AQUATICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 96, 24 April 1926, Page 25

AQUATICS.

(By SPEEDWELL.)

Last Saturday saw the official close of the racing season, *when the local clubs combined to 'hold a series of cruising and harbour events. . There was a fresh breeze jn from the sea, varying from north-east to east, and the ebb tide put quite a kick into the sea outside North Head. The small classes also got all they wanted nearing the Sandspit beacon, especially the boats carrying full sail. The entries were good all round, and the races very ■ keenly contested. Xhe keel yachts made an exceptionally good show; the cruising launches'.also turned-out in 'strength, the weather' suiting the bigger boats with plenty of power, and tliey secured most of the prizes. As a rule, there" are two or three boats in each class which always have a ding-dong go right throughout each race, and Saturday saw several of'these duels. ■ In tbe firstclass keel yachts Rawene and Prize kept fairly close together all : the way down, Prize having the advantage until making the last two boards into the finishing line. Rawene here , laid up closer, and, being less hampered with her dinghy, which' Prize had to cliange over each time she went about, Rawene just fetched the line one second ahead of Prize, and won. Delville ■ and Waitiki had, a good race iin the smaller keel class, the G-metre boat getting home by 58 : seconds. Starlight and Waitere had their usual the 'former winning by Ge.eeconds, but Waiter© carried away her jib halliards beating down harbour, and lost a bit by the accident. Wairere and Winifred had their usual good tussle, Wairere getting home •by over two minutes. Otira, in the 22----footers, had a day. to her' liking, and beat the rest of her class in, Venus being next, only 15 seconds behind. In the harbour races, the finishes were not so close, as the harder breeze which set in on the second round found weak spots in. the standing and running rigging of several contestants, and they did not finish. This season's addition to the "M class, Manene, beat her class home, scoring no less than six firsts, including a reeail of the Victoria Club'e race held in December. Mollie carried away her peak halliards early in the

race. An illustration of the start of this class appears on this page. Drone led the V class on the first round, but Surprise beat hqr home by.a little over a minute,/ with Mystic handy all through. The ex-Dunedin boat Solace had a day to her liking', and sailed well, winning in the Akarana Club, Drone annexing fir prize in the. other clubs. 'Ola IV. had her usual easy win in the Star clase/ Namu led the S class home, but only secured one -win, the prizes being well distributed. • Marie sprang a Surprise 'by finishing first in the T class, being well handled by her young skipper, Dave Macky. She accounted for two firsts and two seconds. Ngaio also sailed better than usual, and won three first prizes. Alerte, the latest addition to the V class, succeeded in beating the champion Cupid home by nearly four minutes, and her young skipper, & son of Mr. Arch. Logan, deserves great credit. Alerte won three first prizes. Only Joan, Idler and Dulcie completed the course in the Jellicoe class, Joan having an easy win. The youngsters had a great time in their 12ft 6in Z class boats, Winsome getting %he gun by a threeminute margin from Comet. Kitty capsized near the Sandspit, the launch Koa pi-eking up the'crew and towing the boat, to town. The launches turned out in good force, and some good times were made to the finishing-line at the entrance to Isling ton Bay in spite of the head wind and sea.' As-only to be expected on the day, the prizes, mostly went to the scratch boats, whose power told in their favour in a head sea. Lady Margaret and Romance had a great go all the way down, .with All Bell not far astern. Lady Margaret put up the fastest time, doing the. distance, 7 nautical milee, in 29m 345. Romance's- time was 31m 10s, All Bell, 32m 435; Viveen, 39m 545; Esther G., 43m 48s; Kathryn X., 44m 255; Ngaroma, 45m 209, and Adelaide, 46s 30s. The handicapping, in spite of the usual growlers, was distinctly good ; in the launch races with one or two exceptions. Esther G. and Karamana had a little bout prior to the start, Karamana getting the worst, of it. Apart from the keen racing, last Saturday's event was marked.with a series of collisions between competitors and with the mark boat on the starting line. Not. one, but seven.or eight boats in- the various classes ran into the launch, and it was only, by good luck that very serious damage was averted. altogether from the point of view of damage: done to the boat of •which "Speedwell" could apeak ■ feelingly, the fact seems to be quite lost sight of that by .the rules, bdats fouling marks are at once disqualified, and by all the rules of the sport should retire from the" race. , This is the common practice in Great Britain, and obtains also in Sydney. Here we mem to have cot into

a go-as-you-please style on the subject of touching a mark, especially the mark at the starting line. Something will have to be done to bring home to skippers the fact that'marks must be sailed round and not -touched in a race any more than the port and starboard tack rule is to be abused.. In cases where one or more boats are forced - on to ' a mark, the actual boats' which come in contact with it are seldom to blame. But even here someone' is to blame. The boats on the outside have no right to force a passage, they should pay off and give the boats to windward or nearer the mark plenty of room. "Speedwell" is not growling at the knocks given to his boat but at the lack of consideration shown for other competitors by crowding down on them. It must be largely due to-want of judgment and partly to lack of knowledge of the racing rules. Looking back on equally keen Contests in the 24-foot linear rating races, ■ skippers never hit their marks onco in a season, and if they did, the racing flag was lowered,'and the ■ boat went straight to her moorings. Of course, it will be said that now we have twice as many boats starting in a,- race as 20 years, ago. This is true, but on special occasions we used to have,' a big field without such exhibitions of poor seamanship as we saw on Saturday. • Not for a moment do we infer that a boat would deliberately run into another one, and such accidents must be put down to the general desire to get away as soon after gunfire as possible, and in the' weather berth. A contributing factor on Saturday was the strong ebb, : also the fact-that the flags were rather hard to pick up on the top of-the tower, while the gun could not be heard from the weather end of the line, although the smoke' could be seen. These are only minor matters certainly, but all contribute to the result. ' It has been said that if the boat marking the outer end of .the i line were taken well up to the west, making the starting line on an angle, that boats would then keep away and start nearer the wharf. This seemed a reasonable supposition, and it was tried in the Akarana Club on two occasions, but the writer could" see little if any difference. The line on Saturday was extra long, being over a quarter of a mile, only the -• i »- 100 yards being used by the majority of competitors. If the line had extended three parts of the way- across the harbour, the boats would etill crowd to the weather end. "Speed- ! well" would be glad of suggestions

to help in avoiding a repetition of what happened. One thing is certain, even if it takes a longer time to start, the classes must be separated. This system of starting several classes together was first advocated by the writer during the war period, -when the competitors -were so small that only. in this way could anything like a show be made. The necessity for this is long past, and in future each class should have a separate start. The course for ,the harbour races is now fairly short, and unless very lightwinds, they should easily finish before sunset. In the case of light weather, the rule giving power to the officers of the day to shorten a" race by calling. it off on the first round is a very sensible onej and is not availed of often enough in Auckland. \ Apart from the collisions with the mark boat theTe were several fouls on the starting line, or just ibeyorid it, sails and spars suffering considerable damage. lorangi lost half her mainsail in a mixup with Alexa and Heartsease. Alexa had a big hole in the after leech of her mainsail, but Heartsease got off luckily. The start of the 22-footers saw more trouble, while some very narrow escapes were experienced in other classes. To their credit it must foe said that the skippers of the small boats from the 20----footers down; showed better judgment, and kept a reasonable distance off the mark when starting. : , This afternoon the Poneonby Club is holding the annual challenge race for the Lipton Cup foT 22-footers, nominated by all local clubs. Races are also being held for several cups donated to the club by its many good friends. The New Zealand Power Boat Association is holding final speed boat and cruising launch\ races, starting and finishing off the King's wharf this afternoon. A full report of both clubs results will appear in the Sports' Edition. The Akarana Club is holding its first social and dance of the ■ season in the N.Z. Power Boat's clubhouse to-night. The Tamaki Yacht Club has received a handsome cup from Mr. Neville Newcomb, which has been allotted for a general handicap for the S, X, T, V, and Z classes. It will 'be competed for annually, the conditions are that it must be won three times in succession, or five times at intervals. The firet race will be held off St. Helier's Bay next Saturday. . The - Squadron held their 54th prize night last Wednesday when his Excellency, Sir Charles Fergusson, presented the trophies won during the past season. He was referred to as a "brother yachtsman" by Commodore Gifford in the course of extending a welcome. Hie. Excellency said he appreciated the title and hoped to. prove • worthy of it before he left New Zealand. Lord Jellicoe, said Sir Charles, had told him all about the good sport in the 14-footera, but warned him thai they were a bit wet.

to the year our team of ladies invaded Australia, and the great performance put up in the Australian championship by Mrs. Curtis, who beat Mrs. Boyd, of Victoria, in the semi-final, and after a great fight, succeeded in winning the last match against Mrs. Molesworth, of Queensland, -which gave her the Australasian championship. Andrews, however, met his Waterloo in Kalms, who is a country player and was a member of the 1924 Davis