Held at Wattle Farm on 15th & 16th July 2023
DF65 Auckland Champs – Saturday 15th July
Following a late withdrawal we ended up with 17 entries and decided to race this as one fleet.
The wind was from the SW at about 10 to 15 knots which allowed us to set a course on a slight diagonal down the pond.
With the starboard layline a little bit compromised, we opted for a gate at the top of the course and at the bottom – both inside out gates. Two laps but extended to finish at the top gate.
This worked well but was taking an extra couple of minutes to complete each race and after a number of delays for rig changes, servo replacements and battery changes we had to shorten the course to finish between the start marks. We also ran several back to back races in the afternoon to complete our target of 16 races by 1530.
Most skippers stayed with the A+ rigs but a few bigger squalls had some changing down to standard A rigs and then back to A+.
Congratulations to our medal winners Rueben Muir 1st, Bob Senior 2nd and Kerry Earl 3rd.
Thank you to all skippers for an enjoyable regatta, and thanks to John Porter for recording the results.
DF95 Auckland Champs – Sunday 16th July
Sunday started out as a repeat of Saturday with perhaps a knot or two more wind.
The course was setup the same as the DF65 course on Saturday but stretched out a little bit.
The fleet started out at 18, again raced as one fleet, and dropped to 17 at lunch with Trevor Shoebridge having to catch a plane to the sunshine in Australia.
The wind was at the top of A rig but manageable until a big squall flattened the fleet. The heavy rain that followed made the decision easy to take an early lunch at 1200.
After the lunch-break we shortened the course as per the DF65s on Saturday and sailed a series of back to back races to complete our target of 16 races by 1540.
Rueben Muir sailed a very consistent series to take 1st 20 points clear of Kevin Robertson 2nd with only 2 points separating him from Karl Stachel 3rd. Rueben is clearly The Dragon Master.
Thank you to all skippers for a very enjoyable regatta and again thanks to John Porter for recording the results. Thanks to Kerry Earl for manning the rescue boat and for his First Aid expertise in applying a band-aid when some old auntie impaled his thumb on the lever of his radio.
Ian Westlake RO DF65s
Ross McClew RO DF95s
