1st – 2nd November | Wellington Radio Yacht Club
Recently, the Wellington Radio Yacht Club (WRYC) has found a new home – the Evans Bay Yacht and Motor Boat Club. Based at the bottom of Evans Bay in Wellington this new venue was the location for the Murray Rountree Memorial IOM Regatta.
The venue was amazing, with several racing areas allowing racing in almost every wind direction possible. Racing for the weekend was based on the raised wharf immediately outside the club – offering sailors and officials an elevated viewing platform – appreciated by many.
The Yacht Club was also amazing in facilitating the event during a very busy weekend. At one stage there were waka, kayaks, Keelboats and sailing dinghies all in the same frame – with no problems or interference with our racing.
Speaking of racing – here is how it all went transpired…..
Race Day 1
19 boats were raring to go after some enjoyable practice sailing on the Friday afternoon. Given the larger than normal course area – an all-boats “Invitation” race was held to test the race. Based on the success of this, a decision was made by the RO to run the weekend as a single fleet – with the threat of HMS split fleet racing if required.
There was a SSE breeze with plenty of shifts kept the fleet on their toes, with stunning A-rig racing taking place.
Racing began at 10am – and by 12.30 (the club sailing launch time) 9 races had been completed, so the fleet took a break for lunch. The afternoon session kicked off at 1.15, with a further 11 races being completed by 4.00pm. Even though the event allowed racing to go until 6pm, the decision was made to call it a day – and so the fleet retired for a cool beverage and a hot sausage as the BBQ was fired up. Much talk was made of the forecast for Sunday – with NW breezes of between 15-30knots on the cards.
After 20 races completed in a day (21 including the Invite Race) Rick Cassels-Brown from Pegasus had opened up a handy lead from Graham Perry and Toby Lecher. The Vickers boats were definitely leading the way. Chris Wischnowsky has his new ‘Voodoo’ also dialled in to be lying in 4th place
A view from the Evans Bay Clubrooms Deck:
Results from Day 1 can be found here: https://wryc.org.nz/2025/11/01/murray-rountree-iom-regatta-2025-evans-bay/
Race Day 2
The breeze arrived! As the sailors gathered, all the talk was about the B/C rig choice. Many sailors waited with baited breath to see who put what rig on, and how it performed. Racing got underway at 9.30 with a pretty even split between the two choices, with the each rig having its moments. The wind and waves steadily increased – and by lunch pretty much the entire fleet had changed down. The salt water was also starting to take its toll with a few boats feeling the effect of salt meeting electronics.
After lunch it was back to it – with the entire fleet (who had them) on C-rigs – with some spectacular fleet racing taking place. By 2.30pm we had 36 races in the bag – so an early call was made to adjourn to the club for further cool beverages and the prizegiving.
It was a real pleasure to have Lisa Rountree, the daughter of Murray there to present to trophy top Rick Cassels-Brown (Pegasus) who won the event in dominant style. He finished on 54 points – 47 points ahead of Toby Lecher (New Plymouth) on 101 points and Graeme Perry (Kapiti) on 141.6. While the points seem high – when you divide them by the number of races completed (36 less 4 drops) you can only summarize Rick’s performance as dominant – with an average score of 1.7!
Your podium from the weekend:
It was great to see that nearly half the fleet travelled from out of town. A huge thanks to those who travelled to the event to support not only the event – but also the WRYC as they establish themselves at their new venue. A huge thanks also to John McPherson who didn’t sail the event, but spent the weekend in the mark boat setting great courses for the sailors to enjoy.
I hope you all enjoyed Evans Bay. It is my home club when I ever get to go sailing, and it was a pleasure to host you on behalf of the club. It was just a epic to watch IOM racing in ‘open’ waters – with the waves adding a total new dimension to the racing.
Final results can be found here: https://wryc.org.nz/2025/11/01/murray-rountree-iom-regatta-2025-evans-bay/.
Thanks as always for having me
Paul Davies aka PJD – your RO