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The Auckland winter posed plenty of challenges for competitors in this year’s PIC Insurance Brokers Triple Series – with everything from painful drift-offs to 40 knots of breeze.
The series, one of the highlights on the Kiwi sailing calendar, saw more than 130 entries - some looking for a small day race and others wanting to put in some miles ahead of the Short-Handed Sailing Association’s (SSANZ) upcoming feature races.
The first race of the 2023 series started off with a 30-kn bang.
As boats made their way out to the Northern leading area for the start, it seemed to be perfect conditions, but the first squall came through just as the first fleet was starting which became the theme of the day.
The fleet reached their way across and up the Gulf - the bigger boats off to the Kawau area and the smaller boats around Navy Buoy off Whangaparaoa - with reefs being put in and shaken out as the squalls screamed across the outer Gulf.
For races two and three, the weather gods brought contrasting conditions, with the courses shortened for the boats to finish within the time limit. After multiple restarts and plenty of drifting some unlikely winners were crowned.
The third race in the SSANZ Triple Series saw plenty of drifting. Photos / SSANZ
Race officer Garry Joliffe was pleased with the outcome of another successful series.
“Trying conditions across the three races for the new race management team, a combination of old hands and new faces,” he said.
“It was great to see the series come together so successfully - most sailors who started each day did finish, which shows the resilience of the competitors and that we got the course decisions right each day.”
Full results here.
