Issue date
Javelin skiff teams from Wellington, East Coast, Manawatu, Bay of Plenty, North Harbour and Northland competed this weekend for the prestigious Sanders Cup.
The Lake Taupo Yacht Club generously added a third racing day to their Mighty River Power Regatta for the Javelins to be able to hold their traditional Interprovincial Challenge.
The impressive Kingham Trophy was sailed for in light airs on Friday with Northland taking an early lead only to hit the top mark and rounding the second one in second place behind Manawatu after taking their penalty. They clawed their way back ahead of their competitor by the next round and maintained that lead to the finish.
In the first two races of the Sanders Cup, there were many lead changes and close tussles, but Northland managed to win both in the patchy Southerly.
Saturday brought a changeable breeze with a few puffs that allowed for trapezing. Placings were more varied with wins for East Coast, Manawatu and Northland. The Race Committee opted to run two additional races as the forecast for Sunday was for no wind. When the competitors returned to shore, no-one was too sure who had won the Sanders Cup. Finally the official results showed that the top three all had the same points before their discard, and only one point separated East Coast in third place from Manawatu in second, and the winning team from Northland was only one point ahead of them.
Contrary to expectation, Sunday delivered a moderate thermal breeze and another three races were sailed as part of the Mighty River Power Regatta. That event counted the races on Saturday and Sunday and was won by David Brown and David Feek on Trailblazer.
The history of the Sanders Cup is available on the Javelin Skiff website www.javelins.org.
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Results for the 2014 Sanders Cup
1st Northland Phil McNeil/Craig Gilberd 1,1,6,4,1,3 17 11
2nd Manawatu David Brown/David Feek 2,2,3,2,2,5,1 17 12
3rd East Coast Ross Shanks/Colin Shanks 3,4,1,1,3,3,2 17 13
4th Wellington Wade McGee/Demian Dixon 5,6,2,3,6,2,4 28 22
5th Bay of Plenty Ben Bax/Mike Barnes 4,3,4,6,4,4,5 30 24
6th North Harbour Peter Precey/Bas Gundry 6,5,5,5,5,6,6 38 32
