YACHTING Championship Events At Kairaki Regatta

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29367, 21 November 1960, Page 17

YACHTING Championship Events At Kairaki Regatta

Two days of championship racing by Canterbury's leading centre-board yachts concluded on the Waimakariri river at Kairaki yesterday afternoon. The regatta, at which four championships were decided, was the season's first major competitive test. Weak spots in gear and crews quickly showed up in the roaring easterly, and survivors were certainly the fittest. The championship winners were:— Idle Along.—Psyche (C. F. Dann). R-class Squadron.—Frenzy (G. Mander). Frostply.—Minstrel (R. Scott). Finn.—Finrua (A. Ballintnne). The feature of the week-end was the narrow victory of Frenzy over P. Mander’s Salaam in the Rclass squadron race on Saturday. Immediately before this event Salaam had started behind a 27boat fleet in an all-comers’ race and had won. P. Mander and his forward* hand, D. Mander, were scarcely ashore after this when they were away with the racing dinghy squadron. This became a fight between Salaam and Frenzy, which had not sailed in the all-comers’ race. With G. Mander in Frenzy and A. Holland, whose zealous trapeze work meant inches all the way and helped to count at the end It was, however, on a run that Frenzy gained the decisive lead. With his big blue kite drawing out perfectly on the last run down, G. Mander worked his boat close and then passed his elder brother. Many Capsizes The Mander brothers’ duel was a surprise, for the R-clasS champion. A. Shields, in Vision, was expected to run them close. Vision started in the race, as did 16 other craft of the class, but was not one of the victims of the wind which caught most of the fleet unawares soon after the start. A vicious easterly was tearing in from the sea over the river bar. and the yachts had to point down to the mouth mark and gybe around One after the other the yachts would gybe and then skid wildly out of control before tipping over. B. Walls and B. Taylor in Impetuous went over twice, and so did Vision. Hulls full of water. Sari (F. Simpson) and Rondon (S. Loader) were taken on to the bank, where they were made seaworthy before carrying on. The few boats that stayed upright had to manoeuvre dangerously close through half-submerged hulls, masts, sails flat on the water, tangled and waving sheets and cordage and bobbing heads. Those that got around all right set spinnakers: the boats whose crews

did not come aft as the big kites were pulled out as it by express trains paid the penalty. The billowing spinnakers simply pulled them into the choppy water.

One or two managed to right their boats and bail out. others floundered to the opposite (southern) shore of the river and emptied out. and others pulled out or came home on the end of a tow rope.

At one stage six boats were show - ing the bottoms of their hulls Vision’s plastic air bags stowed aboard for buoyancy were holed and only plastic cork kept the cratt from sinking, but the whole yacht was awash and could not carry on with the race, although it was still buoyant enough to sail home under water. In all, 10 yachts withdrew Results:—

Frenzy (G. Mander). 4hr 30m in 27sec. 1; Salaam (P. Mander). 4hr 30min, 27sec. 2; Fresco (B. ’Preleaven). 4hr 37min 41 sec. 3: Revel (I. Donaldson). 4hr 37min SOsec. 4; Result (G. Good*. 4hr 38min 29sec. 5; Pirouette (H. England). 4hr 41min 2sec. 6: Gazelle (G. Cooke), 4hrs 42min 27sec. 7.