Following a reasonable result at Bay Week in the Bay of Islands in January, we prepared for the annual Jack Tar Regatta in Auckland, conducted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron at the end of March. The event was conducted over 2 days consisting of 4 windward-leeward races and one harbour race.
The regatta was characterised by light winds, which always make racing difficult and with the potential for large wind shifts. Fortunately, we handled the conditions really well. Our starting also improved from Bay Week and we were first on line in all 4 windward-leewards and second on line in the harbour race to MAYHEM. Overall, we easily won the on line results and also won both PHRF and IRC. In General Handicap we were placed 2nd to one of the smaller boats (CLOCKWORK ORANGE). This was a very pleasing result and a reward for consistent efforts, led by George Hendy, to improve the boat and also crew performance.
We are now into the Winter series, every second Saturday afternoon. The first race, in very light winds – and for us a bad start – resulted in a 3rd behind MAYHEM and WIRED. The second race was better, a good start and a win over MAYHEM and WIRED.
Crew in the Jack Tar Regatta were:
Brad Butterworth, Stu Bannatyne, George Hendy, Jackie Hendy, Jim Farmer, Andrew Cooke, Denis Kendall, Chris Skinner, Eric Haagh, Keryn McMaster, Stefano Nava, Logan Andresen, Thomas Mellano, Tim Snedden and Mike Mottl.
Photos below from Jack Tar and winter series races. First three photos are courtesy of Andrew Delves, RNZYS.
