Issue date
It has been a huge day out on the water today for day one of the New Zealand Match racing Championship. 14 Skippers and 10 boats require incredible logistics and timing for all involved. A huge thank you to the Race Officers, Umpires and Boat drivers for all their efforts.
PRO Megan Kensington said earlier today the weather was always forecast to be shifty and difficult but the goal was to get in as many Flights as possible.
The breeze has been shifty all day with direction shifts from 335 Degrees to 040 degrees, coupled with that was a constant change of wind speed from 3.5 knots to 12 knots was the range until approximately 1500hrs when the afternoon breeze filled in to 15 knots. By this time, however the RNZYS Corporate Regatta was starting, closely followed by the PCC Rum Race at 1600hrs and the Young 88 Sprints that started at 1800.
Kensington, along with International Umpire Russell Green were pleased to achieve Seven Flights with an abandoned race also being run before pack-up.
During Flight Two a massive wind-shift caused the course to become a one tack leg meaning the race between two heavy weights Rod Davis and Laurie Jury was abandoned. The race was re-run at the end of the day with Laurie Jury beating Davis by 14 seconds.
During the day the top ranked skippers have certainly shown the newcomers the way around the race track but they didn’t have it all their own way. Chris Steele, the Lion Foundation RNZYS Youth Training Programme Team, 36 Below, beat Scott Dickson in Flight Three and Francesco Bruni in Flight Six.
The only women’s crew, helmed by Samantha Osborne, had a win against the Royal Port Nicholson team that is helmed by Adam Middleton.
Tomorrow sees perhaps more evenly matched flights as the Round Robin continues.
Racing is scheduled to begin at 1000 hours. Conditions are once again expected to be light.
RESULTS
Flight One
Jury beat Appelgren by 31 seconds
Tiller beat Bullot by 1 minute 21 seconds
Bruni beat Wood by 41 seconds
Davis beat Hazard by 41 seconds
Dickson beat Middleton by 2minutes 1 second
Flight Two
Brady beat Piriou 1 minute 07seconds
Steele Beat Osborne 1minute
Hazard beat Bullot by 1minute 41 seconds
Jury beat Davis by 14 seconds
Tiller beat Appelgren 1minute 11seconds
Flight Three
Brady beat Wood 1m39s
Bruni beat Osborne 1m28s
Steele beat Dickson 54secs
Piriou beat Middleton 6secs
Jury beat Bullot 1m29s
Flight Four
Brady beat Steele 50Seconds
Bruni beat Davis 21 Seconds
Dickson beat Piriou 30 Seconds
Tiller beat Wood 20 Seconds
Hazard beat Appelgren 57 Seconds
Flight Five
Osborne beat Middleton 1m17s
Dickson beat Wood 13s
Hazard beat Piriou 30s
Steele beat Appelgren 48s
Bruni beat Bullot 16s
Flight Six
Brady beat Middleton 44Seconds
Jury beat Osborne 20 Seconds
Tiller beat Davis 19 Seconds
Steele beat Bruni 26 Seconds
Dickson beat Appelgren 39 Seconds
Flight Seven
Hazard beat Osborne 40s
Bullot beat Middleton 18s
Brady beat Davis by 7s
Tiller beat Piriou 24s
Jury beat Wood 9s
Current Standings
Laurie Jury 5
Will Tiller 5
Gavin Brady 5
Dave Hazard 4
Fracesco Bruni 4
Chris Steele 4
Scott Dickson 4
Tugdual Piriou 1
Sam Osborne 1
Rod Davis 1
Mike Bullot 1
Adam Middleton 0
Dave Wood 0
Hampus Appelgren 0
