WTYA Burgess Trophy Regatta

Apart from my embarassing gaff with the results this year's interschool event seemed to go well, with 27 boats competing, representing 6 different schools (Diocesan, Berkley Int, Hillcrest High, Cambridge High, Hamilton Girls, Hamilton Boys). The weather was very obliging giving the sailors a good mix of conditions from light winds for the first race to moderate winds with the odd gnarly gust for the third and last race of the day. The stronger winds meant the rescue boats had a bit of work to do.

My initial scoring had Berkley Intermediate taking the trophy off last years winners Diocesan but I had wrongly entered one of the Dio girls in as a Berkley sailor. A error not discovered until I was counting the number of sailors in the winning team, and there seemed to be one less than my score sheet said there should be. Sadly for Berkley they did not quite get there this year missing out on the trophy by 6 points. My apologies and my congratulations to the Diocesan (116.2 points) and the Berkley teams (109.9 points). These two had a clear jump on the rest of the schools and either would have been worthy winners.

I am sure WTYA President, John E, will manage a more in depth review of the sailing (he was the Race Officer after all). Could those who took photos send your favourite shots from the day to him.

Sprints Series 2

11th January and the second half of the season is underway. A Sprint Series to test the sailing muscles again after 3wk off. Four races were completed with the course pretty much the standard HYC layout. The wind was perfect for about 5 minutes at a time, WSW 10-12 kt right down the lake. Unfortunately in between times it disappeared somewhat. The fleets were a bit small as some families will still be on holiday out of town, and the P Class are just completing their national champs in Tauranga where we have 6 skippers competing Apologies to the travelling P Class fleet - HYC had 10 skippers competing at the Tauranga Cup (the most from any single club, go the mighty Waikato). Racing today saw an intense battle in the Zephyrs with Bob H just holding out Merv. Duncan was first in a good fleet of Lasers though he didn't have things all his own way, with Phil and Chris giving him the hurry up and Graham and Bridget (in a Radial) getting in the mix - good close finishes and a compressed fleet. The 3.7 had 3 boats out with John E showing the younger generation a clean set of heels and Blake was experimenting with a variety of ways of capsizing. Sheridan enjoyed getting the hooter a few times for first in the Starling but unfortunately the Starlings, P's, and Opti's didn't manage the numbers for a fleet.

Memorial Day Mark Foy

February weather came early with light winds dominating proceedings. The RO laid out a course to encouraqe the westerly breeze to fill in but the weaher Gods took little notice as puffs of wind came and went from various points of the compass. Racing eventually got underway about 1430hr.

The handicapping worked out pretty well for the Opti and Starling fleets with the first Starling overhauling the first Opti on the last last leg of the race. The senior fleet did not work out as well with all the Zephyrs finishing before the first Laser.

Light and variable winds make handicapping difficult. The Zephyrs do surprisingly well when the wind strength matches the class name.

Congratulations to the individual fleet winners. Optimist - Lochie Montgomerie, Starling - Hannah Maxwell, Zephyr - Ray Oxborrow, and Laser - Scott McDougall (by a metre from Werner Hennig).

Hamilton Zephyr Weekend Postponed

Hamilton Weekend, down for Dec 7th and 8th, has been postponed until March 2014 and will be run in conjunction with the Hamilton Burnsco Regatta.

Season Underway

Sailing is underway for the summer season. Good numbers at the first Twilight race, with Learn to Sail in full swing. 10 Hamilton sailors participated in the P Class NI Champs in TGA recently. Hamilton P's made up just under a third of the fleet!