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Sally Garrett and her crew have spent the best part of two years working on their boat speed and it paid off over the weekend when they won the Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Women's Keelboat National Championship for a second time.
Garrett won three of the five races to finish two points ahead of Leslie Egnot, who won the other two races, with Megan Thomson third and defending champion and seven-time winner Karleen Dixon fourth. No racing was possible on the second day due to light winds.
Garrett first contested the women's keelboat national championships more than 20 years ago with the core grew she still sails with but it took until 2019 to claim a first elusive title.
The wait for a second was a lot shorter and she points to the work they have done in finding more boat speed as a key factor over the weekend.
"It was pretty exciting to win," she said. "When we won last time, we weren't that fast upwind so we've been working on that for two years, along with our starts and boat handling. That really helped us out over the weekend.
"We bought an MRX and did as much racing as we could on that, because it was some of the only racing happening with Covid."
The crew of Jenny Price, Christine Weston, Sarah Ell, Bella Boyd and Emma Stenhouse was bolstered by the return of tactician Sara Winther, who has spent a lot of the last couple of years coaching at Olympic classes level. Winther had only two training sessions with the crew ahead of the nationals but did a good job of keeping the team "out of trouble".
Garrett knew going into the regatta there was a high chance racing wouldn't be possible on the Sunday due to the forecast so recognised results on the first day would be crucial. They started slowly, finishing fourth in the seven-boat fleet in the first race, but rattled off three-straight wins to nudge in front of Egnot.
"We were racing out at Eastern Beaches on Saturday and it was really clean, with few shifts, and very little traffic," Garrett said. "It was a fantastic place to race. We won three of the five races and Leslie won the other two so it was really close on points."
Garrett will next tackle this week's Flying Fifteen national championships at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, which is also being used as a trial event for the 2023 world championships.
They're also looking to compete at the Hamilton Island Race Week in August.
Results and standings from the Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Women's Keelboat National Championship hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron:
1st: Sally Garrett (4) 1 1 1 3 - 6 points
2nd: Leslie Egnot 1 2 (4) 4 1 - 8 pts
3rd: Megan Thomson 3 3 3 3 (4) - 12 pts
