SANDERS CUP CONTEST TO BEGIN ON MONDAY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27896, 18 February 1956, Page 3

SANDERS CUP CONTEST TO BEGIN ON MONDAY

i 'TT'HE attention of yachtsmen H throughout New Zealand will g be focused on Lyttelton for the g next few days. A national chamg pionship, the Leander Trophy for g. R-class (under 13 feet dinghys) will g start at Lyttelton this morning, g This will be decided on points over g three races. There will also be an g invitation race for 14-footers and g the contestants in the Sanders Cup. jj Still the most important yachting g contest in New Zealand, the Sanders J Cup series will begin on Monday H and will continue until one of the § boats wins three races. There will H be two races a day until the series g is decided. g The Sanders Cup races will be over Hj a distance not exceeding nine miles, J and the winner must complete the § course within three hours, or the reg suit does not count. The first course fl will be a windward and leeward one, s and this type will then alternate with g races over a triangular course, which g is usually faster. With a fresh breeze g it might take IA-2 hours to cover the H nine miles, depending on the tides. In || a light air the competitors will not find H it easy to finish within the three § hours.

H Next week’s Sanders Cup races will H be the last for the restricted class, H which has been in force since 1936. g Next year the Sanders Cup will be H sailed by the one-design boats built to g a design by Graham Mander. Future 5 contests should be a sure test of yachtU ing skill and not of designing ability. g| Last year Graham Mander took the g Sanders Cup in three straight races g and. again sailing Frith, he won the H Canterbury X-class trials with three § consecutive wins recently. Favoured

H by his knowledge of local conditions, g Mander must have a very good chance H of retaining the trophy. Auckland H always provides strong opposition, g however, and N. I. Thom, sailing Marg garet, is an experienced skipper. jg The Northland entry, Arrow, has a H good reputation. It represented AuckH land in 1951. and in the experienced g hands of the Whangarei skipper. Bob = Wilkinson, it could surprise.

§ The Otago entry, If. won thd SanIl ders Cup in 1954, when it was skipg pered by Talbot Camp, an older |g brother of the present skipper, W. § Camp. Skippered by G. Hargreaves. H Unique (Wellington) is the only boat y that has not sailed in a Sanders Cup if contest before.

s Lyttelton is not likely to present = any exceptional difficulty for the p visiting yachtsmen, most of whom lg have a favourable opinion of it. ExH cept when a strong north-westerly H wind is blowing, the wind is usually H drawn down Lyttelton very evenly, g There is also an even flow of tide, H without streams or eddies. At Auck- = land the yachtsmen are likely to strike p- very strong tide rips in places. While = there is almost no tide influence at g Wellington, yachtsmen have to cony tend with the wind which swoops g down off the hills and sets up strong g down draughts.