DF95 North Island Champs
Saturday 6 th May to Sunday 7 th May at Wattle Farm
Race Officers Report
Conditions for Saturday were pretty much as per the Forecast of Northerlies at 15 knots which was
mid ‘A Rig’ blowing down the pond from the carpark end with plenty of shifts and big wind lanes to
be exploited on the downwind legs.
With a final entry of 18 boats, it was decided to race as one fleet and to use an inside out gate at
both the top and bottom marks of the windward / leeward course.
The idea of the top gate was to reduce the usual Port / Starboard incidents at windward Port
rounding mark. It also has the advantage of being an easier target for those who have trouble
judging distances.
This was only partially successful with a number of skippers still pushing their luck going into the
gate on port tack resulting in protests and penalty turns.
We managed to get 14 races completed on Saturday before rain stopped play at 3.00pm and an
overwhelming majority decision to head to the clubhouse for a beer.
Sunday’s forecast was the same as Saturday with the possibility of the odd shower.
The wind freshened towards top of A Rig and then mid-afternoon a front came through with rain
and wind up over 20 knots. This flattened the fleet and led to a mad rush to change to ‘B Rigs’ for
the next race. John Beavis quietly studied the clouds moving away, kept his A Rig on, and sailed away
to win the next race. Everybody then changed back to A Rigs for the final 3 races.
We completed 12 races by the 3pm cut-off for a total of 26 races for the championship.
Congratulations to Rueben Muir who was a clear winner, Grant Lane 2 nd , and Graham Clough came
home in 3 rd place after a close fought series with Karl Stachel and Chris Wischnowsky.
Thank you to all competitors for supporting the event and to Ian Westlake (Assistant RO and Scorer),
Observers – Lewis Avenell, Andrew Tough, Kerry Earl and results recorder John Porter.
A final comment from me – while the regatta was sailed in good spirit and enjoyed by all, there were
instances of Protests and Observers calls for contact being ignored which then had to be sorted out
post-race instead of at the time of the incident on the race course.
Ross McClew
Race Officer