2018 NZTYA New Zealand Championships

After a nervous start to the day with flags hanging limp from the yard arm wind arrived in time for Friday afternoons racing. Winds for the two races run that afternoon were light and quite shifty.

Saturday saw stronger winds but by Sunday the wind had dropped a little.

Every race day the winds were from the east or north with average wind speeds started 8 to10 knots on Friday, to 20 on Saturday and 10-15 knots on Sunday giving ideal conditions to finish the event. Altogether ideal sailing conditions.

Two races were sailed on Friday afternoon, three on Saturday and two on Sunday.

Seventeen yachts in two divisions competed with four from outside of Christchurch.

Richard Hawkins and his crew sailing a Ross 780 “Menace” were clear winners of the A division but in B division there was a closer result with Andrew May in the Noelex 22 “About Now” taking first place from Neil Chandler in the same class “Jaffa”.

The contest was incident free the only thing of note was a broken rudder gudgeon forcing Shane Smith on the Elliot 7.8 “Overspray” to retire on Sunday. Shane and his crew were well placed when this occurred!

Successful social events capped a very successful contest.

Thanks to sponsors, Taurus Engineering (formerly Tuantan Engineering}, John Robert Engineering and Oborns Nautical. Other thanks to the committee members, Shane Smith, Trevor George and John Cullens.

Results

A Division

1 “Menace” Ross 780 Richard Hawkins”

2 ”Red Hot Pawn” Thompson 750 Tristin Ormsby

3 “Overspray” Elliot 7.8 Shane Smith

B Division

1 “About Now” Noelex 22 Andrew May

2 “Jaffa” Noelex 22 Neil Chandler

3 “Aquasition” Gazelle Mk2 John Begg

If anyone has photos of the event and you are willing to allow us to reported them please let a committee member know.