messing about in boats

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30055, 13 February 1963, Page 11

messing about in boats

Boat Show The Banks Peninsula Cruising Club and the Canterbury Catamaran Squadron have joined the Canterbury R Class Squadron to assist in conducting the New Zealand Boat Show, which will be held in Christchurch in October. The former group is particularly welcome to the organisers, as it appears to indicate the healing of a breach between keeler and centreboard yachtsmen in the province. The cruising club walked out of the Canterbury Yachting Association three years ago as a protest against what it considered the association's dilatory attitude towards proposed statutory regulations governing the offshore movements of cruising yachts. Z Title The Canterbury Takapuna championship will be held on Lyttelton harbour at the week-end, after having been twice postponed from the original date set down last year. The defending title-holder is W. Parratt, of the Canterbury Yacht and Motor Boat Club, who was this year’s Lyttelton repre-

sentative in the national Cornwell Cup contest. Apart from a possible South Canterbury entrant —G. Kelly, of Timaru, who is also a Cornwell Cup representative—the championship will be largely a club event, for the Canterbury club is the remaining stronghold ih the province of its once powerful and übiquitous intermediate class. Teams Racing Next Sunday at Lyttelton there will be a feature of yacht racing seen all too little in Canterbury—teams’ events. The races will be held among R class dinghies representing clubs —a minimum of three boats to a team and no upper limit. Points for each team are the average of all boats in the team. Permitting more than three boats to race in a team makes the event more like an inter-club sailing competition, largely doing away with tactics. True teams’ racing, with three boats a-side is a cutthroat business of manoeuvring and working rules to the limit. This type of sailing is common overseas and is considered by some to be the quintes-

sence of yachting competition, calling as it does for lightning decisions and reflexes on the part of all crews. The two main teams on Sunday will be from the Waimakariri and Canterbury clubs. It is hoped that Timaru skippers, who are expected at Lyttelton on Saturday to participate in the annual Pegasus Crest race for R class dinghies, will take part also. Akaroa Regatta To avoid a clash with the Olympic Finn championships now being he’d at Nelson, the Akaroa Boating Club has post-

poned its regatta—which was originally scheduled for next week-end—to March 2 and 3. The regatta programme includes a three-race championship for Finns, a trophy having been donated for the event last year. The present holder is D. Bryson, of the Canterbury Yacht Club, who is competing at Nelson. A fleet of R class dinghies from the Waimakariri Sailing Club and boats from other chibs, including Timaru, are expected to participate in regatta events.