messing about in boats

Press, Volume C, Issue 29635, 4 October 1961, Page 11

messing about in boats

Retort v D. Harrison's new clinker ply boat will be [called Retort—-an answer to M. Holland's boat, of similar construction’which , was under way first, to be called Contort. Both are members of the Caoteribury Yacht Club at Lyttelton. Last season Harrison crewed in G. Good's Result and formerly ' owned Query; bat Holland will be coming newly into tthe R Claes with his craft Last year he built the new-etyle' plywood Idlealong Conclude. : Capsize ’ The racing secretary of the Stewarts Gully Sailing Club, R. Falkingham, and •the vice-commodore, M. Abercrombie, have found their newly-acquired R

Class dinghy Impulse a Jumpier craft than their old Idlealong. On Sunday, i they had the distinction of having one of the season’s! 'first capsizes when Falk-, ingham, Impulse’s skipper, -put the helm about before 'Abercrombie who had. become temporarily snagged—had come off the ■wire. In the circumstances, Impulse gave a' good performance; she 'was righted, baled out and, finished the race second. 2min 15sec behind thei ' winner. Handicapping ' ' The virtually punitive. handicapping of J. Morri- ; son’s Flying Dutchman class yacht Van Tromp is i becoming notorious. On' Sunday, in the Beanland 'Trophy race, the yacht, was put 35 minutes behind the slowest boat and had to concede 13 of thosei minutes to the R Class dinghy Fresco (B. Tre-' 'leaven) which is a fast,, well-sailed boat in any • company. Morrison should have done better than al-. i low Fresco to gain 47 seconds on elapsed time over i ’the course, but a differen- [ tial handicap of four or' . five minutes between , these two should have. ibeen plenty. Handicappers at the Christchurch Yacht! ■ Club and at other clubs appear to be more con-' cerned with preventing 'Van Tromp from getting a. I place than with arranging handicaps to provide a i .close and exciting finish [of- as many yachts to-' , gether as possible.

Owners The steady prosecution of the Junior Cherub yacht in Canterbury has to some extent overshadowed an only slightly less spectacular growth of the original tail-rig boats of the same design in the area. Senior cherubs now number almost the same as juniors. At Stewarts Gully last week-end, the minimum number of owners required to form a fleet Ifive) met and formally established their own association for the senior class. They appointed C. Holland fleet captain and D. Mclntosh secretary. Holland has named his new Cherub Murmur—a sentimental reminder of his former Idlealong Whisper.

The Agnews The Agnew family is sailing at both Mount Pleasant and Stewarts Gully this season. Ted Agnew and his son Edward are now members of the former club after having left Kainga to seek more competition for the latter in P Class sailing. Ted Agnew’s brother Hugh Agnew is remaining at Stewarts Gully with his son Michael who won the Tyson Trophy for the club’s opening day open class race in a Taura nga, the only one of its type registered with the club. Hugh Agnew has built a 12ft catamaran to Kitty Kat specifications and is waiting for its sails to be delivered so he can launch, it.

Salute

The youthful Mount Pleaeant yachtsman, B. fie Thler Gast aeaaon'a Can* terbury representative in the national Tanner Cup series) has made a com* plimentary gesture to the designer of the international Finn yacht by naming his KZ after him FinnSarby. The boat belonged to an Aucklander who sailed it without success in the New Zealand Finn title races at Lyttelton in March. De Tbier has practised hard during the winter, solo sailing on the Estuary, and the three minutes which separated him from the more experienced W. Beere (Christchurch chib) in a fairly long-course race on Sunday for the Beanland Trophy was a creditable performance.