29 sailors from Wakatere attended Junior Sail Auckland at Kohimarama, enjoying some perfect light breeze sailing conditions.
This kept our newer Green fleet sailors happy, with Brianna and Courtney Reynolds-Smith feeling comfortable sailing in the Green fleet races after only finishing learn to sail courses in spring.
Markus Somerville showed outstanding skills to dominate the 91 strong fleet.
Joseph Gibb-Pearson showed his light air skills to place 31st, and William Long, Airi Kawana, Seb Jones, and Xanthe Copeland showed some great results from time to time.
In the Green fleet James Grover-Grey was third on equal points with Jonathan Nicholas who ended up 4th. Nelson Greenwood showed that we will be unlikely to see him in Green fleet for long, with a 17th place overall and two 6th race places.
What a perfect weekend we had for a return to sailing at Wakatere! On Saturday we had the Opti (and Starling) invitation regatta. 103 boats attended – 32 in Green fleet, 59 in Open fleet and 12 Starlings.
Thanks to all the parent helpers, who made the day run like clockwork.
We had 41 Opti’s sailing the regatta from Wakatere, so perhaps we might just get to 50 for the Nationals!?
Success stories from the Wakatere Invitation Regatta:
It was great to see Markus Somerville back on the water after being unwell, getting second – Eliza Wilkinson from Kohimarama won and showed the boys how to do it! Wakatere had 4 in the top 10:
Markus 2nd
Sam Barnett7th
Rory McCutcheon8th
Aidan Nicholas10th
It was good to see some new faces stepping into and sailing comfortably in the open fleet:
Marsanne Jordan46th
Kate Stewart47th
Finn Dalbeth49th
Leo Pagani50th
Xanthe Copeland51st
Celia Willison54th
Olivia Koller55th
Dan Finnemore59th
In the Opti Green fleet we welcomed some new faces to regatta attendance also, with Emily Dol and Nelson Greenwood, new in from learn to sail courses, sailing comfortably in the fleet.
Murrays Bay secured the medals, but James Grover Grey took 4th place. Sophie Andrews secured 7th and Matt Brewer showed loads of progress with a 9th.
Full results are on the main club website under regatta results.
The Auckland Anniversary Regatta was held in some testing conditions this year. There were 47 entries but only a hardy 28 arrived at the start line for race one, by race two the fleet was down to 23 and race three 20.
Well done to those sailors who attended and completed all of the races.
Leonard Takahashi-Fry was the first Wakatere sailor in 9th.
Well done to Tim Adiar, Sam Wallis and Chris Coleman for finishing all three races, and Rory McCutcheon for finishing two.
2011 INTERNATIONAL OPTIMIST AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Written by Kiwis on tour
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 00:10
Hosting Australia's largest Optimist regatta ever, Pittwater staged the Australian Nationals with 172 competitors from Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Japan and Germany in what was a very low scoring top five. NZ sailors included Wakatere's Tim Adair (5th place overall) and Leonard Takahashi (13th) and Worser Bay's William Novak (23rd).
After a lengthy registration and measurement process for every boat, we finally got onto the water to check out the course which lay a good 40 minute sail out behind Scotland Island. With a wide range of conditions this regatta suited the all-round sailors who could pick the fickle shifts and sail in very heavy, moderate and extremely light airs. Day one's drama unfolded in the first race when Tim finished in 2nd place only to discover he had been called OCS in what seemed a marginal call. Last year's winner Nia Jerwood emerged the early leader. Leonard finished the day in 10th place with fellow Kiwis, William scoring 2nd place in race 2 and Tim scoring a bullet (1st) in race 4.
Steadily building to a peak of 27 knots NNE on day 2, serious fitness was called for. The first critical drop came into play with Tim jumping to 5th place overall. Leonard sailed a great race 6 easily crossing the line 1st, only to discover he had been OCS causing him to slip back to 17th place.
Day 3 saw teams' racing in a fresh 15-20 knot north easterly, gusting to 25 knots.
The format saw eight teams sail off one another in double elimination series, where a team that loses two
races is eliminated. The teams were made up of a combination of Club, State and an International team comprising the New Zealanders (Tim , Leonard , William ) and a Japanese entrant (Ben Perkins). Team WA won all their four races taking 1st place, with the International team coming joint 3rd.
Day 4
After a lay day for some serious R&R at the beach and Sydney's oldest fun park (Luna Park), day 4 revealed considerably less wind. In very fickle WNW wind of barely 2-5 knots, only one race was completed.
Race eight flight A saw Chris Charlwood from WA get his first win of the regatta to move him into 2nd place. Second place went to Tim Adair who showed great consistency. With one day left, only five points separated the top six places.
The final day revealed another frustrating day for the race committee with barely enough wind to race all day. The first and only race of the day got away in a dead northerly before shifting left. After a general recall, the Z flag was raised and Leonard won the start clearly at the pin end of the line playing the shifts, going left then right, then up the middle on the first beat to round the top mark in front. The wind shifted and then died out with the
thoughts of blowing the race going through the mind of the PRO. Leonard opted for a lane on the right hand side of the course on the run to the finish to hang in there to take the win in a very close finish over Tyrone Gowans.
West Australian Chris Charlwood (720) clinched a bullet in the 2nd flight to pull into a one point lead and thus win the championship over last year's champion Nia Jerwood. Tim Adair finished 5th overall, having led the final race until he rounded the bottom mark with a clear lead and then a massive 180 degree shift in 0-2 knots of breeze saw him move from 1st to 12 place and helpless to prevent it.
With only 9 races sailed out of an anticipated 12, the race committee ran out of time and options and the sailors for opportunities for a second drop. This event selected the Australian international teams for the top 22, including the top 5 to represent Australia at the 2011 Words in Napier. We expect to see a lot of interest in the NZ nationals at Wakatere.
The Optimist Development Team is selected from the top 5 11yr & top 5 12yr olds at the NZ Opti Nationals each year so keep up the training team, you can go places.
Day 4
flag was raised and Leonard won the start clearly at the pin end of the line playing the shifts, going left then right, then up the middle on the first beat to round the top mark in front. The wind shifted and then died out with the
