining us in the coming season.

Overall, this was a great regatta to watch, in that the Gold and Silver fleets were not spread out all around the entire course. It was very close racing in both fleets, with very little distance between the first + last boats in many races. This gave all sailors the opportunity to work hard to move up through the fleet.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Peter Mayo for all his hard work this year, keeping us up to date with everything that was going on, coming up + sorting out our fantastic coaching programme. Rob has done a sterling job with the training sessions, which has resulted in our guys getting some great results through the year. I'd also like to thank Finn Drumond for stepping in to coach the guys in the Nationals, as Rob unfortunately could not attend. Great job Finn + thankyou Rob.

Final Results with 62 sailors on each fleet.

Gold Fleet : Jack Simpson 11th  /  Sam Wallis 18th  /  Rory McCutcheon 34th.

Silver Fleet : Chris Coleman 14th  /  Tom Milne 27th / Louis Mayo 38th  /  Levi DeLisle 57th

The Auckland Champs this year was reduced to just one days sailing. Bad weather on Saturday all over the country, meant cancelled events everywhere. Sunday however, was a great day to be on the water. We had  just the four sailors there on Sunday, Louis M, Chris C, Rory M + Sam W. Jack Simpson was there, but training with Marcus on their 29er. The wind was shifty & varied in speed from 3 knots to around 15 knots at times, so pretty comfortable for all sailors. Rory finished best Wakatere sailor in 7th place, followed by Sam in 11th, Chris in 37th + Louis in 39th.

The race of the day (race 3) belonged to Rory. Buried on the startline some 3 rows back, basically behind the start boat, Rory was the last boat off the line & decided to peel off to the right while most of the fleet sailed up the left, which had kind of been the favoured side through the day. Rory straight away found himself in some nice breeze, which after a couple of minutes swung around to his side of the course + stayed there. This brought Rory around the top mark some 100 metres ahead of the fleet. Some of the fleet closed in, but Rory managed to defend his lead & take out the win, Fantastic !  Not sure Rob "the coach" would approve of the tactic's, buy hey ! the win was on the board. Sam W had a great start in race 4 & was around the top mark 1st. Sam managed to keep the rirvals at bay for a while, but a few self confessed errors in the latter part of the race, had him slip to 8th spot. Both Chris & Louis had some good starts & where well placed in the early parts of some races, but slipped back as the races continued. Some tacticle lessons to be worked on for the coming regatta's.

Final race results : Rory 11th / 23rd / 1st / 11th -- Sam 24th / 15th / 4th / 8th -- Chris 33rd / 34th / 35th / ocs -- Louis 42nd / 39th / 44th / 28th. ( Total Fleet = 47)

The recent Junior Sail Auckland regatta held at Kohi, turned on excellent sailing conditions for both days + had a healthy fleet of 45 Starlings. The 1st race caught out the leading sailors at the finish. A small orange buoy & an Anchored yacht to the right of the actual finish boat, looked very much like it was the finish line. As the sailors got close, they realised the yacht wasn't flying any flags & was only a spectator boat, a good reminder for sailors to listen at the briefings + to read the sailing instructions. Sam Wallis sailed a consistent regatta with 6 top ten finishes to finish 4th, just one point away from sharing 3rd place. Rory also had another solid regatta finishing 10th, a good result considering he wasn't feeling like the brightest crayon in the box Saturday morning. Jack had a two 1st placings + 3 other top ten's, but was held to 11th overall by a DNF in one race + a Black Flag in another. Tom Milne finished 23rd, followed by Louis in 26th + Chris in 27th. All sailors are showing good progress considering they are new to the class + starting to get to grips with how different the Starling handle to the Opti's. The Tuesday training sessions with Rob are starting to pay off.  Well done team, keep up the hard work !